“Everybody in the Bay Area is increasingly engaged in a nasty dogfight to land employees,” he said. “While we still have to appreciate the Bay Area as basically the center of the tech world, it is logical for them to be looking at other places.”

And those other places are, increasingly, hubs of other industries that companies like Apple would be smart to cozy up to.

Mr. Thornberg talked about the Inland Empire, where local officials have tried to build up a tech economy. His firm told them, politely, that it’s a waste to try to become the next Silicon Valley. “Tech for tech’s sake is a tougher and tougher option,” he said.

“But we stumbled across an interesting fact,” he said. Tech as it pertains to logistics was expanding.

Culver City, Mr. Thornberg said, makes sense for Apple because of its proximity to the entertainment industry.