Boeing Plans to Move Headquarters to Arlington, Va., From Chicago

[Pedestrian]

By Andrew Tangel and Doug Cameron
Updated May. 5, 2022 7:02 pm ET

Boeing Co. said it planned to move its global headquarters to Arlington, Va., from Chicago, a shift that would bring the aerospace giant’s leadership closer to top federal officials after a challenging period for the plane maker.

The announcement, which confirmed an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal, comes as the future of many of Boeing’s jetliner and military programs lies with regulators, Pentagon officials and lawmakers following a tumultuous three years for the company.

Northern Virginia is already home to many of the largest U.S. military contractors, and the local property and labor market has been fueled further by Amazon.com Inc.’s decision to locate one of its secondary headquarters there.

Boeing has for months been in talks with the office of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has been working to woo the plane maker and other businesses to the commonwealth, according to a state official. While details of Boeing’s agreement with the state aren’t final, they aren’t expected to involve significant financial enticements but may include workforce-related incentives, the official said.

The aerospace company also said Thursday that it would establish a research and technology hub in Northern Virginia. The new facility would focus on areas including cybersecurity, autonomous operations and systems engineering.

Many of Boeing’s senior executives have increasingly been working out of its Washington, D.C.-area offices or remotely in recent years. Boeing in 2017 said it would move its defense unit’s headquarters to Arlington from St. Louis to be nearer lawmakers and Pentagon procurement officials, with government affairs and other staff also working from the office complex opened in 2014.

Boeing was attracted to Northern Virginia in large part because of its engineering talent pool, as well as the proximity to its biggest customer—the U.S. government—and various suppliers and business groups with presences in the nation’s capital, according to a person familiar with the company’s discussions.

Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) said he had been lobbying Boeing’s senior leadership for over a year to move its headquarters to Virginia. He also said the state’s diverse pipeline of engineering talent has grown with major companies moving to Virginia, and noted Boeing already has an outsize presence in Washington . . . .

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-...d=hp_lead_pos5

IMHO this belongs in the "they'll never learn" file. Boeing started to turn to sh*t when its executives left the vicinity of the plants where they build planes and moved to Chicago. Now they are compounding the error by emphasizing the politics of the business over building quality planes that don't have trash left in critical spaces, faulty designs and general bad concepts. Their C-suite should have either moved back to Seattle or to their plant in South Carolina.

But it is what it is what it is and Chicago must wave good-bye.

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-...d=hp_lead_pos5

IMHO this belongs in the "they'll never learn" file. Boeing started to turn to sh*t when its executives left the vicinity of the plants where they build planes and moved to Chicago. Now they are compounding the error by emphasizing the politics of the business over building quality planes that don't have trash left in critical spaces, faulty designs and general bad concepts. Their C-suite should have either moved back to Seattle or to their plant in South Carolina.

But it is what it is what it is and Chicago must wave good-bye.

Of all the major companies, Boeing has been the biggest headache for Chicago.

Paid millions in subsidies all those years ago, only for the company to be a virtual ghost civically and economically - and generating awful headlines every few months to boot.

They never really hired new people, never increased local manufacturing or research like was hoped, and never interacted much with other companies.

So, it’s almost a relief not to deal with them anymore, especially since WFH erased the last of the local benefits of the HQ.

[Crawford]

A large DC-area presence is almost a given, considering the Pentagon is their biggest buyer.

But yeah, not sure why they left Seattle in the first place, given they've been a mess since they detached upper management from design and manufacturing.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by galleyfox

Of all the major companies, Boeing has been the biggest headache for Chicago.

Paid millions in subsidies all those years ago, only for the company to be a virtual ghost civically and economically - and generating awful headlines every few months to boot.

They never really hired new people, never increased local manufacturing or research like was hoped, and never interacted much with other companies.

So, it’s almost a relief not to deal with them anymore, especially since WFH erased the last of the local benefits of the HQ.

Almost seems like a case study for abusing tax subsidies. Hopefully Virginia isn't make the same mistake.

[Gantz]

Boeing is a really crappy company anyway. The only reason they are still in business is because they are the only national airplane manufacturer (similar to Airbus in Europe), so the government has to prop them up. I can't speak on their military contracts, but their space division/Starliner program has been awful. I was not surprised when their poor management seeped into their civilian aircraft side as well. By the way, there has not been any changes yet there, so expect more cockups or badly managed programs from them in the future.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Crawford

A large DC-area presence is almost a given, considering the Pentagon is their biggest buyer.

