A review of career opportunities on a Boeing website recently boasted of work designing and engineering the next generation of aircraft and military technology.
The jobs were offered in an array of far-flung locations from the United Kingdom to South Carolina and Oklahoma.
Missing from the list, however, were Boeing jobs in Seal Beach. Their scarcity could reflect Boeing’s announcement last Wednesday, Nov. 7, that it is closing two of the major buildings it operates in the beach city.
A Boeing spokesperson said the company was not closing its Seal Beach facilities.
However, Brittany Kuhn, who speaks for Boeing Defense’s western region, said the company would close two buildings in 2013—building 80 and 81. The reason: Boeing officials want to save money.
Many Seal Beach residents pass by the buildings everyday on the way to work.
If they were going north on Seal Beach Boulevard, just before they reached Westminster Avenue, they would see building 80 on the left. Building 81 is to the left of that building.
“The city was obviously disappointed to learn that Boeing will be closing two of three office buildings in Seal Beach,” said Mayor Mike Levitt. “However, we understand that today’s business economics require that expenses be kept to a minimum and that staff be utilized in the most effective and efficient ways.”
Levitt said the city was told that a third of Boeing’s employees will remain in Seal Beach and the remaining workers, approximately a thousand, will be assigned to other Boeing locations.
“Certainly this will have a negative effect on our city’s revenues as many of the employees dined and shopped here in town,” Levitt said. “They will be missed by our merchants.
“On the positive side, there will be two large office buildings with an enormous amount of parking space are soon to be on the market for development. We look forward to seeing who our next and newest tenants and neighbors will be,” he said.
Councilman Gordon Shanks agreed that the news might not be all gloomy. “It could have some impact financially on Seal Beach, but not necessarily bad,” said Shanks, whose Council District 3 encompasses Boeing’s property. “It could be just as equally good, depending on who moves in there.”
Kuhn said Boeing’s consolidation activity has been going on for some time and the “accelerating change initiative” to reduce costs had been going on for some time.
Kuhn said building 81 would be vacated during the first quarter of next year and building 80 would be vacated in mid-2013.
Greg Hastings, Seal Beach’s interim director of Development Services said that, according to the Boeing Specific Plan, there are four major buildings on the site: 80, 81, 82 and 90.
Hastings said building 80 was 300,000 square feet in size and building 81 was 275,000.
The specific plan allows Boeing to have 1,150,000 square feet of floor space.
“Technically, they could build more square footage,” Hastings said.
Kuhn said buildings 80 and 81 had excessive office space.
As for the employees who work in the two buildings, Kuhn said they would be transferred to other Boeing sites throughout the Southern California region.
Seal Beach City Manager Jill Ingram said the city was told by a Boeing representative that approximately 1,000 employees would be transferred to El Segundo or Huntington Beach. Kuhn said there would be options for those employees.
Ingram said she and Mayor Michael Levitt had spoken with Boeing and knew about the decision to sell the two buildings about a week before Boeing made the news public, which was on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Ingram said approximately 500 other Boeing employees will remain in Seal Beach.
“Obviously, we are disappointed,” Ingram said, referring to the decision to sell the two buildings.
However, she said she understood that Boeing (the largest employer in Seal Beach) had to make its decisions based on profits.
She said Boeing officials have promised to keep Seal Beach “in the loop” about their plans.
“I was very disappointed to hear of Boeing’s plans to close the Seal Beach facility,” said Deb Machen, president of the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce. “Many of their employees are loyal patrons of our Seal Beach businesses and events, and they will be sorely missed.”
In the meantime, city staff is analyzing the potential impact of the building sell-off, including impacts on business license fees, sales tax revenue and property taxes.
Ingram said the building sales could theoretically have a positive impact on property tax revenues.
“There’s a minimal sales tax that we get from them,” Ingram said.
Interim Community Development Director Hastings said that the sale of the new buildings wouldn’t necessarily require a change to the Boeing Specific Plan.
The plan allows the buildings to be used for manufacturing, warehousing, research and development or as office space.
