Oakland picks group for Coliseum development plan

The Oakland City Council decided Tuesday to start negotiating exclusively with a developer group that includes an East Oakland native and a former city manager to purchase or lease the city’s share of the Coliseum site — moving the plan to transform the East Oakland area one step closer to fruition.

But the decision was made over the protests of the city’s staff, which warned that the two groups pursuing the site lacked the experience to develop such a massive project. City staffers asked the council to delay the vote until January so they could have more time to analyze financial plans and partners of each of the two development groups vying to build out the 155-acre site.

But the council voted unanimously to choose the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, saying the vote only directs the city to negotiate financial terms and a development agreement exclusively with AASEG. A final development agreement would still have to come before the council for a vote.

The vote enters the city into exclusive negotiations with AASEG for 18 months and requires the developer to pay the city a $200,000-per-year fee and $2.5 million in onetime funds to cover staff time.

“I’m so happy right now,” said Ray Bobbitt, an East Oakland native who is leading AASEG. “I’m just really grateful to have the opportunity to really revitalize East Oakland. It’s where I grew up. It’s where my family lives. It’s where I go to church. To be in a position to be able to make a contribution of this magnitude is just overwhelming.”

On Tuesday, most of the council members applauded AASEG’s community outreach and said a strong community benefits package and affordable housing would be needed in the final agreement. Council Member Treva Reid, who represents the area that includes the Coliseum, urged for the group to continue working with community members and residents as it reaches a final deal.

AASEG includes Bobbitt, former City Manager Robert Bobb and developer Alan Dones. The competing group, which was not selected, includes former A’s pitcher Dave Stewart and Lonnie Murray, the first and only Black woman to be certified as a player agent by MLB.

Both of the groups proposed ambitious plans for the Coliseum site, the largest piece of public land in Oakland. Both proposals aim to boost economic opportunity and could fundamentally change the area, which has long suffered from a lack of investment.

The other half of the Coliseum site is owned by the Oakland A’s, so any plans would require a partnership with the baseball team. The Coliseum site could create desperately needed tax revenue, but the exorbitant cost of building infrastructure there means it will be challenging to develop.

Any potential sale of the site is key in determining the future of the Coliseum, home to the A’s until their lease expires in 2024. In 2019, the A’s bought half of the Coliseum site from Alameda County and said at the time they wanted to build housing, offices, retail and parks there. The A’s are currently negotiating with the city to build a new ballpark and surrounding development at Howard Terminal.

In July, the City Council voted to pursue dual track negotiations with AASEG and Stewart and Murray’s groups, but directed city staff to prioritize negotiations with AASEG because of the group’s efforts to engage residents by holding town halls, speaking to schools and working with community organizations to develop its proposal.

AASEG, which offered the city $92.5 million, wants to redevelop the Coliseum site, bring an WNBA team to Oakland, build housing and create a cultural hub celebrating Black culture. Stewart and Murray have offered $115 million to purchase the city’s share and want to build a thriving center focused on youth and amateur sports, Oakland’s culture and job generation.

But city staff said in a report they were still analyzing the two proposals and questioned whether either of the groups is able to fully realize its vision.

“While both teams have recently expanded their development team, staff ’s initial review suggests that the teams have not shown strong evidence of extensive experience with building comparable large-scale, multi-phased real estate projects similar in size, scale and cost as what is being contemplated for the Coliseum Complex,” according to the staff report.

City staff said both groups submitted more details on their financial partners, but staff have been unable to finish analyzing those details and urged the council to delay decisions until January.

In addition, Oakland has yet to receive written confirmation from the state of the city’s compliance with the Surplus Lands Act. State law requires publicly owned surplus lands to be considered for affordable housing before the lands are sold or leased.

The state is currently investigating Alameda County for the sale of its share of the Coliseum to the A’s, alleging that the county did not follow the Surplus Lands Act.

Despite the city’s reservations about jumping into an exclusive negotiating agreement with either of the groups, dozens of people spoke during public comment Tuesday in support of the AASEG proposal.

“I was born in East Oakland in 1974,” said John Jones, who said he was working with AASEG on its proposal. “In my part of town, we have not seen the development, we have seen a loss of institutions that serve the youth, serve the elders and overall contributes to a higher quality of life. This proposal meets that and so much more.”