Rocket deal payload: jobs

Lockheed-Boeing partnership to add 700 metro-area positions

Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Lockheed Martin and Boeing's $2 billion rocket-launch venture is expected to bring up to 700 high-paying jobs to the south metro area, executives said Friday.

When combined with new jobs from Lockheed's recent $8.2 billion NASA contract to build a next-generation spacecraft, the new United Launch Alliance joint venture could vault Colorado's private-sector aerospace work force into the No. 2 spot, behind California and ahead of Texas.

"It definitely could push us into that No. 2 position," said economist Patty Silverstein, president of Development Research Partners. Her Littleton firm compiled new data on aerospace employment.

The headquarters for United Launch Alliance ultimately will be near Lockheed's existing Waterton Canyon campus in Jefferson County. Roughly 1,500 employees eventually will work at different facilities here.

The 50-50 venture officially threw open its doors for business Friday at the Waterton campus, 19 months after Lockheed and Boeing stunned the aerospace industry by saying they planned to merge their rival rocket businesses amid a global slump in launch orders.

The new company will deploy spy, military, weather and other satellites for the U.S. government using the Lockheed Atlas and Boeing Delta rocket families.

U.S. trustbusters cleared the deal in October. And ULA officials didn't rule out the possibility that the venture could become a publicly traded entity, but not anytime soon.

ULA is expected to cut its current nationwide work force of nearly 4,000 over the next couple of years, with Uncle Sam projected to save $100 million to $150 million a year in launch costs.

But the Denver area is forecast to gain jobs - although not quite as many as initially forecast.

"There will be additional jobs coming into the Colorado facility," Michael Gass, ULA's new CEO, told reporters in a conference call.

He said the potential for new jobs here is in the "400 to 700 range."

The south metro area will house ULA's high-paying administrative and engineering jobs. Decatur, Ala., the site of Boeing's rocket-making operations, will be home to ULA's manufacturing business.

Gass and Daniel Collins, ULA's chief operating officer, said Boeing and Lockheed are committed to the new business for at least five years.

ULA's national work force stands at 3,800, stretching from Florida's Cape Canaveral to California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Executives expect that number to shrink over the next two years via layoffs, attrition and other means. But the number of job cuts hasn't been determined.

"We don't have a specific number right now," Gass said.

About 1,000 Lockheed jobs here are earmarked for ULA operations. However, about 100 local rocket-production jobs are expected to be sent to Boeing's Alabama facilities.

Looking ahead, Gass said about 1,000 ULA jobs will be at Lockheed's Waterton campus and another 500 or more will be off the Waterton site.

ULA has been looking at leasing facilities in the south metro area to house its new work force. It has narrowed the search to one or two sites.

"The goal would be as close to Waterton for our facility locations as possible," said Gass. He said the two properties that ULA has under negotiation are situated along the southern bend of highway C-470.

Initially, officials had said up to 1,000 new jobs could be relocated here. That was the number of Boeing employees in Huntington Beach, Calif., whose jobs were designated for transfer to the Denver area.

Boeing has about 900 employees in Huntington Beach involved in ULA operations.

Boeing spokeswoman Paula Shawa said it's not clear how many of the Huntington Beach employees will relocate to the metro area. The final tally will determine what, if any, job vacancies ULA will have to fill here.

"We won't know our numbers at least for a couple of weeks," Shawa said.

ULA's annual revenue is estimated at $2 billion.

Gass told reporters that while the deal forming ULA doesn't preclude the business from ultimately becoming a publicly traded company, "such a move is not contemplated in the near term."

Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., estimated the economic impact of the new ULA jobs will total up to $200 million a year.

The news follows on the heels of Lockheed's landmark contract to build the new Orion spacecraft to take humans back to the moon for the first time since the Apollo program in 1972.

That contract is expected to prove a boon for the Denver area, generating about 600 mainly engineering jobs.

According to new data compiled by Silverstein's Development Research Partners, Colorado's 2006 private-sector aerospace work force stands at 24,700. That's only 100 jobs behind Texas. No. 1 California has 68,750 aerospace workers.

It's not clear whether the one-two combination of ULA and Lockheed's Orion contract will push Colorado ahead of Texas. Orion is expected to generate 1,000 to 1,200 jobs in Houston.

"I love a good horse race," quipped Clark of the Metro Denver EDC.

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2467