It houses, among other things, production facilities for its 737 and 757 airplanes. Yesterday, a report published by Business Week Online says the aerospace behemoth as a cost-saving move is planning to phase out the Renton plant over seven-years and move those operations to its Everett plant.

In response to the article, Boeing releaased this statement: "Boeing has not made decisions regarding shutting down the Renton plant or any other of our facilities other than those that we're previously announced. We've got to be competitive to keep people employed (and)looking at how we are using our facilities is one way to do that. We have been working on the asset utilization challenge for some years; we are continually studying ways to be competitive."

At a recent event of the Commercial Brokers Association, Phil Cyburt, president of Boeing Realty Corp., the company created two years ago to mange all Boeing's real estate holdings, told brokers one of his main corporate directives is to shed Boeing's surplus property. According to reports, Cyburt has been given five years to unload some 29 million sf nationwide. With 8,000 employees in Renton -- nearly one-third of Renton's entire work force -- the impacts of such a closure could be felt for years. It has been estimated that consolidation of the Renton operations into Everett could save Boeing as much as $1 billion a year.

Some have speculated that property's return to the market could, in fact, be a boon to Renton if it were redeveloped into a higher and better use, and that the impacts might only last several months. Rob Aigner, executive director of the Seattle office of Colliers International, disputes the limited-impact theory. Such a redevelopment, Aigner tells GlobeSt, would be a major undertaking.

"It would need to be a major, international player familiar with this type of redevelopment," says Aigner. "And it would take an army of consultants, brokerage, legal and other experts just to tell you what you've got." Only one of myriad issues, Aigner points to a major environmental concern built into the property -- the Cedar River that runs right through the middle of it. A redevelopment of this property would take more along the lines of five-to-10 years, he says.

The King County Assessor's Office values the Renton property at $245,656,900. Countywide, the assessor pegs Boeing's holdings at approximately $3.4 billion.

Instant Insights /

Boeing Rumored to be Closing 330-Acre Renton Plant, Consolidating in Everett

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