Alameda Point is the name given to the lands of the former Naval Air Station Alameda in the City of Alameda, California. Alameda Point consists of 1,560 acres (6.3 km2) of land area at the western end of the island of Alameda.[1] Most of the land was reclaimed from the San Francisco Bay.
NAS Alameda was identified for closure under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Program in 1993, and ceased operation in April 1997.[1] An agreement between the Navy and the City of Alameda for transferring the land to the City for future development was reached in 2006. One of the larger issues between the Navy and the City has been paying the costs of the environmental cleanup required. Prior to the transfer, some of the facilities of the former base have been leased to private tenants, and the City of Alameda. The Alameda Point beach is one of the cleanest in the state.[2]
The City of Alameda has been planning the redevelopment of Alameda Point since 2000. Complicating the redevelopment are number of constraints associated with the approximate 1,500 acres (6.1 km2). There are land use constraints consisting of Tidelands Trust, soil and groundwater contamination[3], and wildlife refuge buffer requirements. Physical constraints include geotechnical issues and 100 year flood plans. Institutional and contractual constraints revolve around Alameda Measure A, the Alameda Naval Air Station Historic District and existing residents and leases.
In August 2001, Alameda selected Alameda Point Community Partners as the master developer for the property. Alameda Point Community Partners (APCP) was a partnership of financier Morgan Stanley, Shea Homes of Livermore, Centex Homes of Dallas and the Industrial Realty Group. The development was estimated to cost $2 billion and take 15 years to complete. Alameda Point Community Partners was selected over Catellus and Harbor Bay/Lennar, and signed a two-year exclusive negotiating contract as the property’s master developer.
By 2005, only Shea Homes and Centex Homes were working on redevelopment plans, and a Preliminary Development Concept called for building 1,700 homes on the site. In July 2006, the City of Alameda and the Navy agreed to a $108 million purchase deal. In September 2006, APCP decided that it would not move forward with the development plan identified in the Preliminary Development Concept and withdrew from the project.
In May 2007, the City selected SunCal Companies as the master developer from a field of five applicant firms that sought to redevelop 770 acres. In July 2007, the City and SunCal entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement as SunCal began to gather community input and develop preliminary plans.
In August 2010, the Alameda City Council voted unanimously to terminate the exclusive negotiating agreement with SunCal and halt its proposal for the former Naval Air Station. Various reasons were cited in the staff report leading up to the vote, including a developer- and city-initiated ballot measure related to the project that was defeated in February 2010 by a margin of 85%. SunCal had incurred over $17 million in expenses over the three years it worked on developing plans for the property.