June 13, 2014

Four firms vying to be master developer for Concord Naval Weapons Station

By Lisa P. White
Contra Costa Times

CONCORD — Four firms experienced with developing large mixed-use projects and converting former military bases are vying to guide the transformation of the Concord Naval Weapons Station into a thriving community with housing, parks, retail and office space.

Catellus Development Corporation, FivePoint Communities/Lennar, J.F. Shea Company and SunCal were selected from among eight companies responding to the city’s search for a “master developer” to implement the Concord Reuse Project Area Plan.

Adopted in 2012, the plan calls for building housing, office buildings and commercial space on about 2,300 acres near the North Concord BART station. Although the Navy is expected to begin transferring property to the city in late 2015 or early 2016, development won’t start for another 12 to 18 months after that, said Michael Wright, executive director of the Local Reuse Authority.

The master developer is responsible for specific planning and preparing the property for development, including installing roadways and utilities.

Oakland-based Catellus developed Mission Bay in San Francisco and Alameda Landing, a residential, retail and office development on the site of the former naval supply center. FivePoint Communities, with headquarters in Irvine, is redeveloping two former Marine bases in Southern California. Lennar, an equity partner with FivePoint, is working on the mixed-use projects at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Treasure Island and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

J.F. Shea Co. Inc., which has a regional office in Livermore, has developed residential projects and shopping centers and also has worked on the reuse of Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato. Irvine-based SunCal, which has a San Jose regional office, is developing the Dublin Crossing retail and housing project near the BART station there, and recently reacquired the former Oak Knoll Naval Hospital site in Oakland.

The weapons station property is attractive because it’s one of the last remaining undeveloped large sites near a BART station, said SunCal executive Joe Guerra.

“It’s so big that there will be able to be some lower-density housing,” he said. “It won’t all be super-dense, and we’re running out of that kind of product in the Bay Area where you can build where someone can have a backyard.”

An eight-member panel independently reviewed the eight firms’ qualifications packages and scored them according to four broad criteria — the compatibility of the firm’s project vision with the community’s goals and vision; evidence of financial capability; composition and experience of the development team; and the lead developer’s experience with projects of similar type and scale.

“The experience and the vision and the knowledge of working with military base closures made the top four really stand out,” Wright said.

The city declined to provide copies of the information the firms submitted, fearing that could compromise negotiations, City Attorney Mark Coon said. Council members also didn’t see the packages before they voted to approve the list of recommended firms, according to Councilman Ron Leone, who abstained from voting.

“I simply haven’t had a chance to review all of the documentation to my satisfaction. Accordingly, I just didn’t feel comfortable voting for it yet,” Leone said.

The city will issue a request for proposals in mid-July and the four firms will have until late October to respond. The developers are scheduled to present their proposals to the City Council in December, and in January staff would recommend Concord negotiate with two of the companies.