City-Manager

Excerpt:

After city staff spent more than a year on its "going forward" process for developing Alameda Point, progress slowed at the Tuesday, May 8, city council meeting when Mayor Marie Gilmore and Councilmember Lena Tam said they'd like to wait two to three years before investing any resources in preparing the necessary documents for attracting investors to the Point.

Excerpt:

A deeply divided Alameda City Council may end up walking away from the city’s latest proposal to prepare Alameda Point for development, with some council members saying they think the city should focus on existing tenants and forget about moving forward with new development plans for a few years. The development strategy has been in the works since the council fired former master developer SunCal in July 2010.

Excerpt:

Alameda city leaders are proposing an overall development strategy for Alameda Point that breaks up the former Naval Air Station into neighborhoods for possible future homes, stores and businesses.

The goal is to jump-start entitlements -- the legal process for securing the right to develop a property for a particular use -- in the wake of a deal between the city and the U.S. Navy for a no-cost conveyance of the base.

Excerpt:

The City Council is set tonight to consider a proposed development strategy for Alameda Point, most of which is expected to be in the city’s hands by the end of this year.

City officials want to divide the Point property into three separate areas – two commercial, one residential – that they would prepare for reuse and development, a departure from earlier efforts to get developers to do that work instead. They’re saying the new strategy would offer the city more certainty and control over development at the Point, and could expedite development efforts there.

Excerpt:

ALAMEDA—When the Naval Air Station closed here in 1997, the city predicted the sprawling waterfront base would become a budding community, filled with housing, businesses and open space. Fourteen years and a handful of developers later, some of the most prime real estate in the Bay Area remains mostly undeveloped and underused.

[Audio File]

Excerpt:

Excerpt:

Excerpt:

Gallant and Highsmith were controversial figures in Alameda, especially over development plans at Alameda Point, the former Navy base.

Some credited the pair with standing up to Orange County developer SunCal, which wanted to build a 12,000-resident community on the point. The city had a contract with SunCal, but voters were resoundingly opposed to the plans, defeating a pro-development measure in February by 85 percent.

In July, the council voted to not renew SunCal's contract. SunCal was the second developer to part ways with the city over Alameda Point.