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The rise in costs has created financial problems for Alameda Point Partners and is causing the current delay. But the developer believes it can solve its financial problems by rearranging the timing of its construction plan. And the developer’s new draft plan promises to be good news for people desperate for new housing.

Under its original proposal, Alameda Point Partners planned to build 656 of the project’s 800 housing units in the first phase of the project. But under the revised plan, which Alameda Point Partners intends to present to the city council soon, the developer would build all 800 housing units, of which 200 would be affordable, in the first phase. “Even though it’s a bump in the road,” Ernst said of the current delay, “I think it’s going to get the city a bigger project sooner.”

Frontloading the homebuilding will generate enough revenues for the developer to be able to finance the extensive infrastructure upgrades required on the former base. The housing includes townhomes, condos, and apartments.

Jennifer Ott, the city’s chief operating officer for Alameda Point, said the developer is not only required to put in new streets and fix existing ones but also must install sewage and electrical lines and build stormwater systems and levies to prepare for sea-level rise from climate change. She estimated that the developer’s total infrastructure costs will be about $40 million. “What they’re proposing makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways,” she said, referring to Alameda Point Partners’ plan to build all of the housing and infrastructure first.