A Stargell is born?
Big week in Alameda. Voting today (anyone want to make predictions on Measure H? I pessimistically thinking misses passing by 250 votes. But only if people who support it don’t go out and vote today. No matter what happens, KASE has run a really good campaign, it won’t be a reflection on their work. Thanks to all the KASE volunteers for their hard work).
Tonight, the CIC/City Council—you know, the city’s redevelopment agency that nobody votes for, but somehow looks exactly like the city council we do vote for, genetic sciences appear to have come a long way—the Council will vote on amending the Alameda Landing agreement with Palmtree Acquisition Corp (PAC), aka Catellus. The impetus for the change is that the city has figured out a way to get the Peralta College District to swap land the city needs to build the Willie Stargell Avenue of their dreams.
The College has not been interested in selling the land outright, but they are interested in acquiring some land that’s now available in Marina Village and the City has agreed to help make the swap happen (as in get PAC/Catellus to buy the land and then they swap it for the college land needed for Stargell).
As luck (or fate, or whatever) would have it, this is happening years earlier than anyone had planned, and PAC/Catellus is not really wanting to spend the money. Their project is, if not in a tailspin, is at least losing traction and fishtailing all over (just to mix metaphors for a second), and PAC/Catellus is not interested in expending money on a project that has the possibility of going South on them. The project is moving forward in spirit and Catellus is working to keep Clif Bar a part of the project.
Catellus is responsible for making the Stargell Ave project work, but doesn’t want ot take the risk at such an uncertain time. Therefore the agreement that is coming forth tonight changes the schedule for purchasing the land for the Stargell project, which shouldn’t, but good, cost the city any additional money (there are interest payments that the city could have to pay if things go South). In return, PAC/Catellus is asking for a three year extension on the project in order to give them time to complete the project (a likely indication of how this project is moving forward).
This amendment will have the effect of pushing the project completion date out to 2025. (At which time everyone reading this blog will be bemoaning the fact that they should be collectiong their Social Security benefits and wondering why we didn’t just listen to President Bush way back in 2007—Ok, none of that’s really going to happen, most of us won’t have qualified yet, we’ll have another 10 years before we are unable to collect our social security).
The Alameda Landing project doesn’t move forward very far without the Stargell component, so now is the time if the city wants to move forward. After having fix the big water leak out in the project area, and paying to remove the MV Faithful at city expense, the question will be is the City Council/CIC in the mood to extend the project or do they feel that they are giving and giving and giving in their attempts to keep this project moving. In the end, the council probably has to grant the extension to the contract, it’s not as if the current schedule is holding anyone to anything and the Stargell/Marina Village land swap gets both the college and the city something that they are interested in.
Tomorrow, big things rolling at Alameda Point.
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