Boeing Taking Off to New HQ in National Landing
By Keith Loria May 5, 2022 6:08 pm
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Boeing is leaving Chicago and taking flight in Arlington, Va.
The aerospace giant will transfer its headquarters to National Landing, the Wall Street Journal first reported, bringing it closer to many federal officials in Washington, D.C. Military contracts accounted for more than 50 percent of Boeing’s $62.3 billion sales in 2021.
Boeing has been talking with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for months about possibly making the move, according to a state official who spoke to WSJ. The company already has a number of senior executives working out of its Washington, D.C., area offices.
“We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told the Chicago Sun Times. “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.”
The company added that it will keep a significant presence at its Chicago location at 100 North Riverside Plaza, where pre-pandemic, approximately 500 employees worked. The past two years has seen that number fall dramatically.
“We are excited to add Boeing to the growing list of world renowned companies planting their long-term flags in National Landing,” Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, president and executive director of the National Landing Business Improvement District, said in a statement.
Boeing’s new HQ is expected to be close to Amazon’s HQ2.
“Our talented and diverse workforce, which will be fueled by cutting-edge institutions such as Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus and Boeing’s research and technology hub, is one of National Landing’s most valuable assets and one that we believe will continue to attract top employers to our area.”
An official announcement about the move isn’t expected until next week, but WSJ reported that someone close to the deal noted significant financial enticements were involved in bringing the company to the area.
Requests for comment from Boeing were not immediately returned.
Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
