Hitt is co-contractor for Boeing’s $1B expansion in Charleston, S.C.

Falls Church construction company Hitt Contracting announced Wednesday it has scored a joint contract on Arlington County-based Boeing’s $1 billion expansion project in North Charleston, South Carolina. 

Hitt will partner with North Carolina’s BE&K Building Group to expand Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner airplane production facilities in North Charleston, announced by South Carolina’s governor in December 2024. Boeing has two manufacturing campuses there, and the Fortune 500 aerospace and defense giant expects the expansion to help it build 10 planes a month by 2026 and create 500 jobs over the next five years. 

Construction on the expansion is expected to begin late this year, with completion planned in 2027, according to Hitt’s news release.

Boeing’s expansion in South Carolina comes as it attempts to recover financially and reputationally after the January 2024 midair blowout of a panel in a Boeing 737 Jet filled with Alaska Airlines passengers. The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation, Boeing’s airplane sales plummeted, and CEO Dave Calhoun stepped down amid pressure last year.

In August 2024, Robert “Kelly” Ortberg took over as president and CEO of Boeing, which recorded $12 billion in revenue losses last year and dealt with a seven-week strike last fall by 33,000 union machinists on the West Coast. In January, Boeing began laying off about 10% of its workforce, about 17,000 employees nationwide, in response to the financial losses.

Ortberg has since placed focus on the aerospace giant’s work culture and a renewed emphasis on safety standards, and he is based in Seattle, near Boeing’s Puget Sound commercial airplane facilities. He held a company-wide “town hall” meeting in St. Louis that was webcast to Boeing’s other sites last week.

“Hitt is proud to partner with BE&K and Boeing on this transformative expansion in Charleston,” Evan Antonides, Hitt’s co-president, said in its release. “This investment reinforces Boeing’s commitment to growth in South Carolina, and we’re honored to help bring their vision to life. Our Charleston team looks forward to delivering a project that will drive economic impact and job creation in the region.” 

With anticipated 2024 revenues of $8.4 billion, Hitt is a commercial construction company that employs nearly 1,900 people nationwide across 14 offices, including in Charleston. 

BE&K Building Group is a design-build and construction management firm that specializes in aviation and aerospace, according to a news release. BRPH will be the architect of record for the expansion in North Charleston.