Oakland Coliseum City Project Thread: New Home of Raiders & A's?!?

Oakland releases vision for Coliseum City

By Matthew Art
Oakland Tribune
POSTED: 08/23/2014 11:39:58 AM PDT

OAKLAND -- The city released its most detailed planning and environmental studies Friday for its ambitious and oft-criticized plan to keep its sports teams and redevelop a huge swath of East Oakland into a sports, entertainment and technology center.

The Coliseum City Specific Plan envisions up to three new sports venues, 5,750 homes and nearly 8 million square feet of new retail and office space sprawled over hundreds of acres on both sides of Interstate 880.

The plan along with a draft environmental impact analysis will lay the groundwork and ease permitting requirements for future development between the Coliseum complex and Oakland International Airport, but there's no guarantee that any of it will ever come to fruition.

The project is dependent on a massive infusion of private capital that hasn't yet materialized.

The city is negotiating exclusively with a development team, headlined by Santa Monica-based real estate titan Colony Capital. But so far, the team has failed to consistently submit reports on time or identify investors and developers willing to build a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders along with adjacent shops and restaurants where O.co Coliseum now stands. There still is no agreement on whether the stadium would have an expensive roof as envisioned by the Oakland-based design firm JRDV Architects.

The challenges are even greater on the other side of I-880 where the city owns almost none of the land envisioned for technology campuses, offices and homes.


"I think it's a pipe dream," Councilman Larry Reid said of drawings showing gleaming new buildings and a new arena west of the freeway. "I would love for it to happen. But on the west side it would be challenging to do anything."

One of the key goals of Coliseum City is to modernize the Coliseum complex so that instead of sporting venues surrounded by parking lots, there would be lots of restaurants and businesses for fans to patronize thereby generating money for the city and developers.

The city's sporting landscape has shifted over the two years since the city dedicated more than $1 million in state redevelopment funds to pay for the planning and environmental studies.

Raiders owner Mark Davis, who declared his support for the plan, has recently bemoaned the lack of progress and resumed courting other cities as future homes for his team. The Raiders did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The Oakland A's, on the other hand, are reconsidering the Coliseum site for a new ballpark after years of focusing only on a move to San Jose. On Friday, the team announced that it had retained 360 Architecture, the same firm that worked with the club on Cisco Field, to evaluate ballpark design options at the Coliseum complex.

The A's declined to comment Friday on the Coliseum City plans; however, co-owner Lew Wolff has said the team would want to control the project and won't work with the city's hand-picked development group.

Mayor Jean Quan, who has championed Coliseum City, said Friday she still is confident that the Raiders and the private development group will strike a deal on a new football stadium before the end of next month.

If no deal materializes, the city can begin searching for a new development team before the end of October.

The plan includes an expanded BART station with lots of shops restaurants and homes nearby. It also provides alternatives based on how many sports teams remain at the facility. One scenario anticipates Oakland losing all its teams.

"We're trying to re-envision the area," Quan said. "Rather than look at this area as 130 acres with a stadium that is only busy during games, we're looking at it as one of the largest transit-oriented developments in the country."

The draft environmental impact report is available for public review at the city's "Current Environmental Review documents" Web page. To view the plan, visit www.oaklandnet.com/coliseumcity.
Click to expand...
 
Oakland: Coliseum City land scooped up for county office

By Matt O'Brien
mattobrien@bayareanewsgroup.com
POSTED: 09/07/2014 12:00:00 AM PDT

OAKLAND -- As Oakland city leaders map out their vision for a massive Coliseum City sports and entertainment complex in East Oakland, Alameda County has scooped up 11 acres of prime real estate near the heart of the site.

But not to build ballparks.

"It's a beautiful site, a beautiful piece of property," said Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley. "What we plan on doing is relocating some of our county offices there."

The $32.5 million purchase of the former Zhone Technologies campus just west of Interstate 880 is expected to close at the end of the month. The acquisition gets the county three contemporary office buildings that it plans to use as a workplace for hundreds of public health employees and other county staff. The move also blocks any designs city leaders had for using the property for its Coliseum City mega-development of new ballparks, hotels and high-tech offices.