But yeah, not sure why they left Seattle in the first place, given they've been a mess since they detached upper management from design and manufacturing.

I would argue the bigger mess is with the non-union shop in South Carolina. I've read articles from Boeing employees who go so far as to say when they fly commercially, they try to figure out if the plane assigned to their flight was manufactured in South Carolina, and if so, they rebook on a plane that was manufactured in Washington.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I would argue the bigger mess is with the non-union shop in South Carolina. I've read articles from Boeing employees who go so far as to say when they fly commercially, they try to figure out if the plane assigned to their flight was manufactured in South Carolina, and if so, they rebook on a plane that was manufactured in Washington.

I read in Bloomberg that they have about 700 employees and senior execs in Chicago, and 55,000 in the DC area, which is their largest employment base. So, the move makes sense especially since they probably will rely more on their defense business for growth and can serve international clients for commercial as easily in DC as Chicago. Merely an ego blow for Chicago, at least in my view.

[The North One]

So the biggest welfare queen of a corporation is moving closer to DC to lobby our national government so they can be a bigger welfare queen.

Cool.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by The North One

So the biggest welfare queen of a corporation is moving closer to DC to lobby our national government so they can be a bigger welfare queen.

Cool.

Lets be real, these defense companies are essentially creations of the federal government.

The entire DC area exists due to government largess and patronage. We like to think ourselves different than other nations and empires but we are just the same. Always was always will be

[JManc]

Boeing moves around more than the Raiders.

[the urban politician]

Not only the obvious advantages of proximity to the Feds, the DC area is viewed as a very nice place to live by many.

They don’t have the crappy Midwest winter and countless months of rain. The executives probably saw the direction Chicago and Illinois have been headed lately and figured now is as good a time as any to bail.

The only thing that sucks about Virginia is that they are excessively strict about speeding and are quick to put speeders in jail. So executives at Boeing with fancy sports cars would need to be very careful.

[mrnyc]

so much for spreading government out around the country away from dc.

more swamp.

[Crawford]

It does speak to Eisenhower's warnings of the military-industrial complex.

So many huge corps are just extensions of the federal govt.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Almost seems like a case study for abusing tax subsidies. Hopefully Virginia isn't make the same mistake.

Originally Posted by Obadno

Lets be real, these defense companies are essentially creations of the federal government.

The entire DC area exists due to government largess and patronage. We like to think ourselves different than other nations and empires but we are just the same. Always was always will be

Originally Posted by Crawford

It does speak to Eisenhower's warnings of the military-industrial complex.

So many huge corps are just extensions of the federal govt.

RONALD REAGAN ADMINISTRATION

Big government is bad, so let's create "private" companies in which to funnel US tax dollars.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by JManc

Boeing moves around more than the Raiders.

And they've been flailing since the egregious mistake of leaving Seattle.

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by pj3000

RONALD REAGAN ADMINISTRATION

Big government is bad, so let's create "private" companies in which to funnel US tax dollars.

What are you talking about? Most (if not all) of these companies preceded Reagan. Most of this swamp started in WW2.
We are becoming no different than Russia, where everything is centralized around Moscow into a giant corruption oligarchic swamp. Centralization around DC would be one of the worst things to happen to this country in modern times.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by whatnext

And they've been flailing since the egregious mistake of leaving Seattle.

And Seattle has prospered economically with its new and existing businesses, so other than an 'ego' insult and losing perhaps 500 senior executives, is this really such a big deal? I read that metros that do best over the long term tend to generate new companies organically rather than snag headquarters. Sure, a metro like Dallas is well known for its relocations, but other Sunbelts like Phoenix have done just fine.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by JManc

Boeing moves around more than the Raiders.

I'm stealing this.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Gantz

What are you talking about? Most (if not all) of these companies preceded Reagan. Most of this swamp started in WW2.

It has zero to do with when the companies were founded.

It has everything to do with the hallmark of the Reagan administration... massive defense buildup/huge Pentagon budgets/privatization of defense spending, and the resulting ubiquity and pervasiveness of cost-plus government contracts and federal deficits.

The Northern Virginia contractor/consulting corridors barely existed pre-Reagan administration.

That's what I'm talking about.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

so much for spreading government out around the country away from dc.

more swamp.

Yep, I totally agree with this.

Frankly, the idea of a “capital” city seems like an anachronism in an era of remote/hybrid work.

I don’t see why members of Congress can’t work from their home States, for example. The less chummy big corporate leaders become with Government, the better. Spread um all out.