Mayor's Economic Development Advisory Panel/Economic Recovery Task Force - Regular Meeting

Did we get somebody? No.

But No. Just wasn't. Yeah. No. Gotcha. Okay.

Staff members, Abby, and Duane are coming. Both texted that they're stuck in traffic in an accident on the evening. Item number one is the minutes from last time they were sent today in the email. I don't know if anyone has any questions or has reviewed them.

Is there a hard copy of the agenda?

Yeah. This is a volunteer economic planning where we meet quarterly. Typically, Abby is the house. Okay.

We'll make you do for the moment. Welcome.

Okay. So I'm gonna go to minutes. Any corrections to the minutes? Don't know. Just a

Is there a second?

Meeting minutes are approved. Communication. So we're required to state this. If anyone wants to anyone in the public wants to comment on an item, to raise and I don't think we have anyone from the public comment tonight. But The topic tonight is gonna be the Alameda Point Enterprise District.

Those of you that are not familiar, it's the area off to the left when you drive up to Alameda Point. I think coming in on the Atlantic Entrance. It's a large I think it's a 112 acre parcel that's not really developed at all. It's where Pacific Fusion was wanting to go. There's a spattering of businesses out there.

The question Yeah. May be a little kind of behind the times, but do we know why Pacific Fusion decided to choose New Mexico as opposed to California and Alameda?

I think you probably have.

Let's go answer that question. So they were looking at three sites in Livermore and Alameda Point and in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque was a late entrant into the process and kinda threw a wrench into things a little bit. But the state of New Mexico is they have a sovereign wealth fund, and they basically said to Pacific Fusion, we'll give you a $100,000,000 to build it here. They also compelling. They have Sandy, a lab there. So there were a lot of reasons. Construction costs are lower. Labor costs are lower. So yeah. Yeah. So it was disappointing, for sure, but understandable. Great.

Okay. Because I was reading all I was looking at the presentation and other things, and I think one of the questions says, what could we do differently next time, you know, based on what happened with Pacific Fusion? So in my mind, like, well, do we even know the reason

Do they provide feedback?

That's a good question for Abby. We're talking about Pacific Fusion, and I gave some background on on the choice that they made. Oh. But you probably could give more more detail.

Did they provide feedback? Yeah. Did you already do all of this? We went through the Okay.

All of this. People stuff. It's being recorded. We have no one on the outside.

Okay. Okay.

And so we're actually teed up.

Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. Let's did you do the minutes? Yes. Amazing. Did anybody vote no? No. Okay. Great. Well, should I just dive in then to the I did I've created a little presentation for the Enterprise District. Sounds like you all have started the discussion.

We just teed it up with a

a quick explanation of the Enterprise District. Oh, great. Knowing that's what we were gonna discuss.

Okay. Question about why Pacific Asian

didn't choose Alameda. Got it. She's her teed up the presentation. Oh, wait. Is that a presentation?

Should be up there.

I do have yes. They did. Great. Okay. So I wrote, like, the staff report. And so just by way of I guess, I'll be very quick. I I handed out copies of the presentation because there are a lot of photos in here. There's a lot of background that I was not intending to spend a lot of time on. Many of you already are very familiar with this. We did have, as I mentioned in the staff report, we did have a discussion about positioning the enterprise district for development back in 2024, then we went through the Pacific Fusion process.

So I'm gonna touch on all that very lightly, but really wanted you to have the reference slides with the photos. So I just wanted to recap the background. August 2024, and another attachment to the staff report was the summary of discussion that this panel had back in 2024 before the Pacific fusion deal came through. And so talk a little bit about that, talk about what I learned from the Pacific fusion process. I know that Becca was deeply involved in this. Brock's hi. We're just diving into six a. Brock's firm did some work on this. I don't know if you did work personally on this.

No. We're But,

yeah, that's pretty much the extent of your work. David's not I don't think Joe Joe's not here, but did some work on this. And then multiple folks at this table, Mark, Madeline, a lot of advocacy, all kind of came out and tried to help recruit them into town. So I think everybody here will have a few lessons learned that I think I'd love to also hear. So and then discuss ideas for where to go now.

I think I'm really looking for, from from my perspective, to figure out how we can capitalize on the work that was done, but also, like, what worked, what didn't work, how can we do things differently or better the next time around. Just to this was, again, a background slide I won't dwell on, but just defines the enterprise district uses that are that the zoning allows for and the vision was that was set, which is really jobs oriented, really flexible zoning allowing for pretty much any job generation uses. Very limited residential development is allowed. And just a reminder of the the zoning districts for Alameda Point and that the Enterprise District is generally considered bounded by West Atlantic Avenue, and it's a pretty much can be discussed as anything South Of West Atlantic or maybe a the sort of the core subset depending on kind of how you view things. And there are four specific zoning designations to the Enterprise District AP E 1 through E 4.

The the real difference here is that most of the land is in AP E 1, which allows for anything. The APE 4 is in the State Lands Trust, and so it's more restricted in what can be in in there. There's a small strip of residential land along Central Avenue, which is really supposed to be a 100 foot buffer from Central Avenue to provide just as as noted, a buffer from whatever the job uses are to the neighborhood next door. So that kinda gives you and then E 2, which is North of West Pacific Avenue, which is pretty much where Astra is. So I don't quite know the difference between one and two, but they're all very similar.

I just put this as an example. I think the master infrastructure plan, and I'll I'll speak more to this, really served us well in this process. We knew exactly what we needed to replace in terms of infrastructure. I think I've said to you all many times that Algonquin Point development is all about replacing infrastructure. It's our biggest constraint to new development.

It drives how we sell and lease land, And the master infrastructure plans is the guiding document that really inventories our assets and and sets the vision for where the new assets will go and identifies everything from electricity to storm water, sewer, roads, road designs. It has some cross sections of the street designs and designates which roads are what. And in this case, sewer pump station, the electrical substations, where things are flowing. So and we just in this this year, we actually did a cost estimate. We had been using this number of replacing everything at Alameda Point is going to cost an additional $700,000,000, and a lot of that is also because it includes sea level rise work, the, like, seawalls adaptation work, which is extraordinarily expensive.

We did have our civil engineer reestimate that this year, and the new price tag on all of the infrastructure is $900,000,000. I'm not surprised that people at this end of the table to hear that, I think. But so the costs have just gone way up, but land values have not gone up correspondingly. So I think we're are really framing up. And I think for for council next year, and in fact, later later this week, we are gonna start teaming up for council that the expectation has always been Alameda Point will pay for itself, that we will sell land and leverage the value of land to pay for all of that infrastructure.

The math does not work anymore on that premise and that we need to start contemplating that we may need to be seeking outside sources of funding and grants in order to start paying for some of this infrastructure. So I think that's really never been thought of before. I think it's always been contemplated that Alameda Point pays for itself in every way. And so I think we really need to start questioning that notion, and that's that's gonna be a huge topic for council, obviously, particularly as we're going into if you have been watching the council meetings, been reviewing all of the infrastructure needs of the entire city, and there are many. So this is just a map showing current conditions.

I just brought three of our placemats in. They're always a useful reference. And on the back, please show who our tenants are. We have some pretty fantastic, some amazing tenants in the area. And so we do have, I think, a pretty robust employment base, but I think most most of the most of the buildings that are in this area are envisioned to be torn down in support of new development with with two exceptions, which are identified in the master infrastructure plan, which are Buildings 166 and 167.

Just a little bit of negotiation background for Pacific Fusion. So Pacific Fusion submitted to us an unsolicited proposal in late twenty twenty four. We brought it to council in closed session in January. They directed the staff to work on an exclusive negotiating agreement. We brought that back in February.

It's the fastest ENA I have ever negotiated. My my fastest one before this was three months, which was probably not very fast. We did this in four weeks. And then in June so from February to June, we worked really hard to negotiate and get approval on not just a purchase option agreement, which laid out all of the all of the pricing terms for the deal, but also, I think I think much more impressively, the CEQUA checklist, which was completely environmentally clear the project. So all of that happened in about four months.

