Boeing's PacifiCenter Project
Charles Ebner, Director of Community Development

Our area is about to go through a transformation like we have never seen before. Aerospace, which was once the king of our industrial economy, has changed. Boeing no longer has the presence in the area that once was enjoyed by McDonnell Douglas, which at one time had approximately 40,000 workers. They continue to produce the C-17 on the west side of the Long Beach Airport, but their 717 program is struggling. Two hundred and sixty acres of what was once the heart of the aerospace industry in Long Beach is now obsolete and subject to redevelopment.

What I'm talking about is the old McDonnell Douglas plant located at the southwest corner of Carson Street and Lakewood Boulevard adjacent to the Long Beach Airport. Boeing Real Estate is now developing a plan for the reuse of the property, which they call PacifiCenter @ Long Beach. The majority of the project is located in the City of Long Beach with the western most 22 acres being in the City of Lakewood.

The vision for the reuse of the Boeing site is truly innovative in urban development. The master plan now under review calls for the replacement of the five million square feet of existing aircraft production facilities with a mixture of development types. Proposed is over seven million square feet for office, industrial, and R&D development space, 600 hotel rooms and up to 3,800 housing units. The vision is to create a master-planned community with high-tech infrastructure and on-site amenities that are expected to attract and cater to quality office, hi-tech, and aviation-related companies and their employees. The inclusion of the housing component is to make it practical to live where you work, with an emphasis on pedestrian access throughout the site. When completed, PacifiCenter is expected to have over 29,000 jobs and be home to close to 6,200 residents.

A project of this size will have positive and negative impacts on the area in which it is located. To better understand what this is, we have been working closely with the City of Long Beach on the preparation of the Environmental Impact Report for the PacifiCenter project. Its release is due soon. We have also communicated our concerns on the phasing of the construction of the housing part of the project. If the housing is being built for those who will work there, we feel that there should be controls to insure that the place for jobs is created before the homes are built. Although we can understand Boeing's desire to have the greatest flexibility on when each of the elements are developed in order to take advantage of market driven opportunities, we need to insure that this once jobs rich area quickly returns to this status and does not become a predominately residential area.

You can expect to hear more about the PacifiCenter @ Long Beach project in the months to come as the EIR is released for review and comment. We in Lakewood will be working with Long Beach to insure that this valuable resource benefits our communities and does not adversely affect our quality of life.