Activists voice demands for the Coliseum
Oakland negotiating a $5 billion project to include housing, restaurants, center
When East Oakland resident Cecilia Cunningham looks at the Coliseum — the current home of the Oakland A’s, who appear headed for Las Vegas — she sees opportunity.
She envisions a new development with affordable housing and parks for children, pickleball and badminton courts, and soccer fields. She hopes the space will benefit the community living in the area, which city leaders say has suffered from lack of investment for decades.
Oakland is negotiating with a local development group to build a $5 billion megaproject with housing, restaurants and a new convention center at the 155acre Coliseum site.
That’s why Cunningham, a member of East Bay Housing Organizations, which represents nonprofit developers, has joined a coalition of other local groups to demand that the new development has a robust community benefits package.
The coalition, called Oakland United, said it wants to see local hiring for construction and operation of the site, “fair chance” hiring, environmental protections, public spaces for children, recreation centers, social services and affordable housing at the site.
“We need a whole lot,” Cunningham said. “This area here has been forsaken for a long long time.”
But with the plan still in its early stages and years to go before it’s realized, the more demands that are placed on developers, the harder it may be to get the project approved, financed and built.
Matt Regan, the senior vice president of policy at the Bay Area Council, cautioned that sometimes a robust community benefits package can affect the viability of a project. “At the end of the day, the project only moves forward when it makes financial sense to do so,” Regan said. “The city should definitely make sure it has some development expertise at the table that understands the long term math of this project and the feasibility of this project if it negotiates too generous a package with itself.”
The organization tapped to undertake the development, the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, has said it hopes to build a hotel, restaurants and an outdoor amphitheater for youth sports and educational programs at the East Oakland location. In its vision, the Coliseum arena could welcome a WNBA team, music concerts and “Disney on Ice” events. AASEG has said it doesn’t currently have plans to renovate or remove the stadium, and that the Oakland Arena is still in good shape.
The AASEG team, which includes Oakland notables such as former City Manager Robert Bobb, developer Alan Dones, former NBA player and sports agent Bill Duffy, and Shonda Scott, the former chair of the African American Chamber of Commerce, entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Oakland in February either to lease or purchase the city’s share of the property. The group has two years to come up with a firm plan for the City Council.
The city was joint owner of the Coliseum complex with Alameda County until 2019, when the A’s purchased the county’s half share. The A’s had planned originally to build housing, offices, retail and parks there, but then shifted their focus to Howard Terminal and later abandoned those plans to focus on a new stadium in Las Vegas.
As part of the negotiations with the city, the A’s must sign a cooperation agreement with AASEG for any development to occur at the site.
Ray Bobbitt, an East Oakland native who runs a facilities management and urban consulting firm and is the founder of AASEG, said the group is currently working with the A’s to get the cooperation agreement signed.
But in the meantime, Bobbitt said AASEG has been focused on community outreach from the start of the process to ensure that the voice of Oaklanders are heard. The developer has signed a memorandum of understanding with Oakland United as the project moves forward.
The memorandum of understanding details that AASEG and Oakland United will negotiate to bring quality jobs to local residents, support environmental measures and address other community needs that are identified. The contract also states that AASEG will commit to building 35% affordable housing, but the exact number of units associated with the project is still being determined.
No specific commitments such as parks, pickleball or badminton courts have yet been inked.
“Because all of our team was so local … we are natives, this is our community, we understood that it was important before we started really proposing anything to actually get the community’s input first,” Bobbitt said. “It’s respectful, and it’s important to do.”
Adele Watts, a community organizer with nonprofit group Communities for a Better Environment, said the project is an opportunity for Oaklanders to get involved in determining the future of the site. Watts, whose organization is also part of Oakland United, said the coalition is holding an event Saturday, July 22, at City of Refuge UCC, a church in East Oakland, to educate residents about its efforts. It is also circulating an online survey and petition to get feedback from residents.
Vanessa Riles, a campaign coordinator with East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, another group in the coalition, said Black and brown families in East Oakland have suffered from the impacts of gentrification and displacement — a key reason she said that community benefits are so critical to the project.
“I was born and raised in Oakland and an Oakland resident for the majority of my life,” Riles said. “I have deep roots here and care very deeply about what happens to communities here.”