Butch Depp of the La Vergne branch of TDS Telecom had no comment until he gathered further information on the reasoning behind the decision.
The City and other officials "have gone as fare as to try and have BellSouth service that area," Pickard said. But problems with negotiations halted that proposal, he noted.
In addition, Pickard said that "there was not way they were going to have a factory with offices ready by Aug. 1, the date Dell wanted to have the expansion project 'up and running.'"
I guarantee that La Vergne was the best pick for Dell, if the phone system would have worked," La Vergne Mayor Mike Webb said. "I don't want to embarrass the phone company. How many companies can expect something like this to come in?"
Pickard said that La Vergne could "still be considered in the La Vergne" for locations such as Crescent Resources and Mid South Logistics, two locations available for manufacturing/distribution housing in the Waldron Road/Interstate 24 area.
According to an April 6 letter to Pickard from Perry Ozburn Jr., of Ozburn-Hessey Development, Ozburn-Hessey had "leased 270,000 square feet initially to Dell Computer Corp, for the installation of six manufacturing lines and creation of 1,400 new jobs."
But the agreement was only verbal, Pickard said.
Randy Wolcott, who handles leasing for Ozburn-Hessey, said he would "leave any announcements up to Dell."
Businesses related to Dell, such as Irish Trucking, located on Mason Road, will remain in La Vergne, Pickard said.
"We expect to get several companies as a spin off to Dell. No matter where they go," Webb said.
Two office buildings which are currently available in Nashville are possible locations for the first phase of the expansion, Pickard said.
"As I understand it, they are now going to build near the Intersate 40, (state highway) 109 intersection," Pickard said. "The airport project may be in the short term, but not the long term."
Last week, Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen announced that Dell was coming to Nashville, stating that he "had secutred a 'handshake' deal with the company to expand operations near the Nashville International Airport."
Throughout the negotiating process, Pickard said that Dell officials told them they "appreciated our professionalsim and throught that La Vergne has the best proposal package presented to them.
"By all indications from Dell, we were the top candidate," Pickard said. "Murfreesboro was never a top candidate. La Vernge and Metro (Nashville) were the top two all along."
Dell not locating in La Vernge gives Pickard "mixed emotions," he said. "Especially since no one was competiting with us. No one was a competitive, as far as the offers were concerned."
The city was willing to "forgive all of the up front items," Pickard said. That included waiting all development tax, impact, building permit, plan review and plumbing and mechanical fees, waiving all property taxes as permitted by state law, participation with all government agencies in waiting all real personal proerty taxes as well as other key points which made La Vergne attractive to Dell, Pickard said.
But Dell would have to pay money equal to or greater than the property and tangible property value, he said.
"They would be able to pay the amount by sales tax of any other way," he said. "It would have more than made up for what we offered. They would be paying at least as much as any other warehouse. It's not fair to the current industry and warehouses to let (Dell) pay less that what they are paying."
The final agreement between the city and Dell, guaranteed property taxes for the city, whether or not Dell had a sales in Tennessee, Webb said.
Pickard said the city was willing to give so much to Dell "because of the road improvements that the state was willing to do."
The state was willing to spend approximately $20 million in road improvements along Industrial, Mason and Sanford Roads, Pickard said.
"We were willing to give Dell what incentive they needed to get those improvements," he said.
According to Pickard, Dell was so serious about locating in La Vergne, that they had designs done and were to the point of "signing letters of intent" for the needed land and buildings. They just couldn't get past the phone thing."
Pickard said that although city leaders wanted Dell to located in their city, "our industrial park is going to fill up, whether they come or not."
Ashley Blake of Dell said officials were making no comment concerning Pickard's statements, saying they would announce "soon."
"Until we are able to make the announcement, everything else is just rumor and speculation," she said. "We can't comment on that. It's not a done deal."
Throughout the negotiating process, Webb said that La Vergne, "was good to Dell. We stayed out of it and let them do the negotiating. We're satisfied with what we did. We saw the papers and watched TV and we believe that if the phone system would have handled it, La Vergne would have landed Dell."
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