Brookfield Emerges As Latest Master Developer Candidate For 2,300-Acre East Bay Naval Station Project

Brookfield Properties has emerged as the leading candidate to redevelop the 2,300-acre Concord Naval Weapons Station property, a massive and long-awaited project slated for more than 12,000 homes and 6M SF of commercial space.

The Concord City Council selected the New York-based developer to advance to the interview stage, the only developer to be selected in the city’s protracted solicitation process, according to the San Francisco Business Times. 

Brookfield is vying to be the master developer for the former U.S. Naval outpost after negotiations with previous developers, including Concord First Partners, selected by the city in 2021, fell apart.

The city issued another request for proposals earlier this year. Brookfield and Housing America Partners were the only two companies to respond. Brookfield will give a presentation at the special Aug. 26 meeting to consider whether to allow it to proceed with the project. 

A staff report indicated that Housing America Partners failed to adequately respond to the city’s solicitation documents. Brookfield has undertaken other redevelopment projects in the Bay Area, including transforming the historic Pier 70 in San Francisco into office space. 

Apart from its development efforts, Brookfield owns major properties across the country, but has run into financial trouble with some of them, including the Gas Company Tower and EY Plaza in Los Angeles, both of which have gone into receivership.

The Concord staff report said the “U.S. Navy expects this project to move forward expeditiously and may reconsider their conveyance method” should more delays arise. 

The weapons station was established in 1942 and functioned as an armament storage depot for the U.S. Navy during World War II. It is located on the shore of the Sacramento River as it filters into Suisun Bay.

The city council will only vote on whether to grant Brookfield exclusive negotiating rights at the Aug. 26 meeting. If approved, the term sheet could be voted on in September with an eye toward conducting environmental analysis early next year, the Business Times reported. 

Concord First Partners, which was initially selected as the project partner, said repeatedly during the pandemic that it was struggling to make the project work financially. Lawsuits also emerged related to one of the developers and the combination of those factors caused the city of Concord to undertake a new request for proposals process. 

The area was designated as a Superfund site in 1994, but environmental remediation has been underway since then in an effort to clean up heavy metals such as zinc, copper, lead, cadmium and arsenic from the property.