Greenville Contractor Enlisted For Boeing Construction, Jobs

Friday, Nov. 6 Update
Governor Mark Sanford has revealed Boeing has decided to use BE&K Building Group of Greenville as its general contractor to build the North Charleston facility for a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner. 
“Today marks an expected but nonetheless exciting step in what we believe will be a long and indeed revolutionary partnership between Boeing and South Carolina,“ Gov. Sanford said. “Naming a general contractor sets into motion the hiring of potentially 2,00 construction jobs in the Lowcountry that will provide a much needed shot in the arm to our state’s employment situation and economy in general.  More importantly, these jobs are immediate and not tied to incentives.“

**Friday 11:23 a.m. Update**

Governor Mark Sanford signed H.3130 on Friday, which is the economic incentives bill that helped pave the way for Boeing Company’s plan to establish a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner in the Lowcountry.

It will be built adjacent to the company’s existing facilities in North Charleston.

“Boeing’s decision to land decisively in South Carolina is both a monumental shot in the arm to our state’s economy and indeed a revolutionary boost to our already growing aerospace hub,“ said Governor Sanford in a written statement. “Monumental in the sense that this is the largest jobs and investment announcement in South Carolina history; and revolutionary in the way that just as BMW catalyzed a now extensive automotive presence across South Carolina, we think Boeing will set off a ripple effect of high-tech manufacturing and supplier chains across the state.“

On Friday South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford will be in the Lowcountry Friday to sign an incentives package for Boeing to produce the new 787 Dreamliner in Charleston in 2011.
State lawmakers offered boeing an incentive package, which is worth $170 million dollars if the company spends at least $750 million and creates at least 3,800 jobs within seven years.
State Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor says the plant will start having an effect on the state’s job situation in a matter of weeks, because Boeing plans to break ground in November.

“I would suspect we’re looking at 1,500-1,700 construction jobs that’ll be coming online almost immediately,“ Taylor says. “And those will be people from Charleston, really, and throughout the state of South Carolina and some from the Southeast, and I mean we should see an immediate employment impact and economic impact in the state just from the construction alone.“

He says building the plant will require just about every kind of construction skill, from earth moving to concrete finishing to masonry and steel fitting. But until Boeing names the contractor, which should be soon, there’s no way he can say how people can go about trying to get one of the construction jobs. “I’m sure there’ll be some type of public awareness made of the jobs that are available down there,“ he says.

Once the plant is finished, Boeing will have at least 3,800 people working at the plant, about 1,000 of them on the production line, Taylor says.

“You’ll have engineering and administrative and clerical and shipping and receiving,“ Taylor says. “The Trident Technical College and readySC, which is something that we all should be very proud of in South Carolina, played a critical role in landing this deal, will be coordinating the training and the recruiting and the screening for all those jobs. So you want to consistently check with your technical college system, because I think they’ll be your first source as those opportunities at Boeing become available.“

But there will be thousands more jobs created outside of the Boeing plant. State officials say it will be very similar to the BMW plant in Greer. A 2008 University of South Carolina study of BMW’s impact found that, while the factory employed 5,400 people, there were 23,050 people employed by suppliers and other companies that support BMW.

Berkeley County state Sen. Larry Grooms says of the Boeing potential, “There’s a spin-off effect of possibly even 5-to-1 ratio when you count in the suppliers. Suppliers from around the world will now be beating the doors down to locate in South Carolina and they will locate all across our state and in every county.“

Secretary Taylor says for anyone who’s unemployed, “This is an excellent time to take advantage of the programs offered by your local workforce board and get in a training program, because these are high-paying, good, stable jobs.“ 

More job info in our Boeing Best of Web blog