Power play over property rights could sink massive housing development
The largest housing project in the East Bay's recent history could hit another snag as negotiations between the city and its master developer appear to be on a collision path.
Concord First Partners, a development team linked to multi-generational building companies owned by the Seeno family, wants to acquire property rights at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station site before it commits to any details of the project.
That way, if the city's vision for listing a quarter of the 13,000 planned homes at affordable prices doesn't meet Concord First Partners' profit goals, the development team can drop the project and be reimbursed for planning-related costs, according to a staff report for Tuesday's City Council meeting.
The council can choose to either start transferring the Navy-owned property to Concord First Partners right away and lose leverage over the project's future, or deny the request and risk seeing a second a master developer walk away in three years.
City officials say they were blindsided by the maneuver after the development team agreed last year to collaborate in planning the project first and acquiring the property later.
A sale now “just makes it much more complicated should our relationship unravel,” said Guy Bjerke, the city's economic development director.
And a lawsuit could be one of those complications. City officials warn in the staff report that denying Concord First Partners ownership rights could lead to “the property being tied up in litigation for a significant period of time.”
It would be the latest chapter in Seeno's long history of suing public agencies and fighting environmental groups to push through its many housing developments, most recently a 1,650-home project in the Pittsburg hills that a judge stopped in its tracks earlier this year.
In a letter to sent to Bjerke late last month by team executives Albert Seeno III, Richard Lewis and Phil Tagami, Concord First Partners starts out by stating that even if it acquires the property rights immediately, it wouldn't start the project without the city's full approval of specific details.
But the letter then goes on to note that the costs of hiring only local union workers and guaranteeing a high percentage of affordable homes make the project impractical “for any responsible development entity.”
Concord First Partners declined to be interviewed for this story but said in an email that if the city is willing to reimburse the developers' costs down the line, the team is “ready to invest millions and millions of dollars and to devote multiple years studying and preparing” the project's details.
With 13,000 homes and millions of square feet in commercial and business space, the development would be comparable in size to an entire new community in Concord.
City officials for years have sought to convert the long-decommissioned naval weapons site into housing, but on its own terms. In 2020, the council parted ways with multinational developer Lennar Corp. over the company's refusal to exclusively hire local union workers for the job.
To avoid a similar fate, the council asked Concord First Partners to sign a project labor agreement before selecting it as master developer last August.
But making a quarter of the homes affordable is a “lofty goal” for a development with such a large scope, said Gloria Bruce of East Bay Housing Organizations.
“As always, we urge (the council) to think very carefully about what's before them, because it would be a real shame to lose leverage at this point,” Bruce said.
If Concord First Partners walks away from the project like Lennar did, there could be political ramifications as well.
Three City Council members are up for re-election this year and two of them — Carlyn Obringer and Edi Birsan — are running for a county supervisor seat in the June 7 primary.
Birsan, who said he has “full confidence” the two sides will reach an agreement, declined to state whether he would vote to grant Concord First Partners' request, but said he empathizes with the developers.
“If they're going to go out and lay tens of million dollars out, what happens if down the line we have five new council people who say, `No, no, we're not going to do it with these guys?' ” Birsan said, alluding to Seeno's unfavorable reputation among many residents.
Bjerke similarly said he understands that a private developer would want to protect against future financial liability. But signing away the property rights now could make the process “complicated and risky for the city,” especially because Concord First Partners seems to be suggesting council refusal could be a deal breaker, he said.
Longtime critics of Seeno — namely environmental groups — aren't surprised by the latest twist. Save Mount Diablo, which had sued to stop the developer's Pittsburg hills project, said in an email the city will be liable to lawsuits if it “puts all the cards in Seeno's pockets.”
“It would be a sweetheart deal and a blank check to an untrustworthy developer,” the group said in an email.