Trending
Goodman signs spaceflight startup to 1.3M-sf former Boeing site
Australian industrial developer acquired the facility in 2019 for more than $200M
For this massive industrial site, attracting a suitable occupant really was rocket science.
Two years after acquiring the 1.3-million-square-foot former Boeing C-17 plant in Long Beach, Goodman has found its tenant: another aerospace firm.
Commercial spaceflight startup Relativity Space signed a 16.5-year lease at the facility, the company announced on Wednesday. It is expected to move its first employees to the site in January 2022.
Goodman, an Australian developer whose industrial portfolio spans five continents, bought the 93-acre former Boeing site at 2400 East Wardlow Rd. in 2019 for more than $200 million.
By taking on Relativity Space as a tenant, Goodman did not have to demolish and reconstruct the facility, the firm’s North American CEO, Anthony Rozic, said in a statement.
The space startup, backed by Blackrock and Fidelity as well as venture capital firms Tiger Global, 3L and ICONIQ Capital, will use the facility to build 3D-printed rockets and other launch vehicles.
The property will have the capacity to house 2,000 employees, a metallurgical lab, 3D printers and a mission control center.
Relativity’s new plant will be just the latest aerospace operation to be lured to Long Beach, following Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab, Morf3D and SpaceX. Mayor Robert Garcia has taken to calling the area “Space Beach.” Relativity Space’s corporate headquarters are already located in Long Beach, just over two miles from the new facility.
But Long Beach is not the only California locality on Goodman’s radar for big industrial plays. Most recently, the firm began construction on a 1.5-million-square-foot logistics facility in Fullerton, targeting e-commerce tenants.