And then over the summer so we approved that in June. Over the summer, we we weren't really hearing much of anything. We knew they were working on their other two sites, which were Livermore and Albuquerque. And in September, they notified us of their intent to terminate the purchase option. So they they kindly at least made the process very clean for us by doing that. Right? They could have just dragged it out. They really were very clear and upfront and just said, we're we're done. And so a nice clean break. One of the requirements of the purchase option agreement is upon termination, the city receives all third party consultant materials, and I think that might be a benefit to us.

I'm kind of curious to hear from this group. So the the negotiation the deal that was struck was a 13 acre property bounded by Pacific Avenue, Orion Street, and West Ticonderoga Avenue. The building would orient towards this corner of Orion and West Ticonderoga, the the the southwest corner. 220,000 square foot building. Parking cut parking main parking would be on West Ticonderoga.

This is Skyhawk that that was the boundary here. And then then everything between Skyhawk and Central Avenue would be allowed for them to negotiate a second purchase option for a second phase. The price for the first phase was $28,900,000, which they were to deliver through we were through developer led improvements to the infrastructure in the Enterprise District. We negotiated an infrastructure package of 22 to $24,000,000 allowing for some cost overruns. This was the most complicated part of the deal.

I was figuring out, well, what if the price tag is wrong, and what if we run into surprises and now we need a point, which always happens. Never. Never And so and so we so so getting that package exactly right was quite a bit of work where we really buckled down with Public Works. We were Pacific Fusion's developer partner, which was Heinz, scan had a contractor scan the sewer and sewer and storm water lines adjacent because we had to make sure that we were getting as much infrastructure as we could out of the deal, but also that that infrastructure was could support a new new 220,000 square foot building. Right?

It was being built on the navy sewer lines, the navy storm water, the the navy's electrical, which streets were we gonna improve. And so rightsizing that package. So one of so just an example of kind of the nimble decisions we were making was we there is a new sewer pump station that's required down at the the lower left corner. We made the decision not to require Pacific Fusion to build that very expensive piece of infrastructure, but to defer it, but then then the city would be amassing money to do that sewer pump station. We made the decision not to require Pacific Fusion, so we we so this site is supposed to flow south out into the bay.

We made the decision to have it flow west into the Seaplane Lagoon instead so that we could use the existing stormwater system. So we just kind of were making decisions like that as we went along to rightsize that infrastructure package to the value of the land.

How many acres were

in the first purchase? 13. And I'm sorry. I just we're we've been so moving so quickly that I forgot to share screen. Alright. Now I want that to go away. Let's hope I just start doing things and it goes away. Okay. Almost there. It's not now it's not advancing.

Alright. We're gonna do the steel fashioned way. Okay. So the question I'd really love to discuss with you all is how can the city best position the enterprise district to take advantage of private development opportunities like this and leverage what we learned from this process to just do things even better and be, you know, even more aggressive about attracting new development and new and new businesses to the area. So as I mentioned, we completed a lot of work, and I'm sort of, like I'm thinking we can leverage a lot of this work for the future.

I mean, we established pricing terms at so we we and we know, as I mentioned, what infrastructure package would be needed to support a new project and what Public Works is willing to kind of accommodate in terms of using existing lines versus new. We completed a sequence checklist which involved extensive this is like a 400 page document of traffic analysis and environmental analysis. And so I think that that a lot of that's reusable. One of the things I I'm most proud of, like, the and and for those of you who read the news, you know, the the the the the on-site contamination was a huge drama for us this summer. But the navy part of the the southern portion of the site is in the navy petroleum site, and they are required to do ongoing groundwater monitoring in perpetuity.

And there are wells that that the navy accesses to do the testing. And we were able to work with the navy and the environmental agencies. And within two weeks but, basically, we saw where the building was gonna be. We saw where the wells were. We proposed which wells would be demolished and where the wells would be put in, how they would be relocated.

And within two weeks, we had approval from all of the agencies, EPA, Department of Toxic Substances Control, Water Board, and the Navy. So I felt like I'm very proud of how quickly we did that. The Terry refinery material is oil refine oil refinery residuals from pre Navy days, and that's been a bit of an ongoing drama because Chevron is the responsible party for cleaning that up. And they were supposed to have completed their corrective action plan, which is the final step before they can begin the remediation. They were supposed to have completed that in February.

They missed that deadline. There to be fair, the environmental agencies didn't move the goalposts on them. They then missed their July deadline. That's when, the city became a little bit pushy about things, and they did submit a corrective action plan about two months ago. So we actually think they will start the cleanup work on that in early twenty twenty six.

And the other great news is that the cleanup is removable of seven feet of dirt, which is a pretty easy cleanup process. So things that I learned from this before I turn it back to our chair is, really, I'm sort of putting a lot of thought to how we can tell the story of this process and what we did really well and sort of think where Duane and I are thinking about marketing materials and kind of how to really put into words the city's the the speed and flexibility that the city really brought to this process. I think one of the biggest challenges is when, you know, the city really does not want to speculate and hold land. Right? The city like, that's that's been made very clear.

We're not gonna be entering into ten year purchase options just just holding things. I think there's been so much resistance to to that. That. But that means that instead, we're waiting for a business to come in who may or may not know anything about real estate development and probably doesn't, as was the case here. And we were working with actual nuclear physicists on explaining real estate.

And, like, these nuclear physicists, you know, this was an incredibly challenging process for us. And they brought Heinz into the process, and this was really Heinz's responsibility. But the a level of of walk through and explanation that staff had to do of CEQUA and of how these agreements might work and how the entitlement process works. Like, real estate is just hard. And so if we're waiting for that business to come in, then they're and and this was a this is a company two year old company that that has a crazy aggressive timeline for operations, and and they're running on city time.

And it was really immensely frustrating to them, I think. And so how do we like, for a business that's got deliverable to their investors, how do we how do we shorten that amount of time that the real estate transaction and the and the city's entitlements process takes? Like, this the timing of these two things is very different. And then the last was I feel like we and I the collective, including everyone in this room, really refined how we talked about Alameda and and the benefits of being to business of being in Alameda. And I feel like we we all we kind of the talking points didn't change.

I don't think, like, AMP is fabulous benefit of being in Alameda, being central to the bay and the labor force. The ferries are amazing benefit, of quality of life, but I feel feel like the emphasis and where we put the emphasis did shift over this process. In particular, I think one of the sort of epiphanies, and I and I credit Jonathan along with this really was the quality of life in Alameda is what's bringing what's gonna bring business here. It's the quality of living here that brings business here. It's the quality of Park Street and Webster Street and the South Shore Shopping Center and just the the mix of amenities.

And I feel like we went from really under not really emphasizing that to realizing that, like, that was what set us apart from Livermore. Right? Like and that that really is what sets us apart. So I felt like the emphasis shifted a little bit in the tone of our dialogue over the course of the six months. So that, I think, is is pretty much oops.

That was kind of the the crux of my reflections on the process, and I'd love to hear and then I just have again, I just printed this out so you could see the different site conditions and kind of really, we showed these to council during the during the process because we really wanted council to understand the the level of transformation of the infrastructure that we were talking about. So we were showing juxtaposing what the current condition of the area, which is the top, and what has been done along West Tower Avenue, along Pan Am, just, like, what how different Alameda Point looks in the places where we have done the new Backbone Streets. So we just wanted to kind of reinforce that. So with that, chair Nick, I will turn it back to you.

Oh, breathe. Thank you, Abby. Does anyone have any clarifying questions?

Support on different initiatives for that. But it's just what do we learn from that from the city of Alameda and how to maybe leverage the state to what's a big big enough opportunity to try to do a a business or it's covering the care. You know, obviously, New Mexico is trying to bring industry. I mean, I said something. They see what's going on in Arizona with the with the chip making, and so you probably see that. I know it's it's a lot more of that working in Arizona. About these these $770,000,000. A lot

of probably a lot of tax incentives tied to certain

certain milestones that the company must get as far as hiring, how many people they promise to hire, jobs they've created, because I've done this in the past with other companies. So there's strings attached to make that that money,

but it's it's 700 something very substantial. That was what it was in the press. But this group aptly pointed out that the next step we should take is asking Pacific Fusion for feedback, which I just didn't do because I figured the reason was funny. So yes.

