Brookfield alone in quest for massive Concord redevelopment

Brookfield Properties appears to be the only contender to redevelop the former Concord Naval Weapons Station with more than 12,000 homes.

The New York-based firm will formally ask city officials to allow it to redevelop the 2,750-acre site along the Sacramento River in north Concord, the San Francisco Business Times reported. A presentation is set for Aug. 26.

Concord is on its third search for a master developer for the former base, which stored U.S. Navy arms from World War II until it closed in 2008.

Brookfield Properties, a unit of Toronto-based Brookfield, had bid on the $6 billion contract in 2021 but wasn’t chosen. 

It’s expected to once again make its case to the City Council touting its qualifications for the biggest redevelopment in the Bay Area — with more than 12,000 homes and more than 6 million square feet of schools, offices, shops and restaurants.

The city expects to identify a master developer this month that could lead to an exclusive negotiating agreement. There are no other candidates, so Brookfield is the likely choice.

While Brookfield has paused its $3.5 billion redevelopment of Pier 70 in San Francisco, it has moved forward with a $2 billion redevelopment of the city’s Stonestown Galleria mall.

Early this year, Concord First Partners lost its contract to redevelop the sprawling base after two years of negotiations. 

The fallout sparked the interest of major developers, including Irvine-based City Ventures, Australia-based Lendlease and Miami-based Lennar, once picked to redevelop the first 500 acres, but which backed out over a project labor agreement.

Two developers, Brookfield and Yorba Linda-based Housing America Partners, responded this summer to a city request for qualifications. But Housing America’s submission fell short.

While Brookfield’s response “answered all questions and provided the information requested in the RFQ,” Housing America failed to provide complete information, the city said.

Should the city grant exclusive negotiating rights to Brookfield by September, each would enter talks around a term sheet, or nonbinding agreement for the development. The city is expected to approve the term sheet in November, and would launch an environmental study next year.

But if Brookfield isn’t chosen, city staff say the naval weapons station project could collapse.

The Navy, responsible for cleaning the land and conveying it to the city for redevelopment, “expects this project to move forward expeditiously and may reconsider their conveyance method should the (the city) seek a fourth ‘re-start’ process,” according to a city staff report.

The collapse of negotiations with Concord First Partners — a consortium of Concord-based Discovery Builders owned by the controversial Seeno family, California Commercial and Investment Group and Lewis Group of Companies — marked the second time the city parted ways with a developer.

In 2020, it ended talks with Lennar over a labor agreement. The developer said having to use all-union labor made the project too expensive to pencil out.

— Dana Bartholomew

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