12 alameda sun real estate focus
TRANSCRIPT
12 July 10, 2014 www.alamedasun.com Alameda Sun
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REAL ESTATE FOCUS
Dennis EvanoskyCity staff has focused on facili-
tating near-term construction at Alameda Point, especially in light of the strong regional economy and favorable market conditions. Many of the existing leases at Alameda Point are the result of favorable responses by city staff to inquiries from interested busi-nesses and developers. “These start to make the community’s vision for A l a m e d a Point a real-ity,” said City Manager John Russo.
When city staff issued requests for qualifications from devel-opers for two i m p o r t a n t pieces of the Alameda Point puz-zle, they received responses that will go before City Council at its meeting next Tuesday, July 15.
Councilmembers will con-sider entering into two separate exclusive negotiating agreements (ENA) with the same company: Zhen Zhen Li’s Alameda United Commercial LLC (AUC). Li will bring architect Salvatore Caruso’s company, the Salvatore Caruso Design Corporation, on as her partner.
If the City Council approves, Li and Caruso would draw up plans to convert the long-shuttered 500,000-square-foot Bachelors Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) to assisted- and independent-senior housing, student housing and office space. If they get the City Council’s nod for the second ENA, Li and Caruso would build a hotel-and-condominium complex on the old taxiways on the north shore of Seaplane Lagoon.
The BEQ once served as home to unmarried Air Force enlisted
personnel, providing them places to sleep and a mess hall where they shared meals.
The Navy shuttered the build-ing when it closed the Naval Air Station in 1997. The centerpiece of the complex is the Quadrangle, which currently serves as a soc-cer field. If all goes as planned, AUC would purchase the 20-acre BEQ site for $388,000 an acre or $7.76 million.
The hotel and condo complex along Seaplane Lagoon would consist of two hotels with rooms for 250 guests and a 200-unit con-dominium complex. The devel-oper has offered to purchase the 5.5-acre property for $7.5 million and pay an additional $56,000-per-unit fee for all mar-ket-rate residential condo units for a total of $18.62 million if all units sold at market rate. The city would also collect hotel tax from the hotel rooms.
According to a report submit-ted to City Council by Jennifer Ott, Alameda Point’s chief operat-ing officer, each of the two ENAs require Li to put up a $250,000 deposit for city staff and consul-tant costs. In addition Li must submit statements of her compa-ny’s qualifications within 30 days of the ENAs’ effective dates.
The statements must include a description of significant rele-vant project experience, including photos and site plans, along with financial information, staffing and references of completed projects.
Caruso’s experience restor-ing historic buildings includes the 1906 Hicks Mansion in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighbor-hood. According to the compa-ny’s website Caruso and his team “designed the new interiors and home additions to complement the period of the home’s historic style.” He also had a hand in restoring the Los Gatos Opera House and the 124,587-square-
foot Shanghai 22 building on Shanghai, China’s Huangpu River waterfront.
Last year Li and Caruso submit-ted plans to build a 7,425-square-foot condominium building with six units at 405 Curtner Ave. in Palo Alto. Those plans are still under review.
Russo and his staff will have 30 days to review Li and Caruso’s statements. If he and his staff find the statements insufficient, the city would terminate the ENAs and return the deposits.
AUC’s responsibilities during the ENA process include estab-lishing a fair, effective and col-laborative partnership with the city and the community, as well as negotiating and obtaining approv-al of agreements as to price and terms of payment for the land and development obligations for both the BEQ and the hotel-con-do complex. The developer must also prepare and obtain approv-als of development plans for both projects.
City staff expects this process to take six months with comple-tion in January 2015. The agree-ments allow Russo to grant up to two three-month extensions.
The Tuesday, July 15, City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Ave.
Richard Bangert contributed to this story.
City Council Takes Up Point DevelopmentPlans could enrich city coffers with millions of dollars
The hotel and condo complex along Seaplane Lagoon would con-sist of two hotels with rooms for 250 guests and a 200-unit condominium complex.
Courtesy photo
Architect Salvatore Caruso
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Mortgage Rates Little Changed Sun Staff Reports
Freddie Mac’s July 3 Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 2 basis points from last week’s 4.14 percent to 4.12 percent. This marks the third week in a row that rates have fallen. In the first week of July 2013, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.29 percent.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was flat, remaining at 3.22 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.10 percent.
Columbia River Paved Way to Local Fortune
Dennis Evanosky Robert R. Thompson moved to
Alameda with his family in 1877. A steamboat captain, Thompson found wealth navigating the Columbia River.
Before plying the Columbia, Thompson had cashed in on the California gold rush. Now he intend-ed to do the same in Oregon by mining a new breed of gold miners on their way north.
Native Americans made Europeans aware of gold on the Fraser River in 1857. Word spread beyond this British Columbia out-post, setting off a gold rush and raising demand for travel on the Columbia River.
Prospectors saw the Columbia as a way to reach the Fraser, but two obstacles stood in their way:
Thompson later called Alameda home
Courtesy photo
Robert R. Thompson, who settled in Alameda in 1878, made a name and a fortune as a steamboat captain in Oregon.
the treacherous waters of the Cascades and Celilo Falls just east of The Dalles (pronounced “dahls”; and always proceeded by “The”).
Passengers and cargo skirted the Cascades by disembarking below the rapids. Ox-drawn carts carried passengers and cargo around the Cascades on a road called a port-gage. When conditions were right, shallow-draft stern-wheelers could carry passengers up the Columbia River from the Cascades portage as far as Celilo Falls. There, pas-sengers had to disembark again and the crew had to portage both the boat and its cargo around this second set of falls.
W. R. Kilburn built this portgage in 1855 and named it the “Oregon Portage” to contrast with the por-tage that the military had built that
same year just across the river in Washington Territory.
By the time gold was discovered on the Fraser River, Thompson and Orlando Humanson had gained control of the Oregon Portage.
In 1858 Thompson and his partner Lawrence Coe tried their first ascent of the Columbia at the Cascades with a steamboat, a stern-wheeler called The Venture.
They avoided the Cascades by building The Venture upriver from from these rapids. But a mishap got in the way of Thompson and Coe’s succeess. We’ll learn what happe-hed and see how the Columbia made Thompson a wealthy man in the next installment.
Contact Dennis Evanosky at [email protected].
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