The head of the world’s largest industrial landlord was mugged at gunpoint in San Francisco.
Hamid Moghadam, CEO of San Francisco-based Prologis, was assaulted on June 26 by several men outside of his Pacific Heights home, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
Now, he’s urging city leaders to make public safety their top priority, before San Francisco ends up like Detroit or Cleveland.
“I recognize we live in an urban environment, but the level of crime, including violent behavior, has become absolutely unacceptable,” Moghadam wrote in a letter to San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the city’s Board of Supervisors and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We pay some of the highest taxes, local and state, in the nation yet we have no sense of security. Protecting public safety should be the government’s top priority — that is the foundation to a successful city,” he continued. “I am deeply concerned that our city may be so far down the path toward decline that we may never recover — or at least not for a long, long time.”
The robbery took place as he pulled up to his home in the tony neighborhood whose residents include Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
The jarring episode lasted roughly 30 seconds, and his wife is still having nightmares.
“This car comes out. The guy jumps out with a hoodie and a gun,” Moghadam told the publication, recalling how he fell back and re-injured his back and knee. “His friend comes out with another gun.”
“They were using a bunch of choice words. Mostly starting with ‘m’ and ‘f.’ They were attacking me,” he said. “It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to get scared.”
The thieves made off with his Patek Philippe watch.
Moghadam said he waited about 10 minutes for 911 to answer his call. The city’s cops – who he praised — arrived in 90 seconds.
The robbery, he said, inspired him to double down on his efforts to help the Bay Area address its ills. The CEO said he remains committed to the region, where he started the company four decades ago.
Prologis, with $4.7 billion in revenue last year, operates 87 offices around the world. In June, it completed a $26 billion acquisition of rival Duke Realty. The company’s controls about 1 billion square feet of logistics and industrial space across 19 countries, according to its website.
Moghadam called Breed to say he hears from friends all over the globe that the city has lost its luster. It wouldn’t take much for Prologis, or other San Francisco-based companies, to leave town if the problem isn’t fixed.
“I told the mayor very, very directly, ‘Look, I’m sure in the early ’60s, Cleveland and Detroit were wonderful communities with the auto and steel industries going strong, and they were the center of the universe. Obviously, something happened.’” Moghadam said.
“I would say, right this second, San Francisco is probably the most dysfunctional city in America,” he added. “And we have offices in places like Mexico City and Sao Paulo that are dangerous places.”
– Dana Bartholomew
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