Comstock's magazine 0919 - September 2019 | Page 82

FOLSOM
Intel installed a solar carport in 2016 at its
Folsom campus that generates more than
half of the site's needed electricity at peak
capacity.
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comstocksmag.com | September 2019
another 25,000-30,000 people in the next
30 years. While the city can’t predict how
many businesses will move to the region, it
anticipates they will keep coming.
“Folsom is positioned to be a commu-
nity that’s desirable well into the future,”
Gagliardi says. “Living in a safe commu-
nity where there’s good education (and)
good recreational opportunities makes for
a community that I think is desirable for
people that are in the tech fields.” He says
those lifestyle opportunities don’t neces-
sarily exist in other tech hubs like Silicon
Valley.
Don Pearson, chief strategy officer of
Inductive Automation, an industrial soft-
ware company based in Folsom, agrees.
“I was in the Bay Area before (I was in
Folsom), and by the time I went to work
in the morning and came home at night,
I didn’t have much time for anything else.
Here, I can coach my kids’ Little League. I
can go waterskiing at night, I can actual-
ly still do stuff vs. just go to work, come
home and go back to work,” Pearson says.
“I can be home here.”
He also sees Folsom on the verge of
becoming a major hub for technology.
“What I think you’re going to see is a vi-
brant tech hub with a pretty high per cap-
ita income as compared to other commu-
nities,” Pearson says.
It’s the city’s biggest selling point,
since it cannot really offer any incentives
to corporations other than affordability,
Gagliardi says. “It’s pretty hard to incen-
tivize in California,” Gagliardi says. “There
(are) very few tools. The state of Califor-
nia has made it difficult to provide those
kinds of incentives anymore. So now it’s
about cost of living.”
Cost of living was one of the biggest
factors in Intel choosing Folsom as a home
for one of its sites, says Linda Qian, a com-
munications manager for the company.
“One of our employees — employee No.
22, Ted Jenkins — was driving around the
Sacramento area and ended up picking
Folsom as a future site because it had the
best blend of neighborhoods and afford-
able living,” Qian says. “It turned out really
well for us.”