Concord City Council restarts developer search for former naval weapons station
CONCORD – Will the third time be the charm or strike three?
The Concord City Council on Tuesday night told city staff to release a formal request for qualifications (RFQ) from developers seeking to develop the former Concord Naval Weapons Station.
The council asked for a few revisions to the proposed request.
The RFQ must require an executed project labor agreement with Contra Costa County's Construction and Building Trades union and be willing to make it available to the public when submitted in July.
They also added a question about a developer's familiarity with the process of cleaning up contamination. The council also asked respondents to provide comments regarding terms and community benefits on the previous draft term sheet the city gave the last proposed master developer Concord First Partners (CFP).
The council voted 3-2 in January to reject the city's term sheet with Seeno Homes-owned Concord First Partners (CFP) to develop one of the largest redevelopment projects in Bay Area history.
It was the city's second failed attempt to come to a final agreement with a chosen master developer for the site. The city's deal with Lennar Five Point collapsed in March 2020 when it couldn't come to agreements with local labor unions, which was one of the city's conditions.
The city's exclusive negotiating agreement with Seeno expired Jan. 31.
Development of the 5,046-acre site on the city's northeast side has been the city's biggest issue since the Navy abandoned it in 1999. The Navy officially designated it as surplus and made Concord the area's local reuse authority, of which 2,300 acres are targeted for 13,000 units of housing and millions of square feet of commercial space.
The site will also be home to a new 2,540-acre East Bay Regional Park, named Thurgood Marshall Regional Park - Home of the Port Chicago 50, commemorating the nearby Port Chicago tragedy during World War II.
The city abandoned its agreement with Seeno after being widely criticized by the community. Among the points of contention between the city and the developer were CFP's requests to amend the agreement to give them early property rights and reimbursement of costs should the deal fall through.