Jettisoned real estate snapped up for warehouses, stores, homes

Boeing's Puget Sound-area footprint is 22 percent smaller than it was in 2000. New warehouses, retail and homes are sprouting on acres of the company's former property.

On surplus Boeing property in Auburn, Safeway built a huge grocery-distribution center that employs nearly 1,000 people.

"It more than makes up for the gradual loss that we and many towns have sustained in terms of aerospace employment," said Dave Baron, Auburn's economic-development head.

The wages, of course, are far below what the Boeing jobs paid.

Boeing's shrinking real estate had nothing to do with moving its corporate headquarters; since 1997, Boeing has been pruning excess assets. The headquarters buildings at Boeing Field are still full, housing corporate functions like human resources and legal, and the Connexion in-flight broadband unit.

Benjamin J. Romano, Seattle Times business reporter