3 Sites in State on List for Bureau of Engraving Plant

SAN DIEGO —  Three California cities--Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco--are among the leading candidates for a federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing satellite production facility that could eventually print about 25% of the nation’s currency and employ about 200 workers.

Officials learned in June that their cities were included in a bureau list of locations believed to meet minimum criteria, a California Department of Commerce spokesman said Friday. The cities have already sent information packets touting their areas to the bureau.

Orange County and Sacramento are also reported to be entering the chase for the plant, as are a handful of other California cities.

The bureau’s interest in the three California cities was expressed in a June 4 letter to Gov. George Deukmejian, in which the bureau outlined its need for parcels of land that are “at least 50 acres to 100 acres or more, with or without buildings.”

Although the bureau has received letters of interest from “more than 100” Western metropolitan areas, bureau Director Robert J. Leuver said Friday that most of those cities will not be considered because they lack regularly scheduled nonstop airline transportation to Federal Reserve banks and branch banks in the West.

Leuver said it probably will take at least three years to build the facility, once site selection is completed, probably in about six months. He declined to attach a dollar figure to the project.

Airline transportation is important “because there’s a big expense and a big danger in transporting currency,” Leuver said. Last year the bureau printed and shipped 6.2 billion currency notes (including bills and stamps) and 45 million government documents from its crowded downtown Washington plant, Leuver said.

Priority will be given to cities with regularly scheduled, nonstop airline service to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City and Minneapolis--the locations of Federal Reserve banks and branch banks.