About 20 years ago – just days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States crippled the airline industry – Boeing announced that it would move its headquarters from the historic manufacturing center of Seattle to downtown Chicago in the Midlands. The relocation plan is also at the heart of Boeing’s plan to create a new image as a diverse global behemoth. It also isolates Boeing’s top executives from the day-to-day operations of its global business units, which are closer to Wall Street’s Financial Institution Group. Now 20 years later, Boeing’s corporate headquarters is in trouble amid an epidemic that has shaken the industry. Reuters reports: “Boeing’s Chicago headquarters becomes’ghost town. ‘” A new cohort of mostly coastal executives is dealing with industrial and safety certifications for its major divisions, as well as dealing with the 737 MAX and coronavirus crises. Meanwhile, Illinois and Chicago tax breaks for Boeing are set to expire at the end of the year. A symbol of the new Boeing, the vision of the company’s core business above their component parts has clashed with the need to reclaim engineering dominance and repair relationships with customers and federal regulators. Brian West, the newly appointed chief financial officer, is also based mainly on the East Coast, and while the COVID-19 pandemic is a major factor, the upscale and fully functional corporate headquarters in Chicago has become silent, according to people familiar with the matter. “It’s a ghost town,” one of them said. Pictured, in an article published by a Seattle Post reporter on September 3, 2001, “Boeing Quietly Opens Chicago Headquarters,” a modern 36-story office building on the south bank of the Chicago River west of the Loop, a $200 million riverside skyscraper. And now Boeing has begun to let go of real estate, including the Commercial Aircraft Headquarters in Seattle. Several people familiar with Boeing’s situation said cost cuts and a more hands-on corporate culture raised questions about the city’s long-term future and the direction Boeing was taking as it tried to regain its footing. However, Boeing insisted that important business was still taking place in Chicago and rejected any suggestion that it would leave its Midwest base. “Chicago is strategic to Boeing’s US and global operations,” said a spokesperson. “Like other companies, we have adopted a hybrid approach to working with our employees, our customers and other stakeholders during the global epidemic.” Boeing said it and its employees had invested nearly $50 million in recent years to support the Chicago community. Despite the new focus, others warned that leaving the city could spark a local storm. And against a backdrop of industrial and regulatory concerns, leaving the city is far from a priority for Boeing. In 1997, Seattle-based Boeing merged with its St. Louis-based rival, McDonnell Douglas, a decision that angered rank-and-file workers and engineers. So Boeing decided to leave Seattle and move its headquarters to a more neutral location, separate from its existing power center. Some critics said Boeing’s move in Chicago was a symbol of the company’s emphasis on short-term profits and shareholder returns over its long-term engineering ethos. That accusation resurfaced after two consecutive 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. Picture, Demonstrators hold photos of crash victims during a vigil on September 10, 2019, on the 6-month anniversary of the crash of a Boeing 737 Max airliner in Ethiopia (Washington, USA). This is starting to be a signal that they will make investments in the future, regardless of past loyalties, said Richard Aboulafia, analyst at Teal Group. For some, it’s just a way to show that they won’t make any investments at all in the future. Over the past 20 years, the state of Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago have provided Boeing with more than $60 million in taxes and other incentives to encourage them to move their headquarters to Chicago. Now those credits have expired – though Boeing will receive 2021 funding next year. The incentives, which required Boeing to keep 500 full-time employees in its offices, were scrapped at one point in a trade dispute between Boeing and Europe’s Airbus over unfair subsidies. A Chicago spokesperson said Boeing’s report showed it had 513 full-time employees in Chicago in 2020. Boeing also employs thousands of people in Chicago and the Metro East area near St. Louis in southern Illinois, the Illinois spokesperson said. However, a close review of the BGA analysis of the Illinois decision reveals that Boeing has not met the 500-employee mark for at least four years. Pam McDonough, a former director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, has said on social media that the indirect impact of Boeing employees in the Chicago area over the past 20 years is thought to be $4.30 billion. “These large projects are complex and strategic, but they do have tremendous economic and social benefits.About 20 years ago – just