Boeing

[Oil Capital]

OKC dodged a huge bullet when United selected Indy. That maintenance center closed not long after it opened and left Indy with a $540 million bill.

To clarify, the Indianapolis maintenance center opened in 1994 and closed in 2003. AAR leased the facility in 2004.

[G.Walker]

Pete, shifting from the Preftakes thread to this one, I think some of us are basing our assumption re the 6 story building re this article:

http://newsok.com/chamber-boeing-pre...rticle/3637849


in the article Director of Oklahoma City Operations Mike Emmelhainz said “It's a mirror image of what we're in today, but a bit bigger,” Emmelhainz said of the second building. “We should be able to occupy the first floor by the end of the first quarter of this year. And it will house the remainder of the 550 employees coming here. And with the announcement made in Wichita, we will next make a transition for those employees. And there is enough capacity to house those additional employees.”

However, that doesn't necessarily mean they will be there, he is just saying they have room for them if the need be.

[Pete]

He either misspoke or is being misquoted because the numbers don't come close to adding up:

• 520,000 square feet between the two buildings (200,000 in the 4-story and 320,000 in the 6-story)
• 1,250 employees before the recent announcement
• Just over 400 sq. ft. per employee, which is a low number to start
• They had previously said they needed 320,000 for the 550 Long Beach jobs, which is closer to 600 square feet per employee (more the norm)

They will need about another 500,000 square feet just for these new 900-1,000 jobs and probably more as these are higher-paid engineering functions which will require more square footage per employee.

[G.Walker]

He either misspoke or is being misquoted because the numbers don't come close to adding up:

• 520,000 square feet between the two buildings (200,000 in the 4-story and 320,000 in the 6-story)
• 1,250 employees before the recent announcement
• Just over 400 sq. ft. per employee, which is a low number to start
• They had previously said they needed 320,000 for the 550 Long Beach jobs, which is closer to 600 square feet per employee (more the norm)

They will need about another 500,000 square feet just for these new 900-1,000 jobs and probably more as these are higher-paid engineering functions which will require more square footage per employee.

Well, the only person who can clear up the confusion, is the person who wrote the article...Steve?

[Questor]

I guess you guys don't watch their job postings. It's pretty clear that they inhabit buildings on-base as well.

[SoonerDave]

..

[ljbab728]

An interesting overview of the aerospace industry and it's inpact and relationship with OKC.

http://newsok.com/aerospace-industry...rticle/3638932

[rjstone208]

Almost all of the Boeing Engineers and many Logisticians work on base directly supporting a weapons system. So Boeing folks supporting the B-52 system for example work in the B-52 area and so on although some work in the mainenance and repair areas, most in Bldg 3001, the mile long building off Douglas. No sure but I'd guess that Boeing has the largest number of contractors physically working in offices (little square cubes) on Tinker.

[workman45]

You just took a big tease and made it worse...

Thanks...

LOL! Patience is a virtue.

[NWOKCGuy]

I wonder if this has been in the works for a while - Dell moved all their Boeing support to OKC last year.

[Teo9969]

It seems like the aerospace industry is something OKC should push harder to capture. OKC will be better off in the long run if it gets at least a little bit of diversification in the portfolio as soon as possible. Energy is great, and I think it will continue to be the bread-winner for OKC, but OKC needs to make a concerted effort to boost the attractiveness of the city to other markets as well.

All the Boeing jobs in the past 30 months that have been announced is a great start (especially considering that these are fantastic paying jobs). Let's hope to see someone else in the Aerospace industry make a move here.

[ljbab728]

It seems like the aerospace industry is something OKC should push harder to capture. OKC will be better off in the long run if it gets at least a little bit of diversification in the portfolio as soon as possible.

What would you suggest they do to "push harder"? It seems to me that it has already been a major priority and the pushing has netted great results.

[Snowman]

It seems like the aerospace industry is something OKC should push harder to capture. OKC will be better off in the long run if it gets at least a little bit of diversification in the portfolio as soon as possible.

Tinker gets thrown around as our larges single employer due to all the support jobs related to it, if you want diversification then we would be pushing harder in other sectors or more the commercial side of aviation. Which they are already doing expansion for the commercial work with Will Rodgers east side project.

