SunCal: Alameda Point Proposal (4 of 5)
Initial Reactions: Pro: #1 that jumps out at me is the proposed team leadership. Sr. VP Amy Feilich’s boasts of Transit Oriented Development in the LA area working on in-fill urban development projects along LA’s Gold Line (Light Rail). SunCal is already working in the East Bay at the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. Their doing some innovated thinking there I hear as well. (we like innovation, right?).
Cons: Like Corky M., SunCal is small (in a single billions in capital sort of way). And is developing the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in an interesting way. What happens to Alameda Point when the Oakl Knoll project hits a snag or two with its finances because of unforeseen innovative problems?
SunCal seems to have hired somebody to suss out what Alamedans have actually asked for at the Point (beyond the PDC). Their vision of “villages of new homes interspersed amongst the history of NAS Alameda.” Captures the General Plan and Base Reuse Plans exceedingly well. It goes on, but I’ll let you read it for your self. SunCal also seems to understand the PDC as the feasibility study that it is. They never refer to it as a plan, or treat it as such.
Continuing with my favorite part theme: The one project that they’ve done which seems to have environmental remediation is a development in Santa Clarita call Porta Bella. Mushrooms and Fungi are one environmental sound method of removing toxins from the ground, so the name is perfectly ironic. Especially since you typically need decades for them to do their work.
SunCal took some time to spell out a public process for moving the Point forward, another thing that speaks well of them. Using Oak Knoll as a case study, they show that they have experience in helping bring a community together to a common vision. (Of course bringing Oaklanders together on a development plan is just a warm up, Alameda’s the big leagues. If they pull it off here, they can be certified Gold Standard consensus builders).
Last thought (complete non-sequitar), one of there references is Jerry Brown (you know, the Attorney General). I’d like to hear the conversation between development services and AG Brown. I saw him speak at the first Bike/Walk conference in Oakland, and to this day, I have no idea what he was talking about (nor did anyone else there).
I use Jerry as a sort of sign post for my own social disorientation.
The guy is probably way smarter than me but has a shorter attention span than I do, and he was a monk while I was taking the chemical route to nirvana, so go figure.
Seriously, these posts are making me curious to see the official dog and pony show, or should I call it a soft shoe rountine.
Really seriously, these guys sound interesting. Thanks for doing some of the heavy lifting for us John.