Aerospace giant Boeing has designated a St. Louis-area facility as the home base for its defense, space and security division, returning the headquarters to Missouri after at least an eight-year absence.
The move adds to Boeing’s deepening, long-term investment in St. Louis regional defense industry real estate. It’s meant to reunite company leadership with major manufacturing, engineering and production teams to improve efficiency.
The defense headquarters was located in greater St. Louis from 1997 to 2017 before shifting to Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. In 2022, Boeing moved its main Chicago headquarters to Arlington, where it remains.
Late last year, Boeing sold its Chicago building for $22 million, becoming a tenant in the 36-story tower. Boeing owns its Arlington headquarters at 929 Long Bridge Drive, CoStar data shows.
A Boeing spokesperson told CoStar News the company's government operations teams will still be based in Arlington along with select corporate functions. Some defense executives will continue to be located near the U.S. capital.
The company owns 25.05 million square feet and leases another 5.14 million square feet for the defense division, according to its annual report for 2025. The defense unit maintains offices in greater Seattle, Washington; greater Los Angeles, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Mesa, Arizona; Wichita, Kansas; Huntsville, Alabama; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Heath, Ohio; Houston, Texas; and greater Portland, Oregon.
Boeing did not identify the address of the new St. Louis headquarters, though it occupies several buildings in the market.
Labor agreement
The defense headquarters announcement arrives four months after Boeing resolved a major labor disruption. In November, about 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 ratified a new three-year contract with Boeing, ending a work stoppage that lasted more than three months, according to multiple St. Louis media reports.
The ratified contract removed a significant operational uncertainty that had hung over Boeing's St. Louis operations and cleared the runway for the company's ambitious expansion plans.
Boeing employs more than 18,000 workers in the St. Louis region, making it one of the area's largest occupiers of industrial and office space.
The headquarters designation at a building near St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Berkeley, Missouri — paired with a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment in advanced combat aircraft production facilities — signals that Boeing is not just maintaining its St. Louis presence. It is expanding it.
For commercial real estate stakeholders, that means sustained and growing demand for specialized manufacturing space, engineering facilities and office infrastructure across the metropolitan area.
Boeing Defense, Space & Security CEO Steve Parker framed the decision in a statement as a leadership philosophy, not just a logistical one.
Executive location strategy
"It's important for leaders to be side-by-side with our teammates, listening to their feedback and acting to remove obstacles as we continue to stabilize and strengthen our business," Parker said in a statement.
He added that "the headquarters move, coupled with our senior leaders being based at and spending their time at major engineering, production and manufacturing centers across the U.S., reflects our continued focus on disciplined performance across our business."
The strategy places executives directly within Boeing's major engineering, production and manufacturing centers, a model that prioritizes physical presence over centralized corporate campuses.
Boeing's St. Louis operations span a wide range of functions, including defense aircraft and munitions production and modernization, advanced fabrication, services and sustainment support, and engineering and supply chain operations.
The Berkeley property also houses Phantom Works, Boeing's advanced prototyping division, and its Virtual Warfare Centers. Employees on site also support Boeing Global Services, Boeing Commercial Airplanes and various enterprise functions — making the location a true mixed-use defense and aerospace campus.
Boeing is progressing on a multibillion-dollar upgrade to build what the company calls the world's most advanced combat aircraft production facilities, including substantial investment at the St. Louis site.