And in spite of the money, just to we're after them just to understand the pros and cons. Take them take that money part out of it and just really dig into, well, what did you like about Alamirno, and what did you dislike? Mhmm. So you know what you're working with when the next opportunity comes along.

Yeah.

Just to Mark's point, Abby, I know that the city did have conversations with California's governor's office of GOBIS, and so they were governor's office of GOBIS was engaged. And then there were also a lot of other elected officials at the state and federal level that wanted to see this happen here who also got involved, but I just don't know where that ultimately ended up. I mean, obviously, it ended up in New Mexico.

And I I don't know, Duane. Did you have conversations with GoBiz during this process?

I did. I mean, for me, having been in economic development for a little while and working with GoBiz To me, it seems like GoBiz is more reactionary than proactive. You know, a a long time ago, we had California Trade and Commerce, and the state was, you know, at least in my opinion, twenty years ago, was much more active. And then it turned into GoBiz, and and there are programs that are out there, but I still don't think that we compete very well with other states as far as, like, what the state can offer. We get so go kind of the how how they operate is is leads that are that go into the state then kind of get disseminated to the different regions of different cities.

But many times, that's a a fairly last minute type of process. It's like, here's a company looking if you wanna put together a proposal. So to get, I think, back to your kinda question, to me, it seems like our space has been lacking for a while on what we can what our state is offering for

these type of projects. Mhmm.

So that being said, to compare apples to apples, I would ask them if New Mexico wasn't a contender and it was solely Alameda and Livermore, what would their preference be and why? Mhmm. And and what Brock was saying, you know, what are the what do they like about Alameda, and what did they, you know, not like about Alameda? Because that would be very helpful.

Thought they told us that during when we had that

Yeah.

They're not gonna move those people.

That's right. They're keeping San Leandro and Livermore, and so a lot of people will stay here. And even some of the C suite is planning to just commute. I

mean, it's like Kairos Power, who's a tenant of ours, up in you know, they have huge R and D. You know, they're the the population in that building now is just mushroomed, but they're building their nuclear reactors in Tennessee Right. And New Mexico. Right? But they can't get the talent there. So Yeah. You know, the R and D states here. You guys are rare in that you have so much of your operation here, but my whole career, I've watched come you know, we innovate like crazy here. But the minute something's ready to commercialize, it leaves. And I don't think it's always because of cost.

It's times the bigger, you know, for the more sophisticated manufacturing where the talent is so critical and Mhmm. Being close. You know, if you're making cookies and donuts, then that is more likely to leave. But if it's something more sophisticated where the engineering talent I think if we could get rid of the regulation or shorten the regulation Mhmm. Cost would be less of an issue.

Well, it seems like it would be I mean, so much work was done during, you know, nine months into this thing, and, clearly, there's a lot. Even the next party that happens to come along, you've already answered a lot of questions that can be an advantage to even make it go faster next time. Mhmm. I think it'd be, you know, important to kind of remember all that, document all that so that you you can fall back on it quickly. So, you know, you're asking a lot of what you're asking is probably buried in the work you've already done as far as what we can do next time, you know, just get through.

You you answered a bunch of questions. Mhmm. It would be on the table next time.

Yeah.

And even though circumstances are different, but, you you know, know, it it could could surmise something when somebody's asking, well, how fast could this happen? Mhmm. And I think it'd be worth chasing the state, into that at least so you know which channels, where to explore those channel channels more quickly next time. Really With the Go

Biz, you mean?

Yeah. Go Biz, whatever. I mean, this is not really something I do chasing the state for money from government group to government group, but, you know, to really just dig into that a little further and kinda go about it hypothetically so that you really you really do know what what leverage. I mean, it's we're gonna continue to do 700 70,000,000, but that's a pretty unique situation too. Mhmm.

I think you're it's kind of about you did the work on the infrastructure studies. It's super important because as I looked at some things I've done in the past when I was in Amazon, we were moving the charging stations for electric vans. And we specifically chose and we were doing this nationwide. So we

were looking at this we chose where

to launch that electric van first based on where we could get power. Utility. We're gonna the utilities. Every utility company is different. Every state every city is different, and it was a real headache.

And so we chose places that and it was, like, going quickly and had power and could get sites set up fast. So infrastructure is a huge thing. And then when I was about depending on what building car factories, important power. So this is. The more the city can present something that says you're infrastructure ready, that's huge.

I have a question about, you had mentioned looking for grants or other sources of funding. Have you identified anything specific yet?

It's a good question. We we have. There's obviously, the federal government's not giving a lot of money for adaptation right now, but the the state, you know, is. But one of the opportunities we were able to leverage very quickly, not for the Enterprise District, but for Alameda Point was we are applying for a $15,000,000 army corps of engineers grant to do work on the seawall on the north side on the estuary, realizing that and and they'll just put in a plug that on Saturday, we're doing a walking tour with the city council sort of teeing up the next phase of housing development. And we raised with the city manager, you know, this development will not be able to pay for the seawall here, and we will not be able to build the housing without the seawall.

And she pivoted. We had this opportunity to apply for this grant that was we were the city had been looking actually at doing something else with it, and pivoted very quickly and actually redirected the entire process to designing the seawall to protect the s the Northern Side of Algerna Point. So, yes, we have. We've also Mark has been tuning us into some federal port infrastructure money that we're hoping we can pursue next year, probably not on seawall work, but on repairs. So we're trying our best to, you know, identify other other sources.

We also just got word this this evening. There's another state source of funding for for affordable housing, and we just got word that the first phase of ReShape is the top ranked candidate to be granted this it's the money through the cap and trade program. And with that, we partnered with the SF Bay Ferry to pay for their burial electrification, and we're also gonna we also have a couple of blocks of pet and bike improvements. So, like, we're piecing it together. It tends to be for, like, easier, more ribbon cutting type projects. Right? If you I'm sure you're all aware. Right? So getting the the addressing adaptation, head and bike improvements, safety improvements, affordable housing. Right?

It's not gonna be so that's been a little bit of a challenge. But I think that we can we can continue to look for sources. Like, we have an inventory of exactly what we need.

Is there federal funding for former military bases? Does that funding cycle still exist for any kind of infrastructure improvements?

No. Yeah. It it really doesn't. So, yeah, it doesn't. So, hopefully, it will come back around. I don't know.

I can't help but think that, you know, because this was unsolicited when the centrifugal came to Alameda, I almost think that it's I don't wanna say a blessing to this guys, but it's it has it's impetus to kind of get our stuff stuff together. So we have done the research. We've learned all these things. The first meeting that I attended for EDAP was a conversation about blue tech.

Yes. Do you remember that?

And so I almost feel like we have to go back to that perspective where we said, what makes unique? And I had heard about Mhmm. There's very few places that have, you know, the water and the kind of stuff. So I almost feel like we have to think about, you know, marketing, what makes Alameda unique, and and pull those kind of industries because that, I think, is a big selling point. Mhmm. You know, Livermore and Alameda are, I think, different. So if we can if we can show that, hey. There's very few places like this Mhmm. I feel like that would be a big drop. Mhmm.

So I I just I would hate to see us go off course, you know, lamenting that we can't have fusion here because it wasn't initially the, I would say, ideal kind of, you know, technology that we wanted here. So I just wanted to Yes. Put that focus back on.

I think we Positive. Yes.

Well, yeah. And then also, you know, if we're looking at a marketing focus Mhmm. You know, I think the uniqueness is important to capitalize on.

Mhmm. What do you

mean by the technology that you set up with?

There was the first meeting I went to was

all about blue tech.

So Nobody

said about Pacific Fusion. It's not a good technology?

Oh, no. Because it was unsolicited. So they came to Alameda Right?

It was on It was on our radar right now.

But nothing bad about the technology?

