No Progress between A’s and ProLogis(Catellus)
By Matt Artz
Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 5:51 pm in A's, Fremont, Uncategorized.
Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman talked to the A’s today and then he talked to me. Bad news for folks who want the team to move to the ProLogis site near Pacific Commons. The team and the real estate investment trust are too far apart at this point to bother talking to each other, said Wasserman, who had met with ProLogis last month.
ProLogis and its three major tenants at Pacific Commons want the stadium farther away from the Pacific Commons stores, but the A’s don’t think the alternative sites would work.
With ProLogis opposed to the A’s current ballpark village plan, the team appears to have three options for building a stadium in Fremont. It can try to compromise with ProLogis, build the stadium on a nearby parcel that ProLogis doesn’t own. (The former Christy cement plant was mentioned) or, of course, opt for a site adjacent to the future Warm Springs BART Station.
Wasserman acknowledged that the Warm Springs option had the twin problems of a brand new environmental review and ”an upset community, to say the least.” Also, the team doesn’t own any land there.
Asked to give the odds that the A’s would still come to Fremont, Wasserman would only say, “Probably lower than they were.”
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January 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Any project of this magnitude is going to have challenges, but I am very excited about the project after meeting with A’s owner, Keith Wolff, last night in regard to the alternative site. Mr. Wolff expressed his desire to be a good neighbor and welcomed the opportunity to address the concerns of the residence adjacent to the proposed site. Mr. Wolff presented his vision to the A’s to Fremont Leadership Board and proposed many ideas and solutions that were received with excitement. To show your support for the A’s move to Fremont and receive up to date information on the progress of the proposed project, sign up online at http://www.AsToFremont.com
January 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Steven. Addressing the concerns of residence adjacent to the proposed site involves Mr. Wolff hightailing his ass down to San Jose.
Otherwise, I’m glad you’re excited.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
W_ass_erman and the Wolff family don’t give a crap about the people of Fremont and what they want. If W_ass_erman did care he would let the people vote on this project. He knows that the smart people of Fremont will never let him build a ballpark here.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Steve, please remind Mr. Wolff to really reach out to the community. The A’s are purposely delaying any public meetings now. We gave them several choices of dates/places but they keep saying they are not available. But the A’s are actively doing the small group invitation-only coffee meetings. This just make the local residents a bad impression how the A’s treat the community.
Please join Fremont Citizens Network http://www.fremontcitizensnetwork.org/ and visit http://noasws.blogspot.com/ for more background information.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Who or what is the “Fremont Leadership Board”? Please email that information to me at alandstirling@earthlink.net I am very curious about this group because in 31 years of living in Fremont I have never heard of them. I am anxious to learn more. Please respond. Thank you
Sincerely, Alan Stirling
January 10th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I have a solution for Mr. Wolf as to were to put the Baseball Stadium.
NEWARK, CA Mayor Smith or as some refer to him King Smith, they have more of a monarchy instead of a Democracy.
They can put it where the ghost town is, formerly known as Newpark Mall, And where Mervyens use to be. I was at Newpark the other day and there is plenty of parking.
The A’s would have no problem locating in Newark, Mayor Smith will take anything. Newark’s Office, Commercial, Industrial space, have the highest vacancy rate in the Bay Area.
Mayor Smith is willing to sacrifice Wetlands for a golf course, it would be a natural place for the A’s
January 10th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Worble
You voted for Capt Kangroo I bet just another upset loser.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:44 am
fremont plan will never, ever work. plan was ill-advised and poorly planned from the onset. little to no attention was paid to traffic/access plans at Pac commons site. warm springs? come on, no way they get it done there – don’t own the land, neighbors dead set against, etc.
