Boeing Plans to Develop Part of Long Beach Site

Boeing Co., moving Long Beach further away from the aerospace industry that was once the city’s linchpin, said Tuesday that it plans to turn a big part of Boeing’s airplane plant there into one of the region’s largest private commercial developments.

Boeing, which acquired the plant when it bought McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1997, said it expects to demolish most, if not all, of the surplus facilities on 230 acres on the plant’s west side.

They’ll be replaced with a mixed-use business park that will strive to attract mostly technology companies.

The decision formally validates what many expected would happen when Seattle-based Boeing, the world’s biggest producer of commercial jetliners, bought McDonnell Douglas: that much of McDonnell Douglas’ airplane production in Long Beach--which dates back to 1941--ultimately would be unnecessary, eliminated and replaced.

Indeed, Boeing since the merger already has decided to shut down production of three airplane families that were at the heart of McDonnell Douglas’ operations: the MD-80 and MD-90 twin-jets, and the MD-11 wide-body jet.

Final assembly of those planes has either ended or will stop this year. Boeing has said more than 6,000 jobs will be eliminated as a result.

The end of those programs also eliminated the need for subassembly work, engineering, flight testing and other support functions--much of which was handled on the 450-acre plant’s west side, that is, west of Lakewood Boulevard.

However, Boeing continues to build its new, 100-seat 717 model on the east side of the plant, and there are about 130 firm orders for the jetliner, Boeing spokesman John Thom said.

All 717 activities and workers that were on the west side of the Long Beach plant will be shifted over, Thom said.

About 6,000 Boeing employees still work on the west side of the plant--the facility has about 7,000 workers overall--and no layoffs are expected from the development proposal.

But Boeing’s Long Beach commercial jetliner work force will continue to dwindle to only a few thousand people, as the MD series programs are phased out this year. Only three years ago, more than 10,000 people worked in Long Beach building those three families of aircraft.

Boeing’s announcement also does not affect its other big Long Beach operation, the C-17 military transport program. About 8,000 people build that airplane west of the Long Beach Airport off of Cherry Avenue.

Both Boeing and Long Beach officials said the move to develop the surplus plant space will benefit the company and the city.

The conversion will cut Boeing’s costs and make its much smaller Long Beach operation more efficient, and Long Beach will have the opportunity to attract more diversified companies.

Continuing “to own a facility of this size is just not efficient,” Philip Cyburt, president of Boeing’s Realty Corp. division, said in a statement.

The 230 acres will represent “one of the largest potential development opportunities” in or near central Los Angeles, said Craig Peters, a senior vice president with commercial real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis.

The Boeing site will require rezoning and an environmental impact report and probably will need to undergo remediation for pollutants from aircraft production, Long Beach City Manager Henry Taboada said. He said the city is eager to expedite those approvals.

“Obviously, we’re in the business of recovery from aerospace downsizing here,” Taboada said.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t get more Boeing work, but we understand that they’re scaling back and we’re grateful they’re staying here.”

He said that the Boeing property is a prime site, close to freeways and the Long Beach Airport, and that the city hopes the land will attract high-paying, high-technology jobs.

The earliest that development could begin would be in 2003, Boeing’s announcement said.

The 230 acres of Boeing property is bounded by Lakewood Boulevard on the east, Carson Street on the north, Paramount Boulevard on the west and Long Beach Airport on the south.

Since starting production, the Long Beach plant built nearly 2,000 MD-80s, along with hundreds of MD-90s and MD-11s. Earlier, the site also manufactured thousands of military transports, bombers and fighters during and after World War II.

Peters said the Boeing property make-over would be the most recent case of a prominent aerospace site turning to real estate development. A former Lockheed Martin campus at Rye Canyon Road and Newhall Ranch Road in Valencia has been turned into a development called North Campus at Rye Canyon by Irvine-based developer Legacy Partners, which bought the 377-acre site from Lockheed in 1998.