No. Not at all. I'm just saying instead of instead of pursuing a potential, you know, other fusion company, why don't we go back to the idea of, hey. Know, what kind of businesses or what kind of technology lights Alameda for the uniqueness? And that has to do with being by the water and

all those

other things that I heard.

Mhmm. I think we're desperate enough to retake anything, tech. I

mean, I think that,

you know, the the city needing to figure out the infrastructure and keep pushing for that almost regardless of whether you've got a perspective

Right. Mhmm.

Tenant or what have you. Because, again, making the place more presentable and more so people can envision it, especially if they're if they're engineers and they're coming from a completely different thing. They're like, we gotta do wet sewer and water. What are you what are you talking about? We we wanna bombard atoms.

And so, you know, In one way or another, really, the city is paying for the infrastructure. Right? I mean, at the end of the day, the city is paying for the infrastructure. It's the city's infrastructure. And I realized that there's not money growing on trees anywhere, but to just keep hammering that, trying to find sources, and just to keep trying to build incrementally if nothing else.

I mean, every little every block is another advantage you have to attract a tenant or a buyer. Because, I mean, really, development in in the rest of the world, it it happens largely that way where a a will come in and grade property, put in infrastructure and utilities, and then they sell they sell the lots. They sell the they sell the property. They're not they're not the ones that are building the buildings and what have you. That's very, very difficult. I mean, you like a. That's pretty much what they do. Mhmm. And

yeah. Because

it looks it looks intimidating the way it is, unfortunately.

Yes. Yeah.

No. I mean, that goes right to you know, build a suit is very difficult. And for these tenants, you know, it's very complex. They don't understand it, but very few things get done that way. And so, you know, in most cases, like you just described, you know, a developer developer comes in, gets a plan approved, and they build speculatively.

You know, may build just infrastructure and sell lots or may build shell buildings. And that's a huge benefit, especially these technology companies because time, you know, time to market is so critical and and time is expensive. So, you know, I know the city hasn't wanted to allow someone to tie up land for long periods of time, but at the same time, getting someone to come in and get control and build something, you know, a box that would be attractive to advanced manufacturing and R it will greatly raise the probability of getting it developed. Mhmm.

I think that's why the city is seeking to make sure that the infrastructure bond gets on the ballot next year. That's gonna help us a lot because we don't this doesn't have the response that we can all participate in this infrastructure bond to get pushed because they've not make it before. And now they're asking 800,000, but the more we wait, the more the the cost will be more expensive. So we need to do something about that.

But I know that, you know, all of Mission Bay pretty much got developed with infrastructure first. Mhmm. And then the infrastructure was you know, they were trying to follow it with with people who are coming to buy property and go with buildings that, you know, they have all sorts of different owners of the actual property and the actual buildings there, but the infrastructure, I know there was a partnership between city. I I don't know. Know, the whole relationship and how that work, but we did a ton of work over there that was four could tell us.

Mhmm. Yeah. Sometimes we're developments in putting in roads and streets in no man's land, but you're over there now. It's Mhmm. It's a whole different world. Mhmm.

We've we've started to think about this a little bit around so up in the reuse area, I think we've discussed this before, but, you know, where the city is is taking on building the infrastructure loops because we don't have a master developer and will not have a master developer. Phase one is complete, and we phase two has a price tag of 43,000,000, and I'm working right now on getting to getting to the math. Right? And the city strategy to date that was approved by council was sell the properties that are around the phase one loop where that infrastructure already is and leverage the money from that into the phase two loop and then sell those properties in the phase two loop. The challenge being the most lucrative property on the Phase 1 loop is Building 41, which is where Dewar is at the corner of West Tower and and Pan Am, and we don't own that.

The Navy still owns it, and we'll own it for at least another year to two years. And so I have started to look with Kaiser Marston, our economic consultant at, I mean, infrastructure finance, right, using using some kind of infrastructure finance mechanism where we could bond off of the bond off of the lease revenue from the buildings on phase two to build to to just build that loop preemptively. And I don't know if I mean, I think we should be looking at those kinds of financing mechanisms for the enterprise district to challenge whatever we want. What is what is the revenue security of that? And the reuse area, we have a lot of leases and a lot of lease revenue. We have some in the enterprise district, but I think we like, to your point about if we put what if

we put the infrastructure first.

I see I see two ways. I'm curious what others see, but I see two ways to do that. One is the city figured out a way to finance it. Right? Because we don't we don't have that money sitting. We don't have 30,000,000 sitting in the bank in our value point fund. And the second way is to bring in a developer who's willing to take on that risk with some favorable deal from the city. And I don't see any other ways, but curious if others have thoughts about putting the infrastructure first so that it is not that daunting and overwhelming

Mhmm.

A factor in the decision making. Yeah.

I I mean, you know, for for the city itself to be developed for, I would I would look for I would look for a partner and somebody who is used to doing that and has the financing wherewithal, maybe even has deep pockets themselves to yeah. We probably do have to have put on a sweet deal of some sort. But it's it's a it's it seems like it's a pretty common pattern that it gets done that way. That's completely different entity that is doing infrastructure, and I I don't know all the behind the scenes deals that are made. But and then a completely different builder comes in, and That is whether it's residential or commercial.

My guess is it's usually a master developer.

I don't I don't know, Joe. You No. It is. I know in case of Mission Bay, you know, it

was from Carolin Capital. Yeah.

You tell us. And Right. You know, they're building to lot values, to sell lot values. Some of it, they'll develop themselves. Some of it, they'll sell. Mhmm. But they're they're building to a market they believe is there, know is there. And which I think can exist here, I mean, again,

with the power, the community.

You know, there's there's comfort that Gallaudet Point is gonna get a momentum to it. You know? Not keep going. You know? Exciting about going and then got stopped by pandemic challenges. But, you know, some things are outside of control. But you know?

So are you saying you think we need to build more of a momentum and level of certainty that there's a there there. Yep. And then that's the point at which we could consider a financing mechanism or somebody would be willing to assume the risk Right. Mhmm. Of a multiphase future.

Yeah. If they have, you know, a big enough stake, you know, a first phase, I don't wanna say it's a loss leader, but it, you know, may be the most volatile, you know, if there's, you know, additional opportunity or to make up through vertical development or additional land Mhmm. As part of the deal. Mhmm. But I think it's gonna be a much better chance of getting something done if somebody can come in and tie up the land for an acceptable period of time and and build speculatively versus waiting for a tenant to do a build to suit.

That's just it that's very difficult.

Joe, what do you think of the city doing in the infrastructure as a way of creating momentum?

I think it'd be great if Is

that a plan to to you as a developer?

Or does that kind of box you in?

No. No.

It okay. You know, it's it's a challenging piece that we're done. Very attractive in shortening the delivery time

frame. Mhmm.

You know, the land value will go will go up more significantly if that risk is derisked.

It seems like it's the same decision, like, two sides of a coin, whether the city develops it or Mhmm. They allow a master developer too. But the city's reluctant to have a developer sit on it for ten years and then walk away like like SunCal or somebody. Granted, that was a much larger

play. Yeah. I think it's hard to structure you or someone who just comes in a land base.

Yeah. That's it seems like if the city just as a perspective, if the city did some sort of backbone infrastructure, it's one less sort of upfront expensive developers to risk of selling. Mhmm. And then the developer has some idea of, okay. I'm purchasing this land for a vaccine.

Can sell it for y, and there's no other in a variable in there. It just seems like because it's we've been out there since '97, and it it's a wasteland. Like, there's just there's as far as I can walk, there's nobody out there. And it doesn't seem like other fusion dropping out of the sky, anyone's coming anytime soon to rescue us. So maybe that my medicine comes from within through a bond or grant or something.

And maybe it's the bigger risk that it's like the outfall or vacation or a bond. So maybe it's

a long time. It's complex, and someone who wanted to come in wouldn't maybe understand or didn't have the timeline for.

You know, like, he's been, like, water loops. Mhmm. Forever. Mhmm.

