Pacific Seafood is laying off 69 workers from its Salmolux division in Federal Way, after its landlord opted not to renew the lease.

The Washington State Employment Security Department sent out a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification regarding the layoffs on Feb. 27.

According to King County property records, KRS Holdings LLC owns the property, 34100 Ninth Ave. S. KRS Holdings could not not be reached for comment.

“The landlord at our Federal Way location opted not to renew our lease,” Tony Dal Ponte, deputy general counsel for Pacific Seafood said in a statement. “As a result, we will be transitioning production of our smoked products to other locations as of May 1. Pacific Seafood regrets the impact this change will have on our team members and will provide transition and support services to everyone affected.”

According to its website, Pacific Seafood employs more than 2,500 people at more than 35 facilities in seven states. Salmolux is the company’s smoked seafood division.

After learning about the closure of the Federal Way facility, city officials reached out to Pacific Seafood, said Tyler Hemstreet, the city’s communications coordinator.

“They enjoyed their time here. They didn’t want to leave. They weren’t left with a lot of choice really,” Hemstreet said. “We were trying to reach out to them and say ‘we want you to stay here.’”

Unfortunately there aren’t any facilities in the city that will work for them, Hemstreet said.

“Due to their unique need there isn’t really a building comparable in town that can immediately accommodate them,” he said, adding that the facility would need to be certified by the Food and Drug Administration.

The city plans to continue work with Pacific Seafood to try to find a suitable location in Federal Way.

“They are certainly keeping it on the table that they would like to return to Federal Way in the future,” Hemstreet said.