600 People Going to Work in North Charleston

By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published Nov. 16, 2009

The team charged with construction of Boeing’s Dreamliner factory in North Charleston is meeting with executives in Seattle today to make decisions about critical subcontractors and to work with Boeing executives on the final design.

“This is moving very, very quickly as you might expect,” said Luther Cochrane, chairman and CEO of BE&K Building Group. A joint venture between that company and Turner Construction Co. is Boeing’s general contractor for the new Dreamliner assembly plant in North Charleston.

Cochrane took a few minutes to speak with the Business Journal before catching a flight to Seattle to meet up with the team, which has been engaged in meetings with Boeing executives since this morning.

“The critical things to get done right now are to plan how we finalize the design, dovetail that with permitting and come up with a procurement plan,” Cochrane said.

Cochrane said the company is also finalizing a plan to inform local subcontractors of the work that is needed and to educate them on how to bid their services. The joint venture likely will hold a local event for contractors as part of that process and create a Web site and e-mail address specifically aimed at answering subcontractors’ questions.

“We hope a great deal of the work will be subcontracted to people who are prominent here locally,” he said. “Boeing is very big on inclusiveness and diversity, and we are, too.”

Boeing has scheduled an official groundbreaking for Friday. This will largely be ceremonial in nature.

“You won’t see steel going up,” Cochrane said. “But we will start site clearing — the early preparatory work will start as soon as possible.”

Cochrane said the project will directly employ about 600 people at the height of production. Gov. Mark Sanford has said the construction could mean up to 2,000 additional jobs.

Cochrane said that S.C. officials are considering the spin-off impact, which he also anticipates will be significant.

“There’ll be a very good impact on the local trade situation, meaning people will get a lot of work out of this,” he said.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.