Engineering News-Record (July 3, 2019) – The joint venture developing Alameda Point’s Site A announced July 2 that they have completed demolition of the entire 30-acre site and are 50 % complete with infrastructure construction. Site A is a $1 billion mixed-use, transit-oriented waterfront development on the site of the former Naval Air Station Alameda, which closed over 20 years ago.
Alameda Point Partners (APP) is a joint venture between managing partner Trammell Crow Residential (TCR), a division of Dallas-based Crow Holdings; Los Angeles-based developer Cypress Equity Investments (CEI); and San Francisco Bay Area-based commercial developer srmERNST Development Partners.
APP closed escrow on 30 acres of the 68-acre Site A parcel in March 2018 and broke ground in May 2018. With demolition complete, crews are now more than halfway done with construction of the infrastructure, which includes water, sewer, electrical and gas lines, a street grid with bike and transit lanes, eight acres of original parks.
Bruce Dorfman, senior managing director of TCR’s Northern California division, told me in May that the redevelopment of the former air station into a $1 billion mixed-use transit-oriented development is “truly significant and complex. There were a number of issues associated with the site including tidelands, wildlife refuge buffer requirements, soil and groundwater remediation, aging infrastructure, and sea level rise,” he said.
The infrastructure for Site A also includes a new ferry terminal in Seaplane Lagoon.
“The new ferry service is a game changer,” said Stephanie Hill, vice president of development of TCR’s Northern California division in a news release. “It is right at Alameda Point’s front door and provides direct service to downtown San Francisco in 20 minutes.”
The ferry dock is currently being fabricated and construction of the terminal is slated to begin this fall. Completion of the infrastructure for phase one of Site A is expected in late 2019, followed by the early 2020 completion of the ferry terminal.
On Block 9 in Site A, CEI broke ground July 1st on a new residential community with 200 market rate residential units, with approximately 10,000 sq-ft of retail/commercial space and views of Alameda’s Seaplane Lagoon and the San Francisco skyline. The project’s designer is Pyatok Architects and James E. Roberts-Obayashi Corp. is the general contractor.
Eden Housing recently began construction on 60 units of senior housing on Block 8, with a groundbreaking planned for July 11. Eden will develop a total of 130 affordable housing units on the two-acre Block 8 parcel. KTGY Architecture + Planning is designer for both buildings.
Block 6, purchased by Trumark Homes, will start vertical construction this summer to build 64 townhomes. KTGY Architecture + Planning is the project’s designer and executive architect. On Block 7, currently optioned by Trumark for 60 townhomes, APP expects to close on the sale of the property in mid-July 2019. The concept design architect is DLR Group|Kwan Henmi and the executive architect is KTGY Architecture + Planning.
On Block 11, TCR is in a venture with CEI to develop a 220-unit market rate apartment community with San Francisco skyline views. The community, named Alexan Pan Am, is slated to begin construction in late 2019, and will also include 15,000 sq-ft of retail and commercial space. BAR Architects is the project’s designer.
APP says it plans to move forward with the transfer of roughly 20 acres from the City of Alameda in spring 2020 for the project’s second phase. The timing of the third phase, slated to include a hotel plus additional commercial space, will be a function of the Navy’s completion of its remediation activities before the remaining portion of Site A is turned over to APP, says Hill.
“Construction of Site A will be a catalyst for the redevelopment of the entire base,” said Hill in the news release.