Excerpt:

Now that the City owns significant portions of Alameda Point and has completed major entitlements for the property [i.e., environmental impact report, rezoning, and Master Infrastructure Plan (MIP)], City staff is focused on facilitating near-term construction at Alameda Point. This construction has the potential of generating thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in tax revenue and over a thousand housing units. Additionally, the regional economy is currently very strong; the City must take advantage of these favorable market conditions to take the community's vision for Alameda Point from mere plan to concrete reality.

To begin near-term development at Alameda Point, City staff proposes issuing two Requests for Qualifications (RFQ) for two lynchpin development sites at Alameda Point, referred to in the attached map as Site A and Site B (see Exhibit 1). Site A consists of 68 acres within the Waterfront Town Center (WTC) Sub-district and Site B consists of a total of 82 acres, of which 14 acres are within the WTC Sub-district, 38 acres within the Enterprise 1 (E-1) Sub-district, 23 acres within the Enterprise 2 (E-2) Sub-district, and seven acres within Enterprise 3 (E-3) Sub-district.

Staff proposes that the RFQ for Site A solicit development interest for a residential/commercial mixed-use project consistent with the Town Center Waterfront Plan and MIP. The RFQ for Site B should solicit interest in developing mixed commercial projects, with a focus on a major sales tax generator, such as a premium retail outlet (not a "big box" store). The RFQ responses for Site B can also include corporate "build-to-suit" user(s) that generates significant jobs, business-to-business sales tax or other catalytic economic benefits (consistent with the Town Center Waterfront Plan, the rezoning and MIP). Staff selected these two sites for a number of reasons, including:

· They are planned for new development instead of reuse.
· They include the "gateways" to the WTC and the Enterprise Sub-districts at Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway and Pacific Avenue, respectively, which will result in improved entrances and infrastructure serving the entire Alameda Point site.
· They provide proximity to both Main Street, where certain key utilities are located, as well as the waterfront, where market potential is greatest.
· They each include significant portions of land outside of the groundwater plume in the Phase 4 conveyance footprint (Exhibit 2), which facilitates early phases of near-term development.

Staff has prepared a detailed outline of the proposed RFQ for Developers (Exhibit 3) and a form of Exclusive Negotiation Agreement (ENA), which will be attached to the RFQs (Exhibit 4). The successful developers and/or users will be required to enter into an ENA substantially in the form of the attached ENA. Additionally, the evaluation criteria for development proposals approved by the City Council (Exhibit 5) will be attached to the RFQ and used by staff to evaluate submittals to the RFQ. The RFQ will focus on attracting development opportunities consistent with the City's existing planning entitlements, such as the General Plan, Zoning Ordinance, MIP, Town Center Waterfront Plan and EIR.