san jose is a no-go … mlb will not change territories to accommodate the a’s. a’s should move to sacramento and have the market to themselves. railey field could be expanded to accommodate the a’s for a fraction of the cost of a new ballpark. in this economy, wolff needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I would like to respond in regard to the statement that the Wolffs had stopped accepting invitations to speaking engagements. When Measure B in San Jose past concerning the BART extension, the A’s received requests from the City of Fremont and other transit agencies to look at the aternative Warm springs site. The Wolffs had to study the site and come up with a plan to be able to share with the community. That is why they took a momentary break from their current presentation. They wanted to be able to provide the proper information to the community noe that the Warm Springs BART site would be a reality. The Wolffs are very concerned about the citizens of Fremont and that is why they take the time to gather all of the information necessary to share in updating their presentation.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:02 am
I was born and raised in Fremont and have been selling real estate there for 21 years. My family has had several small businesses in Fremont and I am very involved in the community. I hyave been a member of the Niles (Fremont) Rotary Club for 16 years, I served on the Board of Directors of the Fremont Symphony Orchestra, was heavly involved with the Washington Hospital Foundation, served on the Board of Directors for the Bay East Association of REALTORS for all of Southern Alameda County, volunteered on the M.C. Hammer Help the Children Foundation when Hammer lived in Fremont and started my own non-profit organization at teh age of 26 called the Fremont Athletic Network -(F.A.N.) that hosted a serious of fundraisers called “Beat The Peak”, which became the largest fundraiser for after school athletics in the City of Fremont and went on to save ALL of the after school athletic programs from being cut from the five high schools in Fremont. Fremont has had many opportunities that did not come to pass for the city, so I decided to once again take an active role when I heard that the A’s were considering coming to Fremont. I am the Chairman of the A’s To Fremont Support Group and this group is made up of city and community leaders that wanted to assit the A’s Its effort to bring the team to Fremont. The goal is to help provide as much inromation as possible to the community, so they would have all of the information to make an educated decision about the proposed Cisco Field. You can sign up to show your support for the A’s move and to receive up to the minute information on the teams progress by signing up online at http://www.AsToFremont.com
January 12th, 2009 at 10:24 am
yo, steve buddy … nobody cares about your background.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Actually, everyone’s been overlooking a superb place for the A’s; plenty of space for all the housing and parking that they could ask…
Antarctica
I think we should start a petition
January 12th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Mr. Lloyd,
It’s nice that you have lived in Fremont all your life, I am surprised that you have missed the traffic backlog that happens everyday in Fremont on 680 & 880.
Since you are in real estate business you know most of the community that is here, is due to the good schools.
Could you enlighten us on what the community should expect besides the following three?
1.light pollution,
2.noise pollution,
3. Air pollution
Thanks PS ( I was praying wasserman looses on election day, but not all prayers are answered are they?)
January 12th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Like Mr. Stirling, I am also interested in who and what the Fremont Ledership Board is. I have lived here well over 50 years and worked for the City, but I have never heard of them. I’ll check in with Mr. Stirling (since he is braver than I am about sharing his e-mail address) to see if he hears from anyone on this – hope you don’t mind, Alan.
They say every dark cloud has a silver lining. This recession may be the best thing that ever happened to Fremont if it keeps this stadium abomination out of town. Of course, it may only slow them down – like Walmart, they’ll keep coming back until they get what they want or until we box their ears for good. At any rate, the recession buys us some time to get organized.
Mr. Lloyd – thanks for making it your goal to get information regarding the stadium project to the community. We do need to make an education decision on this very important issue. From everything I’ve seen so far my answer is NO.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Sorry – make that “educated” decision, not education – my bad!
January 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Steven, glad to hear from you here. Have we seen any public meetings in the past two years? They were all close door meetings, and a couple of council meetings, until they suddenly change direction to Warm Springs. Steve, are you saying the city proposed the Warm Springs site, not the A’s? (does “city” mean the mayor or city manager?)
I hate to say this. But many “community leaders” really speak for the business groups. Wondering who will speak out for the residents voice? I’m glad some of them are gradually willing to stand up for the residents now.
