XPost: alt.sports.football.pro.sd-chargers, alt.business   
   From: bnf@igs.com   
      
   On March 4, as they were preparing their vision for a new   
   Mission Valley football stadium, San Diego City Councilman Scott   
   Sherman, real estate analyst Gary London, developer Perry Dealy   
   and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith visited Qualcomm, the company.   
      
   They met with Ed Capozzoli, the vice president in charge of all   
   of Qualcomm’s facilities and real estate needs and Monique   
   Rodriguez, director of government affairs.   
      
   Sherman and the team wanted to pitch Qualcomm on an idea. Their   
   vision for the Mission Valley stadium site included nearly 3   
   million square feet of office space. You can’t really fill that   
   much piece by piece. They wanted to lure a large corporation to   
   the development plan — someone who could build a whole campus   
   there.   
      
   Qualcomm would be perfect, they thought. After all, it was   
   planning a 1.2 million square foot expansion. Key word: was.   
      
   But when the group sat down with Capozzoli and Rodriguez, they   
   couldn’t even get to their pitch.   
      
   “We got blindsided,” said London. Three other participants in   
   the meeting confirmed what happened next.   
      
   Capozzoli lit into them for the way he felt the company was   
   treated by the city. Particularly frustrating, he said, was the   
   traffic situation around Qualcomm’s Sorrento Valley office.   
   London said Capozzoli told the group the city was dragging its   
   feet and not letting Qualcomm modernize nearby traffic lights.   
      
   Capozzoli was also frustrated, he said, that the city was   
   handing out subsidies to other local companies like Illumina,   
   but ignoring Qualcomm’s very basic problems.   
      
   And then the kicker: Even as it expands elsewhere, Capozzoli   
   said Qualcomm would never build anything in San Diego again.   
   Capozzoli, participants in the meeting confirmed, said that   
   order came from the top of Qualcomm’s leadership. That planned   
   1.2 million square foot expansion has not gone forward.   
      
   I asked Qualcomm representatives if this was the company’s   
   official take. Not really.   
      
   “It was a private meeting at which the attendees felt   
   comfortable in expressing their frustrations in very direct   
   language,” said spokeswoman Emily Kilpatrick in an email. “We   
   know that the mayor has taken our concerns seriously and we   
   expressed the urgency of our needs to those in the meeting.”   
      
   Kilpatrick praised the mayor for creating a task force to help   
   companies like Qualcomm address issues with the city in a one-   
   stop shop. She did not expressly deny the company is shutting   
   down plans to grow in San Diego, however.   
      
   “In order for Qualcomm to continue to grow in San Diego, it is   
   imperative we continue to partner with the City and especially   
   the Mayor’s office on addressing challenges which include   
   traffic, water and expediting permitting processes,” she said in   
   the email.   
      
   If it is true that Qualcomm is done building anything in San   
   Diego, it could be a new low in relations between the city and   
   its largest company. It also highlights a troubling backdrop to   
   the stadium saga: that as the community and politicians rally to   
   subsidize and keep one company, the Chargers, in town, another   
   much larger one — with roughly 13,000 more employees — sits   
   displeased.   
      
   A 2013 study by the San Diego Workforce Partnership and Regional   
   Economic Development Corp. found that Qualcomm ‘s presence   
   supports more than 27,000 jobs in the region, including its own   
   — adding to a $4.53 billion annual economic impact. Qualcomm   
   employees represent nearly 2 percent of all workers in the city.   
      
   Matt Awbrey, the communications director for the mayor, said   
   Capozzoli’s comments came as a surprise to the mayor’s office.   
      
   “We have a great working relationship with Qualcomm,” he said.   
   Awbrey said city staff is regularly meeting with Qualcomm   
   representatives and leaders of other Sorrento Valley businesses.   
      
   The city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, often stresses to me how he’s   
   not political — it’s all about the law. When I asked his   
   spokesman why he was in a meeting like this, I got this response.   
      
   “I guess that’s the benefit of being a citywide elected   
   official. You get invited to a lot of meetings and you get to   
   pick the ones that interest you,” said Gerry Braun, Goldsmith’s   
   spokesperson. He said he was unaware of Qualcomm’s concerns and   
   deferred all other comments about the meeting to Sherman’s   
   office. He said Sherman invited Goldsmith.   
      
   Sherman told me he thought they just got the wrong guy on the   
   wrong day.   
      
   Later, in a written statement, he said this:   
      
   “I appreciate representatives from the company taking the time   
   to meet with us and give their honest feedback about city   
   operations. Since taking office, I have worked hard to help   
   create a more business-friendly environment and have taken their   
   concerns into account as we continue this mission,” he said.   
      
   Qualcomm’s frustrations apparently range from specific (the   
   company’s employees are upset about long traffic delays in   
   Sorrento Valley) to more vague complaints.   
      
   Capozzoli’s reference to the city’s effort to subsidize other   
   businesses to keep them here is intriguing. Amid much fanfare   
   last year, Illumina, a medical device manufacturer, agreed to   
   keep some jobs in San Diego in exchange for $1.5 million in tax   
   rebates.   
      
   Russ Gibbon, business development manager for the city, told us   
   last year there’s a specific Council policy outlining the   
   requirements for subsidies and it comes with a certain risk.   
      
   “It has the potential to create a bunch of ‘me-toos’ out there,   
   so we have to limit it to projects with extraordinary public   
   benefit,” Gibbon said at the time.   
      
   Awbrey said Qualcomm has never communicated that it was done   
   expanding in San Diego. He said the city was moving forward on   
   one of the company’s major issues: a desire for adaptive traffic   
   signals in Sorrento Valley. The special signal system helps   
   traffic flow by adjusting to its intensity throughout the day.   
      
   Qualcomm might have shelved its expansion in San Diego because   
   of other forces. Its business focus is now largely overseas – it   
   has no particular reason to expand operations in San Diego. And   
   it faces some rough headwinds: The company just agreed to pay a   
   $975 million fine to China. Its longtime client, Samsung,   
   startled some observers when it did not include a Qualcomm chip   
   in its new flagship phone.   
      
   Regardless, London said the meeting with Qualcomm made him   
   worried.   
      
   “What frightened me was the possibility that this was the   
   opening salvo in a long-term movement on the part of Qualcomm to   
   diminish its footprint in San Diego, which from an economic and   
   political standpoint is completely unacceptable,” London said.   
      
   Disclosure: Qualcomm’s founder, Irwin Jacobs, is a major   
   supporter of Voice of San Diego.   
      
   http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/economy/qualcomm-vp-told-   
   san-diego-politicians-seeking-stadium-help-to-pound-sand/   
       
        
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)