Features

Cisco Systems seeks new campus location

The Associated Press
Saturday December 02, 2000

SANTA ROSA — Computer networking giant Cisco Systems Inc., which already employs more than 500 people in Petaluma, is looking for another Sonoma County location for a new campus that eventually could employ up to 4,000 people. 

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat said Friday the company’s expansion plans could make it the biggest company in the county’s Telecom Valley and one of the county’s largest employers, comparable in size to Optical Coating Laboratory Inc., Medtronic-AVE and perhaps even Agilent Technologies, the county’s largest employer. 

The size of the campus will depend on finding the right property, obtaining approval from local governments and recruiting workers. Cisco has been seeking sites in the Petaluma area where up to 1 million feet of office space could be constructed in three to five years. 

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. 

“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.”