There are many rosy press releases and beautiful slide show in A’s website. We all remember many venture capitals and banks lost billions of dollars by investing companies based on beautiful power point slides.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
problem is the fact that there is very little fan support for the a’s compared to the giants … when the giants were getting support for their ballpark, which was privately financed, the giants mgmt sat down and listed to community groups to and tailored their plans to fit in with the community. they didn’t ask for public funds either. the vast amount of baseball fans in the bay area are giants fans and many contributed toward charter seat licenses to help get the park built. contrast that with the backroom dealings of wolff who seemingly changes plans on a whim; nobody really knows how he’s planning on financing the project, he has no plans for public transporation and he doesn’t care about anything but turning a profit on his real estate dealings. a’s don’t have nearly the fan support so they have no way of getting the funds necessary to build a park in the bay area imo.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Mr. Lloyd,
I am not one of the fortunate residents that have been to one of these neighborhood coffee meetings, but I have heard tid-bits from neighbors who have. Since you are the Chairman of the AsToFremont group, please address the following questions on behalf of Keith Wolf (who seems to not be able to after preparing for one month):
- what are the specific plans to mitigate traffic issues? (Simply saying someone is addressing it is not sufficient.)
- what are specific data in support that building a stadium in Fremont WILL increase the vitality of the economy in Fremont. (Simply saying A’s is foreseeing a certain amount of revenue into Fremont is not sufficient.)
- as a realtor, what specific data do you have that tells you a stadium in Fremont will increase the property value of neighboring real estates, and by how much of an increase are you referring to.
I think the keywords here are “specific data”. Without disclosing data into the public realm, no wonder people are speculating the worse. Let us know what the A’s stadium is really all about. We don’t need pretty pictures, economic forcast that are not realistic and without basis, and promises that cannot withstand the test of time.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I am shocked at some of these responses! The economy is in turmoil and I am sure that everyone knows somebody that has been laid off or is about to be. I can’t believe how ridiculously selfish some people are. 20,000 jobs and then some could be created! Every day thousands of people are getting laid off. Every single day! You guys say that traffic is going to be bad even though most of the games are at night. Suck it up!!!! Who cares. Walk if you have to. If traffic is your biggest concern, then I think that is pathetic! There are so many people that need jobs right now and have zerooooo money to even put food on the table. Fremont would benefit tremendously with a new park and homes and shops and school. Wake up!
January 15th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
First of all, does th A’s still have the money in this economy turmoil? We don’t want our city resource to bail out the A’s. They claim “$0 cost” from the city to avoid city-wide ballot vote (because they know it will fail). Apparently, the city officials made a lot of concessions. The A’s will get many tax breaks and kick-back revenue. Besides, who will pay the infrastructure, extra police, and upkeep of the stadium.
As for the jobs it will bring in, most of them will be temporary, low-waged positions, which will not help the city in the long run. It’s not fair for Fremont to steal jobs from Oakland either. Besides, the stadium will also push many high-tech high-paying jobs out of Fremont.
I really wish the A’s can find a good home for their “downtown ballpark village” plan, as Mr. Wolff said several times. But can someone please tell him where Fremont’s downtown is? Go San JosA’s.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Kelly – we do want jobs for Fremont residents. What we object to are the part-time, seasonal, non-benefited low-wage jobs that the stadium project proposes to generate. I’m curious as to the origin of the estimate of 20,000 jobs created. In what sectors would these jobs be created? Are they in businesses that are dependent on the success of the stadium? Look at the neighborhoods near the Coliseum in Oakland – it’s not exactly booming economically.
Although some of the games will be at night, the stadium owners will not limit the facility’s use strictly to baseball. They will book as many other events as they can find, further increasing the impacts on the city.
Also, have you considered how the City, already strapped for funds, is going to hire and maintain a police force sufficient to cover the increased activity generated by the stadium? Funds to the City from the stadium will go to the Redevelopment Fund. Redevelopment Funds cannot be used to pay for police services; only General Funds can be used for that purpose. On a game day, Oakland PD assigns an average of 20 officers to the Coliseum for traffic and crowd control. On any given shift, Fremont PD currently has 15 officers on patrol. Where will the funds come from to get more officers?
