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Brentwood to zone 400 acres for business center and homes

East Bay bedroom community wants to create tech and life sciences hub

From left: Joel R. Bryant, mayor, City of Brentwood; Ricardo Noguera, economic development manager, City of Brentwood; and a rendering of the Innovation Center at Brentwood (Getty Images, The City of Brentwood)
From left: Joel R. Bryant, mayor, City of Brentwood; Ricardo Noguera, economic development manager, City of Brentwood; and a rendering of the Innovation Center at Brentwood (Getty Images, The City of Brentwood)

Zone it and they will come. That’s the idea behind a plan by Brentwood to bring thousands of homes and high-paying jobs to East Contra Costa County.

The East Bay city is expected to rezone more than 400 acres of largely undeveloped, privately owned land for up to 3.5 million square feet of commercial development and up to 3,000 homes, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Brentwood, a bedroom town of nearly 65,000 residents between Walnut Creek and Stockton known for its U-pick cherry orchards, wants jobs. Lots of them.

So it drew up a Brentwood Innovation Center Master Plan to develop 400 acres of homes for up to 4,600 residents and a business hub for high-paying tech, life science and advanced industrial firms.

Final approvals are expected early this fall.

“Normally our city becomes a ghost town during the day, because the workers head west or south,” Economic Development Manager Ricardo Noguera told the Business Times. “It’s about putting Brentwood on the map beyond a place to go pick cherries.”

Brentwood, 50 miles east of San Francisco, saw its population jump by almost a third in the past decade, becoming home to many educated residents willing to trade long commutes for affordably priced homes. Many work in the tech or life sciences industries, the city says.

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A new Brentwood Innovation Center could bring them closer to home.

A previous plan to develop it four years ago failed to draw developers because it lacked community buy-in, including from the eight or so private property owners whose land makes up the plan area, officials said. Development of the site west of Brentwood was also challenged by the complexity and cost of infrastructure improvements.

Brentwood has since worked to straighten out those kinks: It has spent $25 million to improve infrastructure and is willing to divert property taxes toward more improvements. Also, it has revised the area master plan, officials said, while getting buy-in from property owners and the community.

The city has heard from several prospective developers, said Noguera, who declined to identify interested parties. The city hopes a single developer will work with private property owners to buy up the entire plan area.

Ron Enos, a Brentwood-based real estate broker who owns 37 acres in the proposed zone, said he and his fellow property owners are supportive of the lure for biotech, tech and other firms.

“You wonder: Can we get some of these companies to come out here? We’ve been trying a long time,” Enos told the Business Times. “It makes a lot of sense — a lot of employees live out here. Why make them commute when all they have to do is launch a satellite office?”

— Dana Bartholomew

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