POSTED: 5:31 p.m. PST Sept. 16, 2002

Chris Halsne
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter

RENTON, Wash. -- KIRO Team 7 Investigators have uncovered the blueprints of a top-secret Boeing plan to possibly replace its Renton factories with high-dollar houses.

On the heels of a bitter labor negotiation, this is the news Boeing workers feared most.

It's a proposal that could literally change the economy of the Northwest forever.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators discovered that Boeing recently hired one of the world's leading architectural design firms to draw up plans for the possible elimination of their Renton facilities.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators obtained a copy of what is known by a select few at Boeing as the "Heartland Project."

A series of massive buildings makes up Boeing's plant in Renton where 5,000 employees make jets.

Is this the Boeing of the future: A landscape void of factories, replaced with condos, million-dollar homes and strip malls?

KIRO Team 7 Investigators have learned Boeing ordered the plans drawn up earlier this year at a considerable cost. Yellow-coded houses on the drawings sit where the 737 plant sits now.

We asked Urban Design Architect and University of Washington professor Ron Kasprisin to study what is labeled as "Boeing Renton Center, Alternative A."

"They're obviously exploring possibilities -- that's what this is," Kasprisin says. "Somebody's taking different ideas and seeing how they can be fit onto the site and make it, obviously, a pedestrian-friendly waterfront-oriented development."

That "somebody" is architectural firm Sasaki Associates in San Francisco.

Due to confidentiality agreements with Boeing, that company -- and others involved with the "factory-to-houses" development plan -- cannot publicly comment.

The Aerospace Machinists Union, however, is not under those confines because it had never seen the plan until we showed them.

"No, definitely. It should not be one of the options! I would hope they'd keep that plant open. If they ever consider this option, we'll fight with everything we have," says Connie Kelliher of the Boeing Machinists Union.

Boeing tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators the "Heartland" project is just one of several proposals for future land use here. They say they are committed to staying "for the foreseeable future," but want to keep all options open.

"These are the kinds of things that we always have to do. It's always a lot of work trying and planning for the future. Whether it's planning for the development of a new airplane program or you better utilize the assets you have available to you," says Carolyn Corvi, Vice President of the Renton site.

The mayor of Renton tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators he is aware of these plans, but has assurances from Boeing that it won't move as long as the 737 line remains profitable.