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Developers add homes to $6B Naval Weapons Station project in Concord

Housing component grows to 16K units over 40 years

Concord First Partners' Phil Tagami (middle), Louis Parsons (bottom) and Albert Seeno Jr. (top) with an aerial of the Concord Naval Weapons Station (Concord First Partners, Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)
Concord First Partners' Phil Tagami (middle), Louis Parsons (bottom) and Albert Seeno Jr. (top) with an aerial of the Concord Naval Weapons Station (Concord First Partners, Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)

A plan to build 16,000 homes on the former Concord Naval Weapons Station may finally pencil out.

Concord First Partners has struck a deal with the city of Concord to add more than 3,000 homes to a plan it had taken off the table, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Five months ago, the firm led by the Contra Costa County-based Seeno family had said a proposal to build 13,000 units in the East Bay city wasn’t economically feasible.

Now Concord and the developer picked last year to remake 2,300 acres at the decommissioned station have agreed on a plan for 15,595 homes, 3,300 more than initially planned.

A new term sheet for the $6 billion project – the biggest land redevelopment in the Bay Area – addresses the financial gap.

A new strategy to add more housing and revamp the project’s 25 percent affordable housing component are intended to improve financial feasibility, according to a city staff report that analyzes the term sheet.

City staff have recommended approving the non-binding document that lays out terms and conditions for a future sale and development agreement. The City Council is slated to consider the term sheet at a public hearing Jan. 7.

The project to redevelop the former U.S. Navy yard, in the works for 20 years, has faced numerous hurdles, including the previous developer falling out of contract in 2020 and current delays in negotiations.

Concord First Partners is led by Albert Seeno Jr., Discovery Builders President Louis Parsons and Oakland builder Phil Tagami.

The latest plan calls for a five-phase development, to be completed over 40 years, which would build homes and 6 million square feet of commercial space while restoring Mount Diablo Creek.

(Map of the Concord Naval Weapons Station development via The City of Concord)

(Map of the Concord Naval Weapons Station development via The City of Concord)

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The first phase will consist of 2,873 new homes, of which 693 would be affordable, on 423 acres. It would also feature 80 acres of parks and greenways, including the launch of a city park for which the developers have committed $5 million.

The site is part of a 1,400-acre parcel expected to be approved by the Navy for transfer to the city by next year. Once developers reach certain milestones, the remainder of the land will be approved for further transfers, according to the Business Times.

A mixed-use campus district has been pushed back to the second phase because of uncertainty in the current market.

The selection of Concord First Partners as master builder was controversial. Discovery Builders, owned by the Seeno family, has taken fire for its track record for development, which includes a history of environmental and other legal violations.

The previous developers, Lennar and FivePoint, walked away from the project after they were unable to come to terms with the Contra Costa County Building Trades Council. That plan had called for 13,000 new homes, 2,700 acres of parks and 6 million square feet of commercial and academic space on the former base of 12,800 acres.

In October 2021, the Concord City Council picked the Seeno group over two other builders, one of which was Brookfield Properties, among the largest developers in the world. In winning City Council approval, the Concord First group signed a project labor agreement with the building trades, something Lennar had been unwilling to do.

Earlier this year, Concord First Partners asked the city for more time to figure out how to make the $6 billion project pencil out. In a move that raised eyebrows among critics, it requested an early stake in the naval property, which was denied.

The development partnership seeks an 18-percent return on its investment, according to the term sheet, slightly lower than the previous master developer threshold of 20 percent.

Concord First has partnered with Related California to build the affordable housing, and has agreed to use union labor to build 3,020 affordable homes for low-income households earning 80 percent of area median income or below.

Also, it has pledged $50 million to affordable housing projects in Concord and will give another $100 million toward a proposed city park.

— Dana Bartholomew

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