ed ....csco news from our local paper here in N Ca.
best
Tim
Cisco considers huge county expansion
1 million-square-foot campus with up to 4,000 workers would make
company biggest Telecom Valley employer
December 1, 2000
By TED APPEL
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Cisco Systems, which arrived in Sonoma County a year ago with the acquisition
of two fast-growing telecom startups, is searching for a site in Telecom Valley
to build a major campus that eventually could accommodate 2,000 to 4,000
employees.
The San Jose networking equipment giant, which employs more than 500
people in Petaluma, has not yet decided how many people would work at the
new campus or where it will be located, a Cisco spokesman said.
However, real estate and high-tech sources familiar with Cisco's search said
the company is planning an expansion that over several years could make it the
biggest company in Telecom Valley and one of the largest private employers in
Sonoma County, comparable in size to Optical Coating Laboratory Inc.,
Medtronic-AVE and perhaps even Agilent Technologies, the county's largest
employer.
The size of the Cisco campus will depend on the company's ability to find land,
win approval from local officials, recruit workers and execute its business plan.
At a minimum, the Cisco division based in Petaluma intends to double its size,
said Derrick Meyer, a spokesman for Cisco.
Cisco currently leases eight buildings in Petaluma with 270,000 square feet of
space.
For its campus, Cisco has been looking for sites in the Petaluma area with the
potential to build 1 million square feet of office and lab space over three to five
years, according to real estate and high-tech sources who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Cisco's search for room to expand comes at a time when many Sonoma County
residents are increasingly questioning the spread of high-tech companies and
the impact of development on traffic congestion, housing prices, open space
and water supplies.
"Cisco would need to approach a project of that scale very cautiously and work
very extensively to get public buy-in. Anything of that magnitude in a city of this
size would have a significant impact," Petaluma City Councilman Matt Maguire
said.
"This may be beneficial, but it has got to be done right. As with so many things,
the devil is in the details."
A Cisco campus in Petaluma could provide significant benefits to the community
but also create new problems, said Clark Thompson, the city's mayor.
Cisco would bring high-paying jobs to the area and is a "clean industry" that
creates little pollution, Thompson said. But local officials would need to take a
hard look at the impact of a new corporate campus on traffic and housing, he
said.
"We would have to make a determination: Is the upside greater than the
downside?" Thompson said.
"The upside is quality jobs. The downside, of course, is the impact on the
community. What we would be looking for is how to mitigate those impacts in
the best way possible. I'm sure Cisco would be a good partner with the city in
mitigating those impacts."
Not limited to Petaluma
Meyer said Cisco is not limiting its search to Petaluma and will consider other
sites in Sonoma County and across the North Bay.
"Cisco is expanding and looking at all opportunities," Meyer said. "We're looking
all over the North Bay for real estate opportunities."
Several real estate experts said there is no single location currently approved
for development in Sonoma County that can meet Cisco's needs, which may
force the high-tech company to scale back its plans or spread out into several
locations.
"They are not going to have one big campus in Sonoma County, like they can in
Silicon Valley, because there is nothing that can hold them," said one
commercial real estate broker who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It is not a sure bet that Cisco will remain in Sonoma County, said Matt White,
president of Basin Street Properties, the biggest developer in Telecom Valley
and Cisco's current landlord.
"I hope they are able to find the space they need. Having Cisco leave the
community would be very disappointing," White said. "I think Cisco is a
wonderful employer and a wonderful addition to the community -- from the way
they treat their employees to the technology and credibility they bring to this
area."
While Cisco is reluctant to discuss the details of its expansion plans until it finds
a campus site and cements a development agreement, the company has
spoken openly of its desire to expand in Sonoma County. One of Cisco's top
local managers told Sonoma County business leaders in October that the
company needed to double the size of its Petaluma offices immediately.
"We're bursting at the seams," Terry Brown, general manager of Cisco's
integrated access division, said in an Oct. 10 speech at the Telecom Valley
2001 conference in Rohnert Park. "We are going to have continued massive
growth in the North Bay."
Cisco moved into Sonoma County in April 1999 when it acquired a
100-employee telecom startup, Fibex Systems, for $320 million in stock. Four
months later, Cisco paid $7.3 billion in stock for Cerent Corp., a Petaluma
company with 290 employees, in the biggest buyout in Sonoma County history.
The acquisitions thrust Cisco into the heart of Telecom Valley, where two dozen
telecommunications equipment companies have sprouted along Highway 101
between Petaluma and Santa Rosa. More than 3,000 people now work in
Telecom Valley, which has emerged as a major industry site in Sonoma County
over the past five years in conjunction with the exploding popularity of the
Internet. Telecom Valley today is widely known as one of the nation's leading
centers for telecommunications equipment manufacturing.
Fast-growing business
Cisco's aggressive expansion strategy has made it one of the fastest-growing
companies in America. Sales have almost tripled since 1997, to $18.9 billion,
while employment has nearly quadrupled to 39,000 workers and is growing at
the rate of 4,000 a quarter. Almost 40 percent of Cisco's workers are employed
in the Bay Area, although the company has opened major offices and is
planning expansions near Boston, Dallas and the Research Triangle Park area
of North Carolina.
The company, best known for its routers and switches, shipped its first product
in 1986 and today is the world's leading supplier of equipment that links
computers into networks and powers the Internet.
While Cisco has been welcomed with open arms in some communities, the
company has found itself on the defensive in other areas.
Environmentalists and other activists in San Jose are trying to put an initiative
on the ballot to kill Cisco's proposed $1.3 billion campus in Coyote Valley, one
of the city's largest and last remaining undeveloped parcels. The sprawling
campus would house 20,000 workers, and be five to 10 times bigger than the
facility envisioned in the North Bay.
If Cisco proceeds with its expansion plans in Sonoma County, it would become
the latest corporation to establish a major campus in the area. Others include:
Agilent Technologies, the county's largest employer, with 5,300 workers, owns
a 195-acre campus in Fountaingrove and a 178-acre campus in Rohnert Park.
The company uses 18 buildings with almost 1.7 million square feet of office and
manufacturing space at its two campuses and a small site in northwest Santa
Rosa. Next year, Agilent will move into four leased buildings at the Airport
Corporate Center with 308,000 square feet of space.
Medtronic-AVE, which employs more than 3,000 people in Sonoma County,
owns a 70-acre campus in Fountaingrove just down the road from Agilent. It
uses 11 buildings with 350,000 square feet. While most operations are
concentrated in two buildings at Fountaingrove, the company's need to expand
quickly has pushed it into nine leased buildings scattered across Santa Rosa,
Windsor and the Airport Business Park.
Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., which employs 2,200 people, has erected 13
buildings with 500,000 square feet of space on its 75-acre campus in southwest
Santa Rosa. The company is constructing two new buildings that will add
200,000 square feet of space.
You can reach Staff Writer Ted Appel at 521-5288 or e-mail at
tappel@pressdemocrat.com.
-What's Next?-
Email this story to a friend
Get a printer-friendly
version of this story
-Stocks & Bonds-
Market Summary
Market Movers
Stock quote lookup
Stocks of local interest
N. Coast Stock Index:
Stories, Stock data
-Events Calendar-
Nov/Dec
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
26
27
28
29
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Add an Event
Main calendar page
-Advertisements- |
