In May, the Seattle-based company plans to announce that it is moving its world headquarters to one of those three cities and move into a building in time for students to enroll in school in September. Boeing and its broker, Cushman Realty, will not reveal which buildings are on its list.

It isn't releasing the list for obvious business reasons, as well as a practical one, Larry McCracken, Boeing spokesman told GlobeSt.com. Simply put, the buildings on the tours have been moving targets. Cushman Realty has done an excellent job of ferreting out buildings that could suit its needs up to the last minute, McCracken says. For example, it has received an initial list from the brokerage more than a week ago and it had been updated again last Friday. In the other two cities, the lists had been updated before officials stepped into helicopters and vans for the tours, he says.

Also, some media accounts have placed too much importance on how much time they spent in one building as opposed to others, he says. "Sometimes we had box lunches in the conference room of one building, without anyone from the building present," McCracken says. "We used that time for an impromptu meeting to discuss all of the buildings we've visited, not necessarily the one we were in. So if we spend 90 minutes in one building and 30 minutes in another, it might just be because we were in one building at lunchtime."