Massachusetts Makes Overtures to Packard Bell

A Packard Bell Electronics Inc. official confirmed Sunday that Massachusetts, led by its governor, William Weld, is competing to become the company’s next home.

In January, Chatsworth-based Packard Bell, one of the nation’s largest personal computer makers, let it be known that it was seeking a new location for its corporate headquarters. Company officials said they had outgrown their six facilities.

To make matters worse, the Northridge earthquake badly damaged their facilities just a few days after their disclosure.

Massachusetts joins a list of suitors that already includes the Antelope Valley, Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore.

Liz O’Donnell, a Packard Bell spokeswoman, said the company currently has a two-year lease at temporary facilities in Westlake Village and has no immediate plans to relocate.

The company remains open to proposals from other cities, O’Donnell said, and had not yet set a deadline.

Paul Kranhold, a spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson, said Massachusetts’ proposal to lure a major corporation out of the state was not unusual and that Wilson would fight to any retain major businesses in California.

“It’s nothing new that states have been aggressively courting California’s largest employers,” Kranhold said. To try to keep these businesses in California, he said, the “governor and Legislature have enacted a series of reforms, most notably the workers’ comp reform bill.”

Kranhold said Wilson has met with Packard Bell executives since it announced its intentions to explore other sites.

Massachusetts officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Los Angeles County officials and city officials in Lancaster and Palmdale, the Antelope Valley’s two largest cities, have lobbied the Legislature to obtain a designation as an enterprise zone for the Antelope Valley site being considered by Packard Bell.

The enterprise zone designation would allow local governments to offer firms a wide variety of tax and other incentives.

In addition, the Antelope Valley proposal to Packard Bell includes such financial draws as the donation of a 50-acre parcel and low-interest loans.

The trick, said Bill George, a spokesman for the state’s Trade and Commerce Agency, is to satisfy the specific needs of a company.

“You have to look at every proposal, and they can put any dollar figure on it they want, but you’ve got to look and see if it’s what the company really needs,” George said.