To that, Miley says tough luck.

"The property's been sitting there," said Miley, who is also chairman of the city-county joint powers authority, which governs the current site of the city's three professional sports teams. "If they were interested in it, they should have bought it. If (the city's Coliseum City development and investment team) was serious, they should have made an offer on it."

He added, however, that the county offices could also complement the city's plan to attract more jobs and investment in an 800-acre swath of public and private land stretching west from the Coliseum-Oakland Airport BART station and across the 880 freeway to San Leandro Bay.



Telecommunications networking provider Zhone constructed the three-building campus along Oakport Street south of 66th Avenue as its headquarters in 2000 but now occupies only the smallest building and might move out entirely now that the county is taking over. The northernmost building was never occupied.

A company representative did not return calls for comment Friday. City leaders working on the Coliseum City site plan and environmental review -- a document of more than 3,000 pages that gets its first public hearing Monday -- also could not be reached for comment.

"For now, I don't think it interferes with anything in their plan," said Aki Nakao, who directs the Alameda County General Services Agency, responsible for buying and managing county government property. "There might be a need for them to acquire our properties or somehow accommodate our presence there. I don't think it's in conflict at this point."

The county hopes to move some of its workers out of leased properties in downtown Oakland, along the waterfront and in San Leandro. Among the employees who might move are those who work in behavioral and public health.

"We have a number of large leases we'd like to consolidate into owned buildings," Nakao said. The Oakland Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board will conduct a public hearing on the cultural and historic resource aspects of the Coliseum Area Specific Plan at 6 p.m. Monday in Hearing Room 1, City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.

More hearings addressing different elements of the plan happen on Wednesday, Sept. 18 and Oct 1. For details and to read the site plan, go to www.oaklandnet.com/coliseumcity.
Click to expand...
 
You think all those fans will transition to the new stadium?

Happens all the time when teams upgrade their digs - those "true" fans often get financially phased out.  

Candlestick --> Levi's

Candlestick --> AT&T
 
wooster said:
You think all those fans will transition to the new stadium?

Happens all the time when teams upgrade their digs - those "true" fans often get financially phased out.  

Candlestick --> Levi's
Candlestick --> AT&T
Click to expand...

No, SF fans just blow and owners try to tap into the big market with those teams.
 
And you think your owner will act differently? 
laugh.gif
 
wooster said:
And you think your owner will act differently? :lol:
Click to expand...

He's been focusing on the core base since the issue has been brought up, so uhm, yeah. Sorry if you're not used to an owner giving a ****.
 
Last edited:
That's the elephant in the room. No one has any answers concerning financing because, well, that's what actually matters. Oakland City Hall is going to continue stringing along the situation until a miracle falls into their lap.
 
Why is a roof even being proposed? It's a stupid expense for a project with no financing.

There is no reason to spend money on a roof with Oakland's great weather.
 
Last edited:
they should use some of the money to connect the bart directly to the airport so we wouldn't have to wait for that shuttle bus.
 
robotea said:
 
they should use some of the money to connect the bart directly to the airport so we wouldn't have to wait for that shuttle bus.
Click to expand...
Bro that project has been completed already.  Opens in November. 

And a roof hasn't and wont be proposed those are just artist renderings. 
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

nimisiskrash
50 years of beats and sneaker
Replies
0
Views
774
nimisiskrash
nimisiskrash
therealest1
Jordan IV RM
Replies
16
Views
3K
Public Enemy
Public Enemy
B
Black woman calls cops only to be killed by cops.
Replies
11
Views
2K
1995
1995
aNYone
OFFICIAL NFL OFFSZN THREAD 2023-24: Vol: Draft SZN
1538 1539 1540
Replies
38K
Views
2M
IATT
IATT

The ultimate sneaker enthusiast community.

NikeTalk was created as a way of giving back to both the sneaker enthusiast community and to the greater global community of which we are all a part.

NikeTalk is NOT affiliated with Nike Inc. in any way, shape, or form. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Nike, Inc.

© 1999-2024 NikeTalk.com

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom