The City of San Leandro has launched a private-public partnership designed to attract a new generation of manufacturing businesses and jobs by modernizing the communications infrastructure. Extending the city’s rich manufacturing history, the Lit San Leandro project aims to revolutionize San Leandro’s infrastructure and position the city to be a major player in the high-tech and clean-tech economies.
City officials approved an agreement with San Leandro Dark Fiber, which will install a fiber optic loop of approximately ten miles through several areas of the city. The state-of-the-art digital backbone loop of fiber optics will allow service providers to deliver a high-speed, broadband communications network.
“The computer revolution has given way to the cloud and data revolution,” stated Mayor Stephen Cassidy. “Companies that are driving this transformation in communications, manufacturing, and information technology need affordable properties zoned for commercial and industrial use served by a state-of-the-art dark fiber network.”
Lit San Leandro is funded by software developer OSIsoft in cooperation with city, state and federal governments. The project was conceived by Dr. J. Patrick Kennedy, a San Leandro resident and president and founder of OSIsoft, one of the city’s largest employers.
“The next generation of industrial businesses will require additional infrastructure to leverage computer technology, including fiber optic communication, ready access to software programmers and designers, and computing capability to create an urban manufacturing environment.”
The Lit San Leandro fiber system will be connected to the outside world via fiber lines leased by BART’s Telecommunications Division. Businesses in San Leandro will be able to tap into a direct fiber connection to most long distance carriers and telecom suppliers, allowing them to connect to the external world at extremely high speeds.
City officials say most types of businesses would benefit from high-speed access. Certain businesses, however, require such access. Some examples are: radiology labs, data centers, software developers, web-based service providers, hospitals, printers, architects and engineers and others that need computer-aided design (CAD).
San Leandro currently has over 23 million square feet of industrial space, much of which is located close to the future fiber loop.