By Robert Beamesderfer
The boxes and moving vans are waiting. The first group of employees soon will be on its way. The new building is ready. Irving, Texas, waits with open arms.
The migration of Fluor Corp.’s headquarters from Aliso Viejo is rounding the final bend.
At 1 Enterprise Drive in Aliso Viejo, effects of the move are subtle for now. The operation is taking place in three phases, said Keith Stephens, a Fluor spokesman in Dallas.
Fluor expects to have about 170 workers in Irving: 60 from Aliso Viejo, 20 from other spots and 60 hired in Dallas. Another 25 spots or so still are open.
About 100 headquarters jobs have been cut with the move. Another 200 or so jobs have been shifted from Orange County to elsewhere in Fluor. Some people have left the company rather than make the move.
Fluor, which now employs 1,475 people in OC, is leaving behind some corporate workers in Aliso Viejo. About 1,175 people in Fluor’s engineering operation are staying in Aliso Viejo and Long Beach.
The first Fluor group in Texas is set to settle in by the end of the month. The move should be completed by June, Stephens said.
At that point, OC officially will lose its second-largest public company by yearly sales. Fluor had sales of $13 billion last year, second only to Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc.
The engineering and construction services company got its start in Santa Ana in 1912.
Fluor is moving to Texas to be closer to customers in the oil and chemical sectors. Chief Executive Alan Boeckmann also is said to have ties to Texas.
Boeckmann himself moved to Dallas in October. He’s been working from his new office, which still is getting final touches.
All of Fluor’s top brass is moving. Still, not everyone’s going.
“We lost some people we’d rather not lose, without a doubt,” Boeckmann told the Dallas Morning News in March. “But we also have been extremely pleased with the hiring we’ve done here.”
Since the shift was announced a year ago, the operation has moved quickly on two fronts: building a new headquarters and showing those who might move what the Dallas suburb is like.
For more on this story, see the April 17 edition of the Business Journal.
Beamesderfer is a freelance writer and former Los Angeles Times editor.
