Results tagged “relocation”

NOAA has announced that they're hauling anchor away from Lake Union, and relocating their center-Pacific operations to Newport, Oregon. Seattle City Council's Jean Godden has already fired off a response, noting that Seattle has the UW (Newport doesn't), fresh water (Newport 0), and the Duwamish River (Newport FAIL). Godden says Seattle still looks to her like the best choice for NOAA, but that "Clearly the selection committee felt differently, perhaps influenced by millions of dollars in state subsidies offered by the Oregon legislature." ZING!

Yesterday we thought only a huge idiot would really believe Boeing was going to leave its Northwest workforce behind and move to South Carolina. But then Matt the Engineer commented: "Bad news, or perhaps part of the bluff: I just received an e-mail from Boeing letting me know that an engineering job I had applied for has been cancelled. I went back to their site to see if other jobs are available (there used to be a handful), and found absolutely no engineering jobs posted for Washington."

So Boeing is "in talks" to buy the a South Carolina factory that currently makes sections of the 787 (huh, that's funny, the autotext is "long-delayed 787") fuselage, which has sparked rumors that the plane-maker is thinking about, in the words of Billy Joel, "movin' out." Anti-union business interests blame...the devil union. Jon Talton focuses on a huge Southern sucking sound. And Rick Anderson points out that the state gets advice from Deloitte Consulting on how to keep Boeing, while Deloitte & Touche does Boeing's books--this is okay because they are "separate but affiliated" entities. We are not Boeing experts by any means, but this is what we see: a) low labor costs alone don't build a plane that flies, b) Boeing's future requires a more highly trained and skilled work force than ever before, and c) we haven't noticed Boeing crowing lately about any profits generated by moving its corporate HQ to Chicago.

Back in February (brrr!), we reported on the venerable Capitol Hill institution, B&O Espresso, being forced out of its longtime location at the corner of Belmont & Olive because the property owners had plans for a multi-story apartment building there. This weekend we stopped in and saw the B&O's owner Majid behind the pastry case, and asked how things were going. Turns out that he's still planning on moving up to Broadway to take over the old Dilettante's spot (who in turn are relocating to the first floor of Brix, along with Vivace), but now the development of the original B&O location is on hold, and he's renting month-to-month. The opera posters are still hanging. The lemon chiffon cake is still flowing (so to speak). If the real estate downturn stays turned down, we may not lose a B&O, so much as gain one.

Just doesn't have the same ring to it. But NBA owners went ahead and approved the request to move the Sonics to Oklahoma. They supported the move overwhelmingly, with a 28-2 vote. We never thought we'd say this in an unsarcastic manner, but thanks, Paul Allen and Mark Cuban. They cast the lone nay votes. Guess that Oklahoma City website that listed the Sonics as a "local team" weren't speaking too soon, after all.