Boeing Moving Commercial-Jet Headquarters To Longacres

Boeing said today it will move its burgeoning Commercial Airplane Group administrative staff into new headquarters to be built alongside the company's Customer Service Training Center at Longacres Park in Renton.

The 300,000-square-foot building, estimated to cost $60 million, will be four- or five-stories tall and complement the design of the 600,000-square-foot training center now on the site, the company said.

About 800 administrative, sales, contracts, legal, human resources, marketing and communications employees will move from the current 1960s-era headquarters building in Renton, as well as from two other smaller offices.

Design of the new headquarters is expected to be completed next month, with preparation of a 12-acre site to the south of the Longacres training center scheduled to begin in April. Building completion is targeted for October 1998. Boeing is exploring selling or leasing the Renton office buildings it will vacate, said spokeswoman Sherry Nebel.

"The Boeing Commercial Airplane Group core team has grown to the point where it's located in three buildings, and to truly practice the `working together' philosophy, it was decided to relocate to one building," Nebel said.