We did have some conversation during this process about doing an enhanced infrastructure finance district, which for those who are not entirely familiar with all of California's financing tools. Basically, it it replaced redevelopment where we can take the tax increment, but property tax increment from the future development, and we can take all of that increment and potentially bond against it. But but the challenge that we were running into is the city is in a very vulnerable fiscal position, and the concept that property tax is going to the general fund. When we're leasing and selling buildings, when there's a provision in the in the conveyance agreement with the navy that through, I wanna say, 2037, but I might have to hear wrong, any revenue from leases and sales at Alameda Point stays at Alameda Point cannot leave the base. And and so the the at the this year, we were barely able to balance our budget, but every city around us is even even a worse position.

It was really hard to entertain the idea of redirecting property tax, even future prop even future property tax that's not in hand. But if we could find a way around that issue that, like, that seems like the best bet in terms of a way to get this done sooner rather than later in a meaningful way. Because I think now we kind of have order of magnitude that, like, doing we know that this one, this was about $30,000,000 in '25.

Well, you did huge. You've done you've done

a lot of the groundwork. We have a goalpost now. We have a dollar amount that we know we have to have.

You even have I'm looking at drawings. You even have some scope ideas on what you wanna do. Yeah. It seems like if you could figure a way to finance that against some future sale, it might be more attractive to a group of developers even if it's not a large area. Maybe it's it's the 13 or 14 acre plots you're selling at a time. I don't know what's a better way to to attract a development team, but it seems like the infrastructure were there. You've become the Catullus at Mission Bay. Mhmm. And maybe that's what it takes to jump start this area.

Mhmm. Has

there been any discussion around opportunity zone with the new opportunity zone rigs coming in?

I have not looked into it. I think that's something we need to really better understand. Are they gonna redefine the opportunity zones?

I know some zones will go away and not too you know, they will get in each other. Yeah. So

Okay. Well, I'm I think, really, I think it's really important for us to strike strike while there is hot. Right? While this information is fresh, Chevron's doing the cleanup work, we, you know, we have this. It's just gonna get updated really quick. Mhmm. So I think we we need to figure out how to kind of just position ourselves and and put ourselves back out there in early twenty twenty six. Like, I I think we really wanna be back out there,

you

know, first half of the year at the latest. So

The other suggestion, just to reiterate, is I I would say you really wanna do some sort of a documented lessons learned that included a certain fusion, but also took some of this into account because you're gonna forget it Yes. Or lose it. It's it's a it's a best practice we do on proposals. Mhmm. So we we have a formal lessons learned process, and we have a lessons learned library. Now you've got a new staff. It's an easy way to bring them up to speed on what you did. Because you've done looking at the timeline, mean, in six months, you did this. That's

Yeah. That was. We

haven't even talked about the engagement and mindset that was turned around in the community. Yeah. That's during that time. Yeah.

Are there other questions or comments? No. Did we address what you're looking to hear in discussion?

I think I think so. I think we need to I think we need to reach out to Pacific Fusion, and and and I appreciate that you all have given me questions to to ask. Thank you for that. And regroup, and I think we need to put some thought to the infrastructure finance, like, really deep dive on that a little bit more and figure out our marketing strategy. And for those who aren't aware, we're also in the process of entering into a new broker listing agreement. And so that's also just kind of a moment for us to reinvigorate our marketing with Fishman and Wakefield or whoever else it may be, Fishman being our existing broker, and just take the opportunity to just start fresh. So

When you're questioning Pacific Fusion about it, I will don't let them just say it was because of the money because there's there's other things there. You know? And and that might be the easy way for them to answer. Mhmm. But really easy to say, be really honest. What are the things that we need to work on? What are the there are some cons that Alameda that let us know what they are. And are they can we overcome?

Yeah. Not for the money. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I appreciate that.

So this item was for discussion only, so there's no action required.

Do do we wanna Duane, do you wanna check your we have no participants on Zoom. Mm-mm. No. We have no Do do you wanna check your email to see if have public written public comment? No.

I don't have anybody. Okay. You're okay. Well, actually, I'm not sure if this I was oh, I should apologize for being late today. I have a I a have family member that's going through medical treatment. I was out in Vallejo and then hit more traffic than I thought to. So It's not going on. Maybe

We're we're not

sure if we're. Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So he he just started on Monday, so we're excited because now we have a full team. And so we're figuring out ways to plug him in. He's got a great background. So so yeah. So Of course.

Missed it. Where did you where did you come from? Sure.

What what office were you with? I was

in the San Francisco office,

but most of my projects were in

The US. So Oh.

So a really good fit for us. So we're excited. We started on Monday. So thought that this would be a good introduction once we're taking around all our meetings and meeting people. So welcome to the other

one. Uh-huh.

So so the next six b is just recommendation to approve our schedule for '26 and see if that works. We're keeping on the first Wednesday of the month. So we have four dates, March 3, June March 4, June 3, September 2, and December 2. The first order

of business is to I'm sorry. March 4.

March 4, June 3, September 2, and December 2. So those are the first Wednesdays of those or will be

quarterly. Mhmm.

So those work for everyone those days.

Okay.

Okay. I'm writing a little note here.

You gonna send out a calendar invite to pull those dates?

Yes. Okay.

Yeah. So right after this, we'll we'll set it up so you

have all the headaches.

K. Okay. So then so the next one is request suggestions for discussion topics for future meetings. So,

you know,

we we moved this to a quarterly meeting, and and so we we talked before about how I think this is a great collective group with with all the experience that you bring from different levels of businesses, public and private. And so we wanna make sure we're maximizing kind of your time and our exposure to your knowledge and and and your experience. So thought we could just spend a little bit of time tonight kind of going and thinking about ways of future discussions for our future meetings. And and one of the things I I want to do is just kind of as a as setting the kind of the stage for that, give you guys a little bit better idea of of kind of what we have, what our activities are, what we're planning for for kind of 2026. So if you don't mind, I'll just spend a couple minutes kind of walking through this so that'll give you guys a better idea of what we're doing and then how then that's kinda setting the stage for how our interaction with this group can can play into that.

So I just put down here, so staff, just so you understand. So now we're we have a full staff. I divided that kind of our activities into four kind of broad categories, large business activities, small business. We have we have ongoing programs that that we manage, and then we and then I'll I'll get into kind of a a onetime kind of project management. Does everyone have one of these?

Mhmm. Yeah.

Okay. So in the category of large business activities, we we started something a while ago called at your service program, and it's basically a kind of a liaison service. So if a company comes in and wants to, you know, do something in Alameda, the idea is that's kind of that would be the handholding aspect of economic development to reach out to them and to be, okay. We will walk you through this process. We'll be the interface with you with other kind of departments.

So that's an ongoing kind of process for us, and part of that is is is working you know, this partnership that we have with other departments. So that's something that that we're working towards to make sure that that partnership works well and that we're all kind of on the same page. There's ultimately kind of the typically, the issue that you have is in economic development, we are the ones that want the deals to happen. We wanna move things along as quickly as possible. Let's take away the barriers.

But other departments are set up because they're they're a regulatory department, ultimately. So it's kind of for us, it's kind of riding that line between we wanna we know we have to keep

the regulations, but we wanna

how can we make this as smooth as possible? So that's what that program is about. Commercial broker engagements, that's you know, part of this expanding our marketing is is we wanna have a a greater relationship with brokers. So in in past cities I've worked with, we've had sort of so we have the commercial brokerage community in our in our business parks, our office parks. So for us to have the regular check ins with them, how what's the market?

What are you working on? What are the properties that we should be aware of? And then biannual events is is having things like Alameda tours, breakfasts, and lunches, stuff like that. We're we're bringing that group of people together because many times those the brokers will have their specific kind of expertise. But one of the things that we could bring to the table for them is to give them a better understanding of what's going on globally kind of in Alameda, which they may not know about.

Different projects, different programs, budgets, things like that. So so that's something that we're gonna be instituting this year. Business visitation program. I mean, a lot of cities do this. We've done this before, but it's really just our way to if if we're gonna meet the needs of the business community, we have to have a relationship with them. We need to talk to them. We need to understand why are they here now? I need to why they come now? I need to what are the issues that they're dealing with? And so that really happens in those kind of face to face kind of meetings.

