Not so fast, Moses Lake and Everett.


Spokane real estate developers Dick Edwards and Pete Thompson are making a belated pitch to Chicago-based Boeing Co. to choose a site on the West Plains here to build its next-generation 7E7 Dreamliner jets.


The two men recently sent a letter to Phil Condit, Boeings chairman and CEO, urging the company to consider locating a final-assembly plant for the fuel-efficient airplanes on undeveloped property near Spokane International Airport which we feel is an ideal site for such a facility.


The proposed site is within an area where the developers have been spearheading an effort to create a tax-increment financing district to help accelerate development activity. The privately owned land is located south of the airport, includes large-capacity sewer and water service provided by the city of Spokane, and has ready access to fiber communication lines. A portion of the site is where the West Terrace Business Park had been proposed years ago.


Their efforts to interest Boeing in the land may be in vain, though, because the big aircraft maker has set a deadline of this Friday by which economic-development organizations in states that wish to be considered for the plant must submit proposals. To this point, Everettwhere Boeing makes its 747, 757, and 777 modelsand Moses Lake are said to be the only sites in the state competing for the plant, which would employ 800 to 1,200 people.


Edwards says he doesnt expect anything to come of the letter he and Thompson sent to Boeing.


I think were kind of late in the game, he says. He adds, though, that the two men felt compelled to just throw a hat in the ring. They are commercial and industrial real estate specialists with Hawkins Edwards Inc., of Spokane.


Boeing claims the 7E7 will be the first aircraft to incorporate long-range flight capabilities in a mid-sized plane. The company is conducting a nationwide search for a location to build the plant and says it will select a site by the end of this year, with production of the airliner expected to begin in 2005. There is fierce bidding for the plant, with at least 10 states reported wooing Boeing with big tax breaks and zoning concessions. Concerns that Boeing might choose to have the plant constructed in some other state prompted the Washington Legislature to approve a $3 billion, 20-year tax-cut package last week.


Boeing is familiar with Spokane, having operated a plant here earlier, and land for a manufacturing plant right next to the airport is plentiful, both of which could be factors in Spokanes favor, says Edwards.


Part of the problem, though, that Boeings fast-evolving search for a plant site has illustrated, he contends, is how ill-prepared the Spokane area is to make a meaningful, play to land such a facility.


The sad thing is, something dropped out of the sky, and were not prepared, he says. When youre in the running, youve got to have your track shoes on. Were sitting here trying to tie our shoe laces, and theyre already jogging down the road.