In every way, Fremont deserves better; jobs in growth sectors that will pay residents a living wage and a safe city with the lowest crime rate we can manage.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
The jobs issue is a real red herring. Last year, the A’s sent a mailer and claimed the Pacific Commons Ballpark Village plan would provide 13,000 good paying, full time jobs. In fact, the only permanent full time jobs provided by the plan before the city now is in the retail portion, except maybe the handful of people working full time for the A’s.
Assume the retail jobs are “good paying” (they usually aren’t), then divide the square footage of the retail (500,000 feet) by 13,000 and you will find that is one employee for every 38 square feet, or every space 6.16 feet square would have an employee.
They probably would generate some business at nearby restaurants or bars, but nowhere near the number of jobs they or Kelly claim.
In actuality, the A’s are an economic drain on the region. Their player payroll was $79 million in 2008. The total of ticket sales and concession revenue is less than that. So, our disposable income, which we can choose to spend anywhere we want for anything we want, gets given to the players in salary for them to take to their permanent residences. If we spent that money in a locally owned and operated business, their employee salaries would be spent here and would have a multiplier affect on our economy.
Beside the player payroll being exported from our regional economy, half of the balance of the A’s spending goes outside the region for travel, hotels, spring training, scouting, etc. From a regional standpoint, it is an economic siphon.
I have done lots of work looking at the proposal by the A’s and at sports franchises in general and I have concluded being host to a major league sports franchise cannot be justified from any aspect save one – because you want one, preferably with your city name on the jersey.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
So Gus, what your telling me is landing a job as a ticket taker at the turnstiles won’t be sufficient to buy a house in the Mission San Jose hills?
Seriously, the only decent paying jobs will be present during the construction phase. After that we’re left with seasonal jobs (April-October) at the stadium and a majority of those will be service sector, low paying positions.
Let’s opt for jobs that provide income 365 days a year and possibly with pay sufficient to live somewhere in town.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Amen!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
“20,000 jobs and then some”
Are there even 20,000 people in Fremont who need a job?
January 16th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Kelly,
Not to rag on you, but the other posts after yours goes to the heart of the issue. What are the real facts and are the resultant jobs really worth ruining our area. I refuse to ‘suck it up’ when that means being a prisoner in my house. That is what will result I’d the A’s come to Warm Springs. Beware of unintended consquences and that a short-term gain is hidden behind long-term pain. Have the A’s next to your house and you suck it up
January 27th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Mr. Lloyd, If you were a smart real estate agent in Fremont, then you would know that putting a stadium in this city would lower property values and lower small business revenues. Property values would be lower, because the city has the WRONG type of housing next to a stadium – a stadium belongs where there is high density housing: high rise apartment buildings/condos. In other words, a dense urban area. That simply does not exist in Fremont.
If you don’t believe me, look at the Oakland Coliseum right now – the stadium is surrounded by low cost residences with high crime rates. And to think this is good for Fremont? What real estate agency do you work for? Probably one that is going out of business, because your commissions are going to go down. Significantly. Especially if the As come to town.
Small businesses suffer as well, because no one is going to go to Fremont and shop if there is a game going on. Have you been around the Coliseum when there is a game? Traffic is horrendous – so bad that you say to yourself, “Why am I here? I’m not doing this again. I’m not going to drive anywhere near the stadium when there is a game going on.”
So, if you’re part of the Fremont business community and supporting the A’s stadium, you need to rethink what your doing.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:12 am
The argument the ballpark would be good for business in Fremont is weak at best. A majority of businesses operate 365 days a year. The stadium will have 81 A’s games per year. That leaves 284 days, 78% of the year, when fans are not flocking to Fremont to spend their money. Most fans, on those 81 days, will go directly to the ballpark, experience the event and then head home. They will not go shopping in Fremont.
Officials, from the A’s and the City of Fremont, have stated the stadium would not be used for other events. That doesn’t make sense. Why build such a costly facility that will sit unused for more than three-quarters of the year? It won’t take long for stadium management and the city to argue in favor of additional events to offset the cost and generate additional revenue.