So we have that we have we basically have this list of, okay. Let's let's let's pick larger employers. Let's have large sales tax general, people from all different kind of categories. But that's the goal of that kind of program. EDAP here are quarterly meetings from the workforce, and that's it's a big kind of category for us and something that we'd like to talk about more with this group.

So right now, we have we the city runs a summer internship program. So the the career fair that we do at the at the high school, that's kind of the introduction to to what types of internships are available at the city of Alameda. So we coordinate with that with all the other departments in the city, and that's gone well. So the career fair is high school, and then we do the the job fair. We've done that last couple years at South Shore Center.

So that's more of a, okay, getting employers out there with boots. We can talk about this more, but I I I we'd like to get more involved. Those the jobs that that the internships that we have now are high school. We'd like to get more involved in college. We'd like to get more involved with workforce, you know, after you graduate.

So the workforce needs so that's something I I kinda like to talk about after we're done. And then the and then I'll be the point liaison. So so our groups work together. Abby's group is is working on on, you know, getting people here and and the but once they're here, then we kinda work together so that so that we're out also talking to businesses. So they may have a ten year lease.

They may already they may be here for a while, but it's important for us to to to understand their needs. So that's kind of how our how our groups come together. Small business activities. So we work quite closely with with the downtown Alameda Business Associations and then the West Alameda Business Associations. So we we have monthly meetings with them from an economic development standpoint.

We attend their board meetings. A lot of this is is then pushing us into this next lineup, which is the vacancy program. So city council is very one of the one of the priorities for us is to improve the overall vacancies in our in our kind of main downtown corridors. So we're very involved with that as far as identifying which properties are vacant. A lot of it is is also looking at kind of the the process that we that that property owners and and these buildings go through.

So so we've, I think, kind of ratcheted up our involvement from the from the planning, from the building side as far as what does it take for for for new tenants to come into buildings. And so we're looking at that a lot. Every month, we have meetings. We meet with brokers. We meet with the property owners.

We've kind of we've taken all the vacancies and put them in kind of different categories, and so that's a pretty big effort for us. But I think I think from a infrastructure standpoint of of how we do business, I think that's also improving. And our and that's that's coming a lot from our planning and building departments. SBDC liaisons. So we started a contract with the SBDC this last year.

So they're gonna be coming back again at in January. If you're not familiar, SBDC stands for the small business development centers. The one that we have in the one that we have out in Hayward covers Alameda and Costa County. So we contracted with them to come directly to Alameda. So so it's a partnership with the chamber. They cover the chamber. They do small business consulting. They do workshops. And so so that's our kind of time with them. Chamber liaison. I see Madeline periodically.

But Rarely see rarely other.

Yeah. Yeah. So we talk quite often. No. It's I think it's I told that one before. I I think of all the cities I've worked in, not just because you're here, but I think this is the this chamber has the most has the greatest connection that I've seen with with the business community, with large businesses. For a lot of the cities that I've worked in, it's been mostly, you know, the small business, mom

and pop type of stuff. But I think

I think here, there's a really good connection with the chamber and and this board and with large businesses. So that's it's a great partnership we have, hopefully. But so that's when we do it for our shop local programs. We do that kind of throughout the year. So we just you know, our department just started a 12 it's the twelve days of Alameda. Yeah.

So you

have kind of different themes, and so you'll see that information out there. I think there's, like, a 100 and something, 20 businesses participating. And so the theme this year is going out to visit these different businesses, and they're all kind of in different categories. And so you go to the business, you buy something, you get a ticket, and then we have drawings for gift baskets that are kind of based around these twelve days of of shopping. So it's one of the things that we do to promote shopping local, getting out, staying in Alameda, and supporting our local businesses.

Saw Sarah Henry on KTVU talking about it yesterday. She did an amazing job.

Oh, really? I didn't see

that yet. She got almost, like, five minutes of in studio time, free publicity.

Okay.

She did a really good job.

Yeah.

Good.

Yeah.

And then along with that, we also do we've done for a while. We do restaurant week as well. So kinda highlight our local restaurants. A lot of cities do that. So that's a way that we could kinda promote that kind of category.

Program management. So we have, in economic development, quite a few programs that are ongoing for us. The first one I have here is our special events grant program. So so those are funds that are set aside to, in many ways, help pay for city kind of mandates that come up through holding special events. So, you know, if you're doing an event here in Alameda and you'll you'll need to pay for police or for for traffic routing or if you're having food for, you know, having sustainable server awareness.

So those type of things that that cost additional money for people to have events here, then then they can apply for a grant program from our department. And then the next the next door is kinda tied together. So public arts program. So we have the ordinance in Alameda. Is that I think it's over is it 200,000?

I think it is. So if you're any development that's over a certain dollar amount, then you have to put in 1% of that dollar amount into supporting public art. And so you have the option of either providing that art yourself or putting the money into the art fund. And then at that point, the city then goes out and does an RFP to find an artist to do that. So so that program has been going on for a long time. I'm trying to think the next I mean, you'll if you I don't know. Need a point. Storehouse

Lofts, they're

the next one. I think that's gonna you'll that you'll be seeing on the we'll putting a sculpture out there. And then we're also looking at public art from the from the fund either at Washington Park or else at the potentially at the new swim center at the city's building. So our department's it runs that program. Along with that is we also have something called cultural arts.

So the public art is actual physical art. Cultural arts is you can get grants for putting on kind of activity art. So whether that's, you know, dance programs or or radium has done things. So those are kind of the activities. And the time with economic development is that, you know, our arts are important component to to our community.

And so feel that it enriches our lives, and it and it makes our city a better community because we have that. So that's kind of how we're tied into that. Guaranteed basic income program started, I guess, it was two years ago. Mhmm. So that was a program that came we there was ARPA money that the city had, and you've probably heard about these programs in different areas.

That's basically where money is set aside for people that are participating in the program, and then they get a monthly check. And so it's been two years. The last the participants just got their last check-in November. We went for the city council, talked about kind of the results of the first year of the program, and then we'll be going back in the spring to talk about kind of what were the results of the overall for the over that two year period. And right now, it's the we're going through a process of of being able to kinda tell that story.

So I think that was a real successful program that made it made it a huge difference kind of in their lives. Minimum wage. So we track that for the city of Alameda. So Alameda has its own minimum minimum wage kind of requirements. So I think every spring that we come out with how that's calculated, that gets sent out to the businesses.

This year well, I'll I'll skip over the next one and just get into back to the the grants. We also do facade grants. So we've been doing that for a while. The one difference is this year, we are we're expanding the program and kind of making it we used to have kind of a lot of different categories. Now it's a much more simpler kind of program, Alameda wide. And then the other thing we're doing kind of tying back to the vacancy program is that, you know, we realized that for Park Street, Webster I mean, you gotta you have a fair number of older buildings. And so so the rationale is,

you know, if if we're

gonna be trying to change the use of those buildings, it's gonna require not only exterior improvements, but interior improvements as well. And so now our programs will be expanded to allow to to allow you to do interior improvements as long as it's same amount as exterior. So that way, you know, you've got an old bank building or whatever it is. Now someone's gonna change it into a restaurant, but you've gotta do, you know, sewer, water, ADA, bathrooms, all that kind of stuff. So now this program can apply to that. And the last category we also have is because this is an overall safety category.

Oh, these grants are loans?

These are grants. So so they're all fifty fifty. So the the applicant does the work, pays it, and then we we reimburse them.

So Is it are these the only people that come forward looking for a grant, or does the city ever go around saying, you know, do something.

So we I think it's pretty well known. So we every in January, we go out,

and

it's kind of so Sarah will send it out. Okay. We have this program available.

Well, I'm thinking like cherry picking. Yeah. Because I mean He's got something in mind. Yeah. Know. I mean, I could think of some places, and I'll keep it to myself, but it's just you know, it it can make such a big difference even to the business that's next door. Yeah.

