Boeing consolidates its footprint by selling O.C Office Towers

Boeing, the American multi-national aerospace and defence corporation, is set to sell off two office towers at its Seal Beach Campus in Orange County, company officials said on Thursday.

Part of a national downsizing program, the plans will see its iconic eight-storey office tower on Seal Beach Boulevard put up for sale, as well as the demolition of two dormant buildings at its Huntington Beach facility in the early stages of next year.

"In Southern California, we have excess office space," said Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher. "We're just consolidating our footprint."

Boeing announced the plans on Wednesday citing a $1.6 billion reduction in spending at its Defence, Space and Security unit as the cause. This reduction was a direct result of government defence cuts and comes on top of a further $2.2 billion in spending cuts made over the past two years.

Currently there are 11 buildings on Boeing’s 45-acre Seal Beach Campus. Brittany Kuhn, the firm’s Western regional spokeswoman, identified the two properties as:

• Building 80, the Campus’s tallest building known for its one-story-high Boeing branding. The building is an eight-storey office tower comprising of 300,000 sq ft of grade A office space.
• Building 81, a three-storey, 275,000 sq ft building just west of Building 80.

Kuhn declined to estimate of revenue that the sale will generate. However, the last large office complex to be sold on Seal Beach was the 281,000 sq ft Bixby Office Park which went for $65 million, located a mile away. Since then area has seen significant development with a newly constructed office park, hotel and small retail complex nearby.

In Huntington Beach, Buildings 19 and 20, located on the west side of the complex are set to be demolished. Kuhn said: “Due to the building location on the campus, the optimal solution from a geographic and financial situation is to demolish them.”