More than two decades after the Boeing Co. moved its headquarters from its Seattle birthplace to Chicago, the aerospace giant is planning to do it again — this time, heading for Arlington, Va.
Boeing confirmed a report about the move that appeared today in The Wall Street Journal. Arlington already serves as the headquarters for Boeing’s defense, space and security business unit, and the company said it would develop a new research and technology hub in Northern Virginia.
“We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia,” Boeing’s president and CEO, Dave Calhoun, said in a news release. “The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent.”
Boeing spokesman Connor Greenwood said the move is effective immediately.
“There are no immediate plans to expand the Arlington facility,” Greenwood told GeekWire in an email. “We have sufficient space within the current facility.”
The move to Arlington in the Washington, D.C., area reflects a classic corporate strategy to have the company’s executive offices close to where the federal government’s purchasing decisions are made.
Similar calculations motivated Amazon’s decision to put its HQ2 in Arlington and invest more than $2.5 billion developing the site. The Seattle-based retail and cloud titan says it plans to boost its D.C.-area workforce to 25,000 employees.
Back in 2001, Boeing cited the diversification of its business beyond commercial jets as the rationale for moving its headquarters from Seattle (where it had been based since its founding in 1916) to Chicago.
The company continues to make airplanes in Everett and Renton, Wash., but it has transferred all of its 787 Dreamliner production to a factory in North Charleston, S.C.. Boeing has also been consolidating its global services division in Texas.
Boeing said that it would continue to have its commercial airplanes business unit based in Seattle, and global services based in Plano, Texas.
The company plans to stick around in the Chicago area as well. “We greatly appreciate our continuing relationships in Chicago and throughout Illinois. We look forward to maintaining a strong presence in the city and the state,” Calhoun said.
Boeing said its new R&D hub in Northern Virginia will focus on developing innovations in the areas of cybersecurity, autonomous operations, quantum information science, and software and systems engineering.
“The future of Boeing is digital,” said Greg Hyslop, Boeing’s chief engineer and executive vice president of engineering, test and technology. “Focusing our R&D and talent development in areas that support digital innovation will fuel the introduction of cutting-edge capabilities. This new hub in Northern Virginia will follow the successful implementation of this technology strategy in other regions.”
This report has been updated to include Boeing’s statement.
