Let the sun shine in
Wow! That’s all I can say about last night’s ARRA vote to select SunCal as the sole-Master Developer for the base.
Quite honestly, this is exactly what I had thought was going to happen back in early April and I was completely caught off-guard by the attempted forced marriage of Catellus-Lennar. While born of good intentions, those being the combining of a variety of strengths among the the two development behemoths. Catellus would bring comercial development to the table while Lennar would check in with homebuilding and placemaking skills. They’d be the Reese’s peanut butter cup of the development world. (”Hey! your retails in my housing!” “Your housing’s in my retail” Maybe there’s hope for a true discussion on true mixed-use planning at the point).
After the council, sitting as the ARRA, voted not to approve the merger proposal, there was a lot of discussion about wishing we could find a way for the merger to work, and a lot of discussion about isn’t it possible that a partnership could be formed. Reasonableness ruled the day when everyone realized that if the two parties that the council was trying to join at the hip couldn’t come to terms in 30 days, then there wasn’t a lot of will on their part to make it happen. That’s a recipe for disaster as far as I can see it.
It was pretty clear that the decision was Catellus, SunCal or nobody. and I have to admit to riding the fence over the last couple of days. In talking with people, good arguments seemed to be made for all three actions. I almost hoped the council would choose none-of-the-above with the idea that they’d use the extra time to see what concessions they could get out of SunCal or Catellus.
In the end, I think either company is probably capable of handling the project, my main concern about Catellus was voiced by Marie Gilmore right before she voted for SunCal. That putting all of our eggs in one developers basket on the west end did not seem to be a prudent move. On the SunCal side, we’ll hope that the people they have working for them can show that they have the experience to deal with the Navy and that their financing really is as private and as solid as the others. The motion to select SunCal was passed by Tam, Gilmore and Dehaan.
Having Peter Calthorpe involved in our project should only be a good thing, and Alamedans should really be happy about it. That said, before anyone gets too excited, there’s a lot of work to be done before work can even get underway.
Lastly, I’m holding my breath until all those who accused the city council of having made a back-room deal with Catellus apologize for their paranoid rantings on the subject. If you see me walking on Park Street, I’ll be the guy with the bright blue face.
Lauren Do
May 9th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Better a blue face than one with egg on it.