Seattle company buys Boeing’s Longacres property in Renton

Puget Sound Business Journal | By Marc Stiles

Seattle-based Unico Properties is the new owner of The Boeing Co.’s approximately 150-acre Longacres campus, which is home to the headquarters building of the Commercial Airplanes division, Unico said Friday.
“Unico is thrilled to own an important piece of Puget Sound history and we are excited to turn it into something that will build upon the cherished cultural and economic legacy of Longacres,” Unico Chief Investment Officer Ned Carner said in a statement. “We were attracted by the great potential of what Longacres could be and the investments the City of Renton has made in its future.”

Andrew Cox, Unico senior vice president and regional director, said the property will appeal to users seeking large blocks of space that are economical compared with urban core properties. It’s the largest tract that Unico has acquired. The company did not disclose the sales price and King County has not posted the deed.

Longacres encompasses 962,800 square feet of commercial space in two buildings and includes a daycare center and around 2,150 parking stalls. It’s located next to the commuter-rail-served Tuwkila Transit Center.

The disposition of the leafy but otherwise nondescript industrial complex leaves the Chicago-based company with one small, unused asset to sell in the Puget Sound region. It will be sold in 2022, according to the company, which has been reducing its global real estate footprint worldwide to cut costs.

Like many other companies, Boeing (NYSE: BA) has leaned into remote work over the course of the pandemic. In October 2020, Boeing said it was studying whether to sell the headquarters complex and other assets. “We’re evaluating all real estate across the globe,” said the company’s then-chief financial officer Greg Smith.

Remote work was the theme earlier this week when Boeing sold two large Renton parcels at 530 and 600 Park Ave. N., including office buildings totaling 334,000 square feet, to a multifamily developer. Now comes the unloading of over 800,000 square feet at Longacres.

“Boeing has taken a number of steps to implement virtual work opportunities and position leaders and teams as close as possible to our day-to-day work in our factories and delivery centers,” Boeing said in a statement after the sale of the Park Avenue properties.

After Friday’s sale, Boeing said, “With reduced office space needs, Boeing has sold the Longacres complex to Unico Properties. We remain committed to the Puget Sound region, and Boeing Commercial Airplanes leadership will remain here.”

Boeing employees assigned to the headquarters building are working at other company properties or remotely. Like the sale of the Park Avenue sites, the Longacres sale does not result in any additional workforce reductions, a Boeing spokesperson said.

In the fall of 2020, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Stan Deal outlined for Snohomish County and city of Everett officials a plan to sell the Renton headquarters. Deal said he and some executives would move to another Boeing building in Renton, and others would go to Everett and consolidate into Boeing’s Bomarc building.

Marketing materials for the Longacres campus (1301 SW 16th St.) said seven buildings totaling 888,737 square feet were to be sold. The BCA headquarters building is adjacent to a building Boeing used for training airline pilot crews.

Boeing bought the Longacres campus in 1990 and subsequently developed 64 acres of the former horse racing track property into the BCA headquarters. In 2005, though, it sold 10.8 acres of undeveloped campus property to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for its new greater-Seattle-area branch building.

Brokers Jeremy Piquard, Jeff Cole and Scott Alan of Cushman & Wakefield listed Longacres. Unico represented itself in the transaction.