[ljbab728]

I still don't understand the request for the city to push harder in some other areas. How do we know what areas the city has been pushing in? We can push in many areas without success but that doesn't mean they aren't pushing. You still take your successes wherever you can get them.

[Snowman]

I still don't understand the request for the city to push harder in some other areas. How do we know what areas the city has been pushing in? We can push in many areas without success but that doesn't mean they aren't pushing. You still take your successes wherever you can get them.

They are open to most any wanting to come, but you want diversification because that way when one takes a hit it does not kill all the cities revenues. I think Aerospace, Energy, Bioscience, Weather/Climate Research, Start-ups, Technology, Tourism were the focuses of the chamber on growing due to they have infrastructure to support those kind of things already so their is a lower barrier to get another one to come in.

[ljbab728]

They are open to most any wanting to come, but you want diversification because that way when one takes a hit it does not kill all the cities revenues. I think Aerospace, Energy, Bioscience, Weather/Climate Research, Start-ups, Technology, Tourism were the focuses of the chamber on growing due to they have infrastructure to support those kind of things already so their is a lower barrier to get another one to come in.

I understand exactly why you want diversification. What I don't understand is why some people think the city is not pursuing that.

[Teo9969]

I probably did not word my response the best.

My belief is not necessarily that the city is not pursuing a wider diversification in the economic fabric, indeed we neither see nor hear a lot of what goes on in meetings and conversations between higher-up OKC officials. But on some level, it would be nice to hear of these plans/ideas that they have and goals that the leaders have to accomplish the ultimate objective.

I think it would also be beneficial if City leaders put out more information to the citizens showing how investment in these types of businesses will ultimately bring a good return to the wealth of both the city and the individual.

[bombermwc]

Before someone comments on Teo's last sentence, i want to state what I the intent is. Letting the public know what we already know...how it's beneficial to do these things and how investing in local business is also good for the city. I can see some folks yelling at Teo and saying "how can you not realize that"....so i'm preempting it.

It would be nice if there was a section on the chamber's site, or okc.gov or something that showed which businesses are making use of these efforts. And maybe how to apply for those programs. If I knew of a startup that was working with the city to make things work, maybe my business would try and work with them as a vendor or something to support it. It's nothing but good to have local B2B going on.

[Frustratedoptimist]

I like bomber's website idea but I don't know anything about encouraging business diversification, so I'll just cut and run and say that I hope these higher income earners will move to downtown OKC or a surrounding neighborhood, but I'm afraid they will take thier housing and retail dollars to Edmond for the top-rated schools, etc. Since we don't really foresee an end to this trend, it sure would be good to see commuter rail on the horizon.

[bombermwc]

Hang on there....the diversification should also include small business. More people are employed by the small business in the U.S. than large business by several times over. That's another place this should be used. Help out the little guys and not just the big guys.

Back to Boeing though, a friend of mine that works at Boeing in Witchia (from OKC and moved there after college for the engineering job) said while they didn't mention it specifically, all of Boeing is leaving Wichita. They don't know which folks will be offered a job in OKC yet though...not until next month. We're actually excited to have them come back!

[soonerguru]

I like bomber's website idea but I don't know anything about encouraging business diversification, so I'll just cut and run and say that I hope these higher income earners will move to downtown OKC or a surrounding neighborhood, but I'm afraid they will take thier housing and retail dollars to Edmond for the top-rated schools, etc. Since we don't really foresee an end to this trend, it sure would be good to see commuter rail on the horizon.

Edmond's schools are not "top rated."

[dankrutka]

Edmond's schools are not "top rated."

Yes they are. The metrics used by state and federal agencies (as flawed as they are for overreliance on test scores and such...) rank all 3 Edmond high schools in the top 5-6 public high schools in the state. There is no doubt EPS is the tops on any list of best school districts.

[Frustratedoptimist]

Students living within OKC city limits and in the EPS District make up almost 1/3 of all the EPS students. I can guarantee you Edmond will be trying to allure them.

[Larry OKC]

LOL! Patience is a virtue.

true, but there is no time like the present

[Pete]

Some potentially bad news:

About half of the 550 jobs being transferred by Boeing from its operation in Long Beach, Calif., to Oklahoma City are in jeopardy as part of a proposed 2013 Pentagon budget that would cut $487 billion in spending over the next decade.

Read more: http://newsok.com/boeing-jobs-to-okl...#ixzz1lFIdIGsy