Boeing (BA) Planning Another Expansion To Main Campus In South Carolina

Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) will begin building a new paint facility on its main campus in North Charleston, S.C., in the second half of 2014, the airplane manufacturer announced on Friday.

The 230,000 square-foot facility will rest on a newly acquired 468-acre plot of land, acquired “to protect for potential future growth,” the company said in a statement. Jack Jones, Boeing’s vice president and general manager, said the company has no specific plans for the land so far, other than the new paint facility.

The expansion will allow the company to paint fully assembled 787 Dreamliners in South Carolina by mid-2016. Currently, the planes must be flown to Fort Worth, Texas for paint and then flown back to South Carolina for customer delivery.

Boeing has been expanding its main campus since late 2012, adding nearly 600,000 square feet. This year, the company announced another 220,000 square-foot facility to house propulsion assembly.