Well, I'll touch on that a little bit because when when I talk And

I only ask because I think sometimes those kind of boners or whatever, they kind of are Right. They just aren't paying any attention, or they don't even notice it. Yeah. So they wouldn't even think of the grant or or whatever. Right. So

So one of the things that we did is when we first looked at the program, we our first approach was, well, okay. We're just gonna work with the people that are willing to do the work. We're just gonna work with the property owners that are invested, that wanna do something. Then we realized, well, then we're probably never gonna make a difference for those ones that aren't invested. So we kinda divide everyone into into four categories, and that and that I shouldn't say lowest category, but one of the categories is essentially disinterested owners for whatever reason it is.

So we actually sent so we sent out letters with the mayor saying, you know, hey. Vacancies are important. You own a building in downtown. It looks like it's been vacant for a long time. Things are kind of falling apart. We'd like to work with you. And so and and and then also our billing department through code enforcement, now they've kind of ramped up what their requirements are and that they can actually find people for not doing things. So in that process, then we would then reach out to say, you know, we have this program available, and this might you may be a great candidate for that. So it's kind of both. Yeah.

Okay. And then and then social I put this down here as part of our overall kind of marketing effort. One of the things we feel we need to do and and is just do a better job of kinda telling the story of what economic development's about and and the activities that we're involved in. And so so we're we're planning on kind of ramping that up this year as well. Quickly, I'll go through project management.

These are all kind of one time things that we're involved with. In our downtown, it's I think it's been twenty or thirty years with our existing zoning. So so we're we're looking to find a department to do an update of the zoning in those downtowns essentially to make it a kind of a cleaner process, quicker, expand things that are are allowed by right. And so in January, we're putting together kind of a working group of brokers, property owners, representatives of the city. And so starting January, we're gonna be looking at at doing that.

For our internal use, we have a a CRM, a customer relationship management program that we're that we're putting together, and that'll help us do a better job of kind of keeping track of how we're meeting with people, talking to people. So getting to, I think, catching up with technology of of how we do our work. We're back to kinda telling the story. We're gonna be doing a quarterly economic development newsletter. We have two websites that we're finishing up.

So one of them working with the chamber on on a Choose Alameda website. So this group, I think two meetings ago, talked about kind of one of the messages. So we're pretty close to to showing that to you guys of of what that looks like. But that's that's the main that's the attraction kind of website. So anyone who wants to do a project invested in Alameda, that's the information.

That's where they would go get that kind of information. And then Spirituality, we we've had a Spirituality website for a while, and we're updating that and going most likely in the direction of having it be covering all of our viewpoint. So the feedback we got was that, well, you're, you know, you're coming maybe to go to a faction or wherever you're going, but you don't know that there's restaurants here, there's activities here, employment here. So we're putting a website together that's gonna cover all those kind of things. Spirit's funny. We do need to come up with a new Yeah. Has been around for a while, so we're looking at how we it could be

We're open, Mark.

We're

open. Draw on point.

Along with that, we were looking at the point, the way the signage that we have out there. So

quite a bit

of it is old and needs to be repaired. So that's something that we're looking at kind of your points about how it looks and feels. So that's something that we know we need to be involved with. Okinawan access project, so that's been ongoing. We're learning more about that.

That's getting closer and closer. So from our department standpoint, it's it's it's working with working with those the people that are doing the work to make sure that that information is getting down to the business community. They and they know. So we have our own website that's gonna be launched, that's gonna talk about the business resources that are available, things like our SPEC and find out where your customers are coming from so that when people are impacted because that tube work, that there's also some resources that they know are out there.

But do you know when that's

gonna start? Because I know there's moving traffic.

Right now, they're saying January. I mean, they're still negotiating the scope, so we'll see. And

then the last thing is business sector attraction marketing. I put that I phrased it that way because, you know, our goal really is to do kind of what you talked about. It's it's it's much more targeted attraction. And so how do we tell the story for blue tech companies? What is that store there's gonna be some common themes that we have, and we talked about that.

And, you know, what should we be stressing that that you guys gave us direction on that as far as infrastructure and cost to do business, cost to open your business? Some things will be common, but then other things would be much more targeted if you're a biotech company, clean tech company, blue tech. So that's the direction we're going on. So that was that's hopefully gives you kind of an idea of of the activities that we're doing. And so I wanted to I'm happy to answer questions about any of these, but maybe if if that's a framework for things that we should be discussing.

So so I thought I'd wanna open up to kind of ideas that you see, whether it's whether it's on here tied to one of these or not of of what are some of the points that we should be discussing. I'll throw out one because it's it's in here already is is kind of that the workforce idea. Because we've heard that in a number of different ways. Some of them are like the executive roundtables that we've had with the chamber, and and we've heard that kind of message already about I think the message was we could find engineers that have that decree, but we need to find technicians. So maybe we can start with that, and I'm happy to open up to kind of types of things that we should be discussing when we When

you say workforce, are you talking about promoting the Alameda Island workforce or the city workforce? Or what's your target in that discussion?

Well, for for me, it's well, two things. One is from an attraction standpoint, we're we'll we'll be talking about workforce of what's available in Alameda and around the area. I was thinking more of of of of local work. How do we how do we make sure that the workforce that we have here in Alameda meets the needs of Alameda companies?

And I think, specifically, we've been brainstorming about a joint presentation with College of Alameda around training programs, and sort of how that meets the needs of employers.

And right now, everything's been done sort of, like, piecemeal. Like, just yesterday, we were over at Pika. Mhmm. And they were talking to us about their workforce needs, and we were talking to them about students we thought that might be a good fit primarily at this time. Aviation maintenance technology, maybe some diesel mechanics because we're going into heavy duty electric.

They're gonna come out to the college to present that this relationship was brokered by regional director of advanced transportation, funded by the Bay Area Community College Consortium and hosted at the College of Alameda. So she brought us all together and connects us with transit companies. So if if there is another person, an entity that could sort of facilitate those introductions, I I think that's what you're suggesting. Right? Yes. To the students in our different programs, that would be really really good.

So I know we like, we would talk about workforce needs would come up in our business visits, but but we we have, you know, Alameda Point coalition. We have coalition type of meetings. We have roundtable meetings.

I I mean, I just so this is a there's a lot on this list. I mean, it seems like a pretty big fight. Fact that the city has got budget concerns, mean, how how how much bandwidth are you working with and and let's do grants. Let's let's fix everything. How how well funded do you feel you are relative to going after this whole risk Yeah. Before we start adding more.

Well, I mean, we're fun to do this list. It I I think this discussion tonight is the kind of, well, answer your question, first of workforce. I think for us, economic development, I mean, a lot of our role should be this kind of that liaison role anyway. So it would be how do we how do we initiate discussions? How do we bring together industry with with providers? And so I think it for me, that's how our work plays out in this. It it's not doing the programs or funding the programs, but how do we

Collaborate collaborating with our college and other places. Yeah.

So, like, again, some of that is happening, you know, with the city. I don't know how well coordinated it is. I'm really excited about the city's plan. Somebody was at our facilities tech meeting, and we're gonna share a parking lot from our 860 Atlantic site. Is is that you who sent that? I was trying to find the name. I forgot.

Probably Justin. Email isn't loading right. Justin Long, the director. Yeah. Yeah.

So it seems like it's happening anyway, but I don't know if it's one concerted effort or if it's just when it comes out when when a project gets started that, you know, Yeah.

And for this group, I mean, if if it's on our agenda, I mean, today's function today's, you know, reason for this item is really for us to stick out kind of discussions about what we should be discussing in the future. So it's it's more of, okay. Let's in March, what do we wanna talk about in March? What are those topics maybe workforce and then and then getting people around the table. So so I that's really, I think, goal for tonight is kind of are there ideas that you have of of what should we what we we should be discussing in our meetings that kind of work within the framework of of what we're trying to accomplish with economic development.

