First, my old Fremont site album from three years ago. The album has both Warm Springs and Pacific Commons in there for reference. Trust me, the area hasn't changed much. From the album is this overhead shot:
Next up is a document from Fremont called the Warm Springs Existing Conditions Report, explaining existing and potential land use for the area surrounding the Warm Springs BART station. From that is an important map showing who's who among area landholders (this was from 2004 and may be somewhat outdated, but I doubt it):
A tiny piece of 880 is at the bottom left corner of the map above.
The last bit comes from the good folks at OAFC, who kept parts of the old Oakland HOK study, from which came the original Fremont site study - yes it was Warm Springs.
Now about those 36 acres under consideration. Based on the information in the Existing Conditions Report, two parcels are that size: the BART station facility and the "Westwood" site, which is east of the station next to 680. The A's couldn't be asking for BART to give up some of its land for the cause, could they? Nah, it's gotta be the Westwood parcel. Then again, two years ago I projected that losing the A's fanbase would drop total BART ridership 1% per year, or $3 million. They may have some incentive to work out a deal.
15 comments:
So what if... the Warm Springs Station is built below a Baseball Stadium/Entertainment District?
It would be more expensive I imagine to go under ground, but it would open up two 36 acre parcels, no?
It doesn't need to be that drastic. If Wolff were to go after the Westwood parcel, it would be more a matter of building large garages along with the ballpark on the station property. Unfortunately, the rest of the development would be far more complicated - I'll cover that in today's post.
no way to pay for this ballpark privately without the retail development ... this plan is doomed to fail unless wolff expects taxpayers to foot the bill!
Anon 9:53... ummm, no. The housing and retail would still likely go in at PC, probably re-worked with some office/R&D space, thus paying for a ballpark down the road. Wolff well knows that public funding for the ballpark would be a non-starter.
Gee, now wolff says being close to bart IS important after all? seems his opinion changes with the wind ...
agree with the other poster ... not a chance this thing gets privately financed without concurrent development.
the land near the proposed Warm Springs BART will be lots more expensive than the wetlands Wolff bought for his ballpark village plan. Also, if he doesn't build the ballpark village (presumably with no ballpark nearby), how is the ballpark supposed to be financed? ...and how would that be different from building it in Oakland, Lew?
I sense a general difficulty with reading comprehension. From the Merc article:
"Wolff's son, Keith, said the team will be using private cash upfront, as well as borrowing against future concessions revenue and money from a naming rights deal with Cisco Systems, while waiting for the real estate market to rebound."
Lew also went on to say that the residential concept would be delayed, not the retail portion. They could build it in the decoupled manner I described earlier. They could try to put them together near the BART station.
Land near the BART station was already expected to be more expensive because landowners already expected some kind of dev around the station.
for the record, I posted the comment attributed to "anonymous" that begins with "the land near the proposed Warm Springs BART" on OAFC, but not here. I do not post here anonymously. I would appreciate people posting their own comments instead of taking comments from other sites and other people without permission.
Anon 10:26, think about what has changed though. Since Pacific Commons was announced BART has now gotten money and approval from the voters to extend to downtown San Jose and into Santa Clara. This is the very HEART of where Wolff wants to draw new fans from. And at the same time moving the stadium to the BART line eliminates one of the biggest complaints from the existing Oakland and points north part of the fan base.
I share your criticism of the anonymous poster, Oakland SÃ. Whoever is doing this hasn't yet owned up nor apologized. Shameful, really.
Dan hit's on something that I was also thinking about. Proximity to BART wasn't a big issue prior to the passage of Measure B. But now that it's passed, it's appears important to make Cisco Field more easily accessible to San Jose/South Bay fans via future BART (and VTA light-rail via Milpitas intermodal station). Of course, living in the South Bay I say "great!"
Question...if pacific commons is not where the ballpark is going to be built...why look at fremont? i thought the whole reason to look at fremont was due to the fact the land was available for the needed ballpark/devlopment.
btw end anonymous posting. too much copy pasta and flame wars with varios anons.
Mike D,
Land availability is a big part of it, but Fremont is the only location within Silicon Valley that the ballpark can be built due to the Giants' territorial rights.
I know that using a term like "wetlands" plays well with your tin foil friends at OAFC, but perhaps you should actually go see the site before mis-characterizing it so badly.
The Warm Springs lot is very close to major fault line (Hayward Fault).
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/haywardfault/tiled/gif/km66.html
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