A residential community of more than 12,000 homes at the Concord Naval Weapons Station is slated for construction after clearing a key logistical hurdle.
On Tuesday, the Concord City Council voted unanimously to approve a financial agreement with the U.S. Navy to allow developer Brookfield Properties to build a $6 billion master-planned community at the Concord Naval Weapons Station, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In exchange, Brookfield Properties would pay the Navy $628 million over nearly 30 years to build at the 2,225-acre site.
Brookfield’s plan calls for more than 800 acres of parks, 6 million square feet of commercial space and a total of 12,272 residences; of those homes, 25 percent, or 3,068, would be set aside for affordable housing.
The vote to advance the development marks the most notable movement on the project in years. In the past, labor disputes and disagreements with the Navy over terms of developing the property have kneecapped prior efforts to erect housing at the site. The Navy’s Concord base has been vacant since the late 1990s and was closed in 2008.
“In all this time we have never had an agreement with the Navy,” Guy Bjerke, the city’s economic development director, said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting before the approval vote. “That’s the key highlight here. It will allow Brookfield and staff to move forward with the specific plan and get things going.”
The push to redevelop the station dates back several years.
In 2020, developers Lennar and FivePoint abandoned the project after not producing an agreement with the Contra Costa County Building Trades Council. At the time, the construction unions requested a labor agreement for the entire project, which the developers said would hike overall costs by more than $500 million.
The following year, the Concord City Council selected Concord First Partners as its preferred developer for the project. But in 2023, the City Council rejected a term sheet with the firm, ending the partnership with the company.
Brookfield was the city’s second choice, and the commercial real estate firm reached an agreement with the city in 2024 to redevelop the Naval Weapons Station into a mixed-use community. The developer has kicked off labor agreements with the building trades and carpenters’ union to have them build nearly all of the project, earning a thumbs-up from the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council.
With approval now in hand, Brookfield can proceed with the permitting and entitlement process, meaning it will be years before any shovels hit dirt. The development is expected to unfold in five phases over approximately three decades. The first phase, consisting of 1,696 market-rate units and 562 affordable units, would likely break ground in 2030. — Chris Malone Méndez
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