By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

April 20, 2000

LIVERMORE — Corporate Connections, the Chabot-Las Positas college district's proposed multi-million dollar technology training haven and a jewel in the crown of redevelopment in downtown Livermore, was scrapped Tuesday night.

Nearly a decade after talks were sparked, district board trustees voted 5-2 to unplug the project. Trustees Barry Schrader and Dobie Gelles opposed the measure to drop the plan.

For critics and the board officials who ultimately came to agree with them, the project's estimated $13 million price tag and a foreseeable financial future hunkered in the red were tough to compute.

"Whether it's $13 million, $7 million or $5 million, we don't have that kind of money," said trustee Isobel Dvorsky, referring to calls for reducing the scope and cost of the project.

Adding to the fray was a firing line of teachers and students voicing concerns that the center would devour millions of dollars in critically needed funds.

Even college district Chancellor Ronald Kong, who some board trustees looked to earlier this month for a recommendation, frowned on the plan.

"In analyzing contract education income, there's not much to work with," Kong told the board, highlighting a feasibility study showing that the center would operate in debt until at least 2010. "For the short term, we would not be at the profit side of the ledger."

The district's grab at a lucrative piece of the valley's burgeoning business community began in the early 1990s. Corporate Connections, once called a company "think tank," was to serve as an education center for people whose employers contracted with the district for technology training.

The center was to have been built on a 1.2-acre site at South Livermore Avenue and First Street as part of Livermore's downtown redevelopment efforts. The city offered to donate the land to the college district.

The pearl of the project was a 180-seat video conference center offering computers, DVDs, VCRs and other high-end technological gadgetry. But that equipment vaulted the cost of Corporate Connections, making even its supporters wince.

"I agree, $13 million is a ridiculous figure," said Schrader. "We have to come up with something more reasonable."

Schrader suggested killing the high-dollar conference center and instead use similar facilities offered up by local winery executive Phil Wente.

Gelles, the project's other backer, reiterated his previous call to put Corporate Connections on a bond measure.

"The concept is what's kept it alive for me," he said. "The thought we shouldn't do this somewhere is a bad idea."