Fremont to sell 6.6-acre Centerville property for $1
By Matt Artz
Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 11:27 am in Uncategorized.
The city’s new general plan envisions dense housing developments in Centerville, but that’s easier said than done.
Take for example the 6.6-acre empty lot at Fremont Boulevard and Thornton Avenue. It was going to be a supermarket, then it was going to be a retail center with housing, then it was going to be just a retail center, then it was going to be a supermarket again, then it was going to be retail with live/work lofts and now it’s going to be “urbanistic.”
On Tuesday the City Council will be asked approve a new plan for the Centerville lot with Blake Hunt Ventures, the developer which failed to bring the last two proposals to fruition.
Blake Hunt and its partner, Center Street Development, envision 188 homes and about 26,500 square feet of retail, which is less than a supermarket.
The deal calls for the city, which already spent a lot of money buying and cleaning up the 6.6 acres to sell the land to Blake Hunt for $1. The city will also contribute $13.5 million in infrastructure improvements.
In fairness to Blake Hunt, the proposal is basically the same as its last one, which died because it’s housing developer partner had to back out because of the tough economy.
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March 12th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I guess it being close to the Amtrak station it can be considered transit oriented development. Would this qualify Fremont for light rail down Fremont Blvd.?
March 12th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I dont think light rail is a good way to spend tax payer money. People of fremont are not used to public transport. They prefer cars. Look at the empty AC transit buses plying here and compare it to jam packed muni in sf. Light rail will go empty too. No point…
March 12th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
It has nothing to do with being unused to public transport. I’m pretty sure the majority of us have ridden BART at one point or other. It has to do with low density. Public transit doesn’t work well unless people are packed together, creating enough ridership to increase bus frequency and the number of routes, making more people willing to ride.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
The problem with the council is the lack of decision making and vision. They are good at keeping the Bath Rooms clean on Tuedays. They should have Bath Rooms Cleaning Department to serve the City to make money atleast.
It is an ideal lot to have the mixed use High Rise Condos/Apartment blocks with tree plantation and kids play land and a Park, Retail Shops, a Community Center, an Art Gallery and Day a Care Center.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Selling this land to Blake-hunt for $1 would be a complete outrage!!!
What an unbelievable tale of incompetence by Redevelopment Agency!
Another example of a total misuse of public funds by Fred Diaz!
Better to subdivide it in to smaller lots and sell them and use the proceeds to help the City: not squader the publics resources for some BIG project that just doesn’t pencil out without public subsedies.
Doesn’t this all sound way too familiar! Diaz is a disgrace!
March 12th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
is it on ebay? i’ll double bh’s bid.
March 12th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Tripple!
March 12th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Anon – I’m sure Blake-Hunt and others would pay good money to purchase this lot and develop the land in a way that served their own interests. But when a city insists that the development be one of these faux-metro high density taupe colored stacks of crap then they have to give the land away to the builder.
March 12th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
God Marty, I always hate to agree with you!
Small lot’s with alleys, form based codes (google it), and bingo. Now your talking real urbanism: ala Jane Jacob’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”
March 12th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
If everybody wants the Center Theatre for a performing arts complex so bad move dadgum thing over to that vacant lot, keep the facade and build a contemporary arts complex behind it, plus a couple restaurants and galleries. It would do a lot more to improve Centerville than more high density housing. Imagine Centerville as the art hub of Fremont!
March 13th, 2010 at 9:35 am
You know, come to think of it, this is why it’s good to have a formal “Project Area Committee” (Redevelopment “PAC”) for redevelopment projects like this. In some cases they are required by law, but there are several ways to get around it depending on what your doing in the project area among other reasons.
Isn’t it interesting that Fremont doesn’t have a PAC, or a GPAC? Interesting!
March 13th, 2010 at 11:33 am
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March 13th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
It seems that the Fremont Redevelopment Agency, aka Fremont City Council, has a very limited vocabulary; three words, high density housing.
March 13th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
The Centerville disaster is now about 15 tears old. The $13.5 million in infrastructure improvements, consisted of destroying a shopping center that was in a lot better shape the Cabrillo Center. It forced many small businesses to move and fail, there is still deep seated anger among the former tenants.
This is microism of our leaders incompetence.
We need professionals running our city, we need a Charter City instead of a General Law City with a Strong Mayor, not a City Manager who controls everything.
March 13th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Fremont_Bill: I hate to tell you this, but the 13.5 million is what the Redevelopment Agency will GIVE the developer!
Matt didn’t mention the money spent to date over the last 15 years including staff time from ALL City Departments! What a waste of tax payers money; and now Fred Diaz is about to get 1.1 billion more in Redevelopment CAP spending.
As I’ve said before, with that kind of money – we might get two niles plaza’s!
March 13th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Remember, City Manager Fred Diaz is also “EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR” OF REDEVELOPMENT.
Although they have a “front person” called Redevelopment Director or some other iteration; and as Matt knows from me first hand – she went through all three project managers within about a year and a half of being appointed. Having incompetent managers in the RDA and CDD apparently makes Fred feel like a big person.
It is common thought in the building that she is very limited individual, to put it nicely. She got her job through cronyism by the Director of Community Development who used to work under her elsewhere in the Bay Area before.
March 13th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
As did Wasserman under Diaz in Tracey!
March 13th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
City and Chamber- ” Crony Club “?. What a fate of the Fremont Citizens.
March 15th, 2010 at 6:21 am
I created a blog post about this:
http://www.bacon2010.com/blog/?p=114