Published December 2002

Flight Structures moving
to Marine Drive tech center

By Eric Fetters
Herald Business Writer

B/E Aerospace Inc.’s Flight Structures Group is moving its offices and manufacturing operation from Arlington into a vacant building on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

The company’s new 10-year lease of 110,000 square feet at the Marine Drive Technology Center represents the largest office or industrial space lease this year in Snohomish County.

“It just fit them right,” said Wilma Warshak, an industrial broker in the Seattle office of Colliers International.

She represented both B/E Aerospace and the owner of the building located at 6330 Marine View Drive. Mercer Island-based Hill-Raaum-Pietromonaco has owned that 132,000-square-foot complex since 1998.

Terms of the lease were not disclosed. The remaining 21,000-square-foot building at the Marine Drive center remains up for lease.

The move will leave 100,000 square feet of space up for lease near the Arlington Airport.

Flight Structures, which specializes in designing and making aircraft interiors for commercial and business jets, has been located in Arlington since its start 27 years ago, Kuniansky said. In recent years, the growing company has occupied three buildings there.

The main offices have been at 4407 172nd St. NE on the south end of the Arlington Airport.

In 1989, Flight Structures expanded into a new 51,000-square-foot building on 59th Avenue NE along the airport’s east side. The company also has been leasing 22,000 square feet in the Pacific Industrial Park, 15100 40th Ave NE in north Marysville.

Flight Structures wanted to consolidate from the three buildings to make its operation more cost-effective and efficient. Warshak added that this was a good time for Flight Structures to relocate, as office leasing rates are low. It’s a message she’s telling other companies.

“If you have a need to consolidate or you’re in a building that doesn’t quite fit you, this is the time to check out the market,” she said.

Meanwhile, Nathan Chapman, a commercial real estate agent for Towne or Country Real Estate, is marketing the properties that Flight Structures is departing.

He’s optimistic about filling the Arlington buildings, mentioning he already has had interest in the space on 172nd Street since they went on the market in late October. Despite slow times generally in the commercial leasing market, large spaces are not plentiful in Arlington.

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