Boeing's big build-up

When The Boeing Co.’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, settled into a $4 million home in Seattle’s Broadmoor neighborhood, many of its suppliers and critics viewed it as a positive sign for the oversight of the embattled company. But that was just the start.

The company is taking up residence in a new, more than 1 million-square-foot industrial space in Milton, near the Port of Tacoma, in the first quarter of 2025. The lease was the biggest real estate transaction of 2024 for the Seattle area and capped off two years in which Boeing was one of the most significant drivers of industrial demand across the region.

“That says something about their long term commitment to the region,” Kristofer Johnson, president and CEO of the Association of Washington Businesses, told the Business Journal. “If any company’s buying property up that complements existing operations, that’s probably signaling some long-term commitment and investments to the region, and those have to be good for communities, good for workers and good for the state.”

That activity includes new industrial facilities south of Seattle as Boeing, along with several other large tech employers, veered away from large office spaces along the Interstate 90 corridor. Ortberg’s decision to be based in Seattle — rather than at Boeing’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia — also suggests a renewed emphasis on the company’s commercial division.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2025/01/23/boeing-industrial-space.html