The Oakland A’s effort to gain control of the Oakland Coliseum site is expected to move forward Monday, when Alameda County votes on selling its half-share to the team.
Back in April, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors moved forward with a planned sale of its half interest in the Oakland Coliseum site to the A’s ownership for $85 million. A later lawsuit filed by the City of Oakland–which co-owns the site with the county–temporarily put the transaction in question, but the city opted last month to drop the lawsuit and open negotiations with the team while allowing Alameda to move forward with finalizing its agreement with the A’s.
An agreement will go before the board on Monday, and it is not expected to prompt much debate, as county officials anticipate a unanimous decision to approve the sale. For Alameda County, a sale of its share to the A’s would yield funds to pay off debt from renovations made in the mid-1990’s to lure the NFL’s Raiders back to the Coliseum. Approval Monday would trigger a 190-day review period, which could lead into the agreement being finalized. More from ABC7News.com:
Alameda County Supervisor, Nate Miley, expects the Board of Supervisors to vote unanimously Monday to sell their 50% share of the complex to the Oakland Athletics. If passed, the A’s will begin a 190-day process of reviewing the real estate purchase before the sale is finalized.
“I think we’re going to come up with a term sheet and it’s going to get us one step closer to getting out of the sports business for the County of Alameda,” said Miley.
The county wants out, in order to pay off debt incurred on the property during their 1995 renovation of the stadium, which brought the Raiders back to Oakland from Los Angeles.
The $85 million dollar price tag would pay off the debt.
The A’s have been seeking to gain control of the Coliseum site for a redevelopment initiative that would unfold after the team opens a new ballpark at the waterfront Howard Terminal site, should those plans move forward. More exact parameters of the project could take shape over time, but the A’s have released a broad vision that includes tearing down RingCentral Coliseum and replacing it with a small sports park/amphitheater (as shown in the rendering above), retaining Oakland Arena as an event venue, and redeveloping the surrounding the land with mixed-use amenities. With the construction of any new ballpark and ancillary mixed-used development at Howard Terminal expected to be privately financed, it is believed that redeveloping the Coliseum site would make any initiatives at Howard Terminal more economically viable for the A’s. In theory, control of the Coliseum property also gives the A’s a fallback option for a new ballpark site in the event that the organization cannot finalize plans at Howard Terminal.
Rendering courtesy Oakland A’s and Bjarke Ingels Group.
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