days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States crippled the airline industry – Boeing announced that it would move its headquarters from the historic manufacturing center of Seattle to downtown Chicago in the Midlands. The relocation plan is also at the heart of Boeing’s plan to create a new image as a diverse global behemoth. It also isolates Boeing’s top executives from the day-to-day operations of its global business units, which are closer to Wall Street’s Financial Institution Group. Now 20 years later, Boeing’s corporate headquarters is in trouble amid an epidemic that has shaken the industry. Reuters reports: “Boeing’s Chicago headquarters becomes’ghost town. ‘” A new cohort of mostly coastal executives is dealing with industrial and safety certifications for its major divisions, as well as dealing with the 737 MAX and coronavirus crises. Meanwhile, Illinois and Chicago tax breaks for Boeing are set to expire at the end of the year. A symbol of the new Boeing, the vision of the company’s core business above their component parts has clashed with the need to reclaim engineering dominance and repair relationships with customers and federal regulators. Brian West, the newly appointed chief financial officer, is also based mainly on the East Coast, and while the COVID-19 pandemic is a major factor, the upscale and fully functional corporate headquarters in Chicago has become silent, according to people familiar with the matter. “It’s a ghost town,” one of them said. Pictured, in an article published by a Seattle Post reporter on September 3, 2001, “Boeing Quietly Opens Chicago Headquarters,” a modern 36-story office building on the south bank of the Chicago River west of the Loop, a $200 million riverside skyscraper. And now Boeing has begun to let go of real estate, including the Commercial Aircraft Headquarters in Seattle. Several people familiar with Boeing’s situation said cost cuts and a more hands-on corporate culture raised questions about the city’s long-term future and the direction Boeing was taking as it tried to regain its footing. However, Boeing insisted that important business was still taking place in Chicago and rejected any suggestion that it would leave its Midwest base. “Chicago is strategic to Boeing’s US and global operations,” said a spokesperson. “Like other companies, we have adopted a hybrid approach to working with our employees, our customers and other stakeholders during the global epidemic.” Boeing said it and its employees had invested nearly $50 million in recent years to support the Chicago community. Despite the new focus, others warned that leaving the city could spark a local storm. And against a backdrop of industrial and regulatory concerns, leaving the city is far from a priority for Boeing. In 1997, Seattle-based Boeing merged with its St. Louis-based rival, McDonnell Douglas, a decision that angered rank-and-file workers and engineers. So Boeing decided to leave Seattle and move its headquarters to a more neutral location, separate from its existing power center. Some critics said Boeing’s move in Chicago was a symbol of the company’s emphasis on short-term profits and shareholder returns over its long-term engineering ethos. That accusation resurfaced after two consecutive 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. Picture, Demonstrators hold photos of crash victims during a vigil on September 10, 2019, on the 6-month anniversary of the crash of a Boeing 737 Max airliner in Ethiopia (Washington, USA). This is starting to be a signal that they will make investments in the future, regardless of past loyalties, said Richard Aboulafia, analyst at Teal Group. For some, it’s just a way to show that they won’t make any investments at all in the future. Over the past 20 years, the state of Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago have provided Boeing with more than $60 million in taxes and other incentives to encourage them to move their headquarters to Chicago. Now those credits have expired – though Boeing will receive 2021 funding next year. The incentives, which required Boeing to keep 500 full-time employees in its offices, were scrapped at one point in a trade dispute between Boeing and Europe’s Airbus over unfair subsidies. A Chicago spokesperson said Boeing’s report showed it had 513 full-time employees in Chicago in 2020. Boeing also employs thousands of people in Chicago and the Metro East area near St. Louis in southern Illinois, the Illinois spokesperson said. However, a close review of the BGA analysis of the Illinois decision reveals that Boeing has not met the 500-employee mark for at least four years. Pam McDonough, a former director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, has said on social media that the indirect impact of Boeing employees in the Chicago area over the past 20 years is thought to be $4.30 billion. “These large projects are complex and strategic, but they do have tremendous economic and social benefits.
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