Soccer Club and Steam Factory Could Buy Former Raiders HQ

UPDATED, Jan. 26, 2024, 4:34 p.m.:

An Oakland soccer club and a firm led by an engineer at Meta are in talks with Alameda County and the City of Oakland about buying the former Oakland Raiders headquarters and training facility in Alameda.

The Oakland Roots & Soul Sports Club and Las Vegas-based Steam Factory Oakland met with county and city officials this month about purchasing the 16-acre property at 1150-1220 Harbor Bay Parkway, on Bay Farm Island, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Supervisors discussed a potential price and payment terms with both groups, according to the agenda, though it isn’t clear if either group offered to buy the 119,000-square-foot facility.

The county tried to auction off the Raider’s former headquarters last summer with a minimum bid of $35.8 million, but postponed the auction without reason or notice. At least 65 potential bidders expressed interest.

Before the auction, Oakland had planned to devote the proceeds from the 100,600-square-foot headquarters and 18,400-square-foot training facility to shore up its $360 million budget deficit.

The East Bay property, used by the Raiders until they left for Las Vegas in early 2020, includes athletic fields and a large parking lot.

The former headquarters has a locker room, media production and conference rooms, two indoor whirlpools with a steam room and a gated parking lot. The training facility has an indoor fitness area, outdoor pool and a grassy field.

It is currently being used by Oakland Roots Sports Club, a professional men’s soccer team.

The county, according to state surplus land law, first offered the property to affordable housing developers in early 2021. The land, zoned for commercial manufacturing or light industrial, sits across the street from the Harbor Bay Business Park, a life science hub.

In September, the soccer club entered an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city and county for a 10-year lease at the 8.8-acre Malibu Lot near the Oakland Coliseum, where it aims to build a temporary 10,000-seat stadium by 2025, according to the Business Times.

Steam Factory Oakland focuses on STEM and athletic training for youth, according to state business records. The firm led by Anthony Hylick, based in Las Vegas, has an office in Oakland’s Caballo Hills. Hylick works as a senior engineer in artificial intelligence infrastructure at Menlo-Park based Meta, parent company of Facebook, according to a biography.

— Dana Bartholomew

This story has been corrected to state that the Oakland Roots and Soul Soccer Club still leases the property.