Letter to Editor: Opportunity Knocks

There is an old adage that says, “Opportunity knocks but once.”  Recently, that opportunity came to Menlo Park. In 2010, Facebook, the World’s largest social network and one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing companies, approached Menlo Park about making this community its new home.

For the City, the opportunity has been obvious. Facebook identified an existing and underutilized corporate campus to renovate and make its new global headquarters—here in Menlo Park. Putting an existing, unproductive property back to work with such a flagship company is a classic ‘win-win’ scenario that provides the City with an enormous public benefit.

Facebook’s move from Palo Alto to Menlo Park provides construction jobs and massive economic opportunity at a time when the City is facing tough economic challenges. The project will generate over 1,700 construction and $366 million in new construction dollars in the county. Facebook has also already established itself as a good neighbor to the surrounding community by funding charities, , sponsoring , and supporting their new neighbors in Belle Haven.

Facebook will have ongoing beneficial impacts on the local economy, as well. An independent economic analysis commissioned by Facebook concluded that the company’s move will create roughly $839 million in new economic activity in San Mateo County, with $83 million of that amount generated here in Menlo Park. Even in the face of such compelling economic benefits to the City, as part of the development agreement negotiations, the City will seek to obtain additional “public benefits” from Facebook.

While this is not an unusual tactic in the context of a development agreement negotiation, recent rumblings suggest that the City may look to Facebook to cure many of its structural deficit challenges, such as its loss of Redevelopment Agency funding. This would be a serious mistake and I encourage the City to show restraint in its approach to these negotiations. Facebook did not create any of these problems and forcing Facebook to fix them will have a chilling effect on the City’s ability to attract other corporate users and economic development to Menlo Park.

Most importantly, I believe that, if the City unintentionally overreaches in its negotiations, we may lose Facebook, and all that it has to offer, to a competing jurisdiction that would relish the chance to capture Facebook’s HQ flag. I would urge the City to negotiate a deal that aligns in scope with past precedent—notably, Sun Microsystems and Menlo Gateway. To do otherwise could mean the loss of Facebook—a catastrophic result.

We have an opportunity to make Menlo Park home to one of the world’s most popular, intriguing, and successful companies.

I hope that the City Council bears in mind that opportunities (like this) knock but once.  I encourage the City to seize this opportunity.


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