I think economic development workforce is tied up together. Mhmm. It's a great deal. And what you hear and what I hear all the time in different needs that we have, it's always the talent pipeline that businesses are losing here because they're they're not having enough, and they're getting them from outside the community here. But But then they get coached from their own community, and they lose them here. And that's why we need to make sure that we really hone down workforce here at talent. And, again, I remember the College of Alameda is huge.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I I Industry specific discussions. There was an event years ago. Was it sales drone? You guys are, like, brand new. And and Moe's father was, like, fairly new. And who was the Fremont economic development director she presented? But it was it was a discussion on manufacturing. And,

you know,

Kelly yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, to me, those kind of things start to create dialogue. You know, a lot

of purpose, you know, around workforce. Yeah.

That kinda create a draw with the schools. Mhmm. I can't remember who put that on. Or but it was in a location manufacturing, talking about manufacturing. Would have been really neat to see it continue. Mhmm. Yeah. You know, that kind of dialogue, that culture that gets created, that environment. I think a lot of this stuff Mhmm. Yeah. Can draft off

of it.

Yeah. I put in my notes, I'd love to see our business coalitions have more teeth. You know? We have the Alameda Point Business Coalition and the Harbor Bay Right. Business coalition that instead of maybe every few months, we'd get some businesses together to, you know, talk about, you know, our grievances or what have you. Maybe you could do something like what Joe's suggesting and, you know, take a theme or a topic and host it at a different location each time. And I think that might be really engaging for a lot of the not only current tenants, but also just prospective businesses.

Mhmm. As as an EDAP meeting, you're suggesting? Like, maybe we Or could

be part of the business coalitions. Yeah. Coalitions. Yeah.

Is your goal going with the VDAP next year moving forward that word discussion or a sounding word for you and your team? And so you're asking us in these four meetings what we might wanna talk about. What do you it sounds like workforce is one of them. Right. That's something you want our input on. And then maybe what we're strategizing on is who facilitates that. Like, Joe was saying, there's a person out there that maybe it Like, tonight, you teed up the discussion about the enterprise district by explaining what you had done with Pacific Fusion. That allowed us to kind of have a brown chicken discussion with you. I hope it was useful. But I think your goal is you've got business owners here, and you wanna hear our feedback

from your team. Right.

And so which of these are the other kind of hot buttons for you that you'd like to see? For

me, well, definitely the the marketing component Mhmm. And telling that kind of story because, you know, are are we are we are we giving the right messages? Is is this the right so from an industry perspective, when we're when we're going through that, it would be great to have this kind of sounding board of this is what we think we should be saying. Is that what you guys think we should be saying?

And then would you would you have someone present that, and then we have a discussion

following on each of these topics? Right.

And so that could be around industry specific kind of discussions. So right now, we're looking at we've got, you know, we've got biotech. We've got blue tech. We've got cleantech. If those are kind of the three categories of of how we're gonna be focusing our attraction efforts, then we wanna make sure we have the right messages. So so, yeah, so, like, for future meeting, we would say, okay. We now we wanna discuss this specific industry. Or if we're planning these kind of events, Okay. What what do you you know, we'd like to do something. In March, we'll talk about, okay.

We'd like to do something in summer. Mhmm. And this is what we're thinking of having this panel. That was one of the things that also came up at one of our at the executive roundtables. It was we want kind of you're saying we want we want more value than just talking amongst ourselves. We want we're we're interested in coming to something where we're learning, where there's a speaker or where we can, you know, all meet around that. So this group could we could come to this group and say, hey. These are some ideas that we have for planning this and what what you're what I'm asking.

We do marketing and messaging in a lot of different ways, and I think I'm curious. Some some of which we've brought to this group quite often. Right? But others, like the vacancy strategy and all of the restaurant week and twelve days of Alameda, like, the shopping aspect, we really haven't brought to this group, but it is a huge amount of what Wayne's team is is working on. And I think, you know, would that be a bit like, would you want to weigh in on that aspect?

Or as he's saying, a big priority for us next year is all in point marketing, messaging, and positioning, new website, and, know, and and at a time when West Allen was gonna be super vulnerable because of the access project. So, like, is that you know, that's a different marketing topic or in the industry specifics. There's lots of different ways to slice that topic and actually maybe tease out a couple of different sessions with this group. Yeah.

I think if you if you redirect us to look at certain things that you want us to critique, we could do that. You know, you might even you might even find that your the panel should be have a different makeup to address some of these things.

Or, like, a subcommittee, like, if you're talking about small business. Yeah.

Or restaurants specific, which, you know, might not be the greatest ad for that. But but I don't know. You know, when you talk about stuff, I don't necessarily know where it's floating out there in in the worldwide web.

Well, I think it brings up a good point. Maybe just that's a direct question because do you feel like this group is more suited towards the larger business kind of activities? I've I've kind of also shied away

from Yeah.

You know, that

I I mean, I think the I think I think the reality is for yeah. Maybe some of this in here are more suited towards large business, but the the attraction for a lot of large business to Alameda is a bunch of this other stuff. You know? If if Pacific Fusion wants to come to Alameda because Webster and Park Street in the neighborhoods are a place that they think that their employees are gonna appreciate, then that's important feedback. And to have all that stuff really attractive makes the point really attractive.

And I think the the last thing about you know, we've talked a lot about the attraction side, but but, you know, a good portion of what we do is also on the retention side. So I I think that's another kind of broad topic of that we could be discussing is Yes. You know, what should we what should we be doing as we're out talking to businesses, what should be our focus on the retention side? What what what do we need to be doing to make sure that Alameda companies are happy here? And and so that gets into other broad topics of safety and code enforcement and finding employees. So it's not just getting them here. It's like, how do we keep them here to grow and expand?

They're focusing on the small businesses in or the larger businesses in detention? The both.

I I think from a program standpoint, it's more of the larger businesses. Our interaction with the small businesses are more on, you know, vacancies, plugging them into programs, promoting them, restaurants, that kind of stuff. So

would you wanna have the next discussion be future marketing for tech to come in, or do you want it to be on keeping the businesses that are here? Those seem to be two distinct topics. Mhmm. Which would be your preference?

Well, we have four meet

yeah? Four meetings, but I'm

saying for March. Oh, for March. Is that what we wanna do? I would say for me, at least, it's it's more of the attraction side because that's something we're jumping into. We and how do we how

do we feel about doing that as a group? Is that a feeling?

I think it's good. Working on the attraction side? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think good. I

think it's a priority.

What are the big issues to attracting? Mhmm. I mean, you know, I over many years, it's you know, a lot of workforce loves to live here, but, you know, I think

for the average company,

15 to 25% of the workforce lives here, the balance commutes. Mhmm. So it's getting here. Two tubes and bridges. Limited tubes and bridges. That's always been a big challenge to attracting those who are making location decisions.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's gonna be a big pain point at the January Mhmm. When that construction is in,

It

does. I mean, the big businesses get so tied to the to the small business. I mean, think of all of Harbor Bay. Yeah. And it's a food island. Like, there's a ton of people that come to work there, and it's limited on your choices for what you're gonna do for lunch and or otherwise. So, you know, so even when it comes to discussion of of the the crappy little Safeway center Center getting turned into all residential or whatever. Yeah. Mhmm. You know? It's just kinda like a panic if

you have a business out there

because there's, like, barely a little bit something spilled it that you can get some food there. You know? You get if that goes away, oh my god. But, I mean, those are those are significant attraction issues. Mhmm.

Yeah. Sounds like they have a quality of.

Oh, guess.

I think you

need to vote on the schedule at least. Right?

Yeah. The only yeah. The only thing I have to vote is just to approve the schedule. And then

But I think I just wanna introduce another idea for this I mean, I also envision that this group's the purpose of this group is to support the council, right, as the council is making policy decisions that affect the economy. Mhmm. We would like to and we and we did this with the Enterprise District, and I think we'll continue to do this with a lot of elevated point topics really here. And we did that today. I mean, that's what we've done today.

Like, I've brought your feedback into the city council meeting and said this is what, you know, the mayor's don't know if the other adviser panel recommends around this topic. So I think there might be other topics that get I mean, Madeline mentioned the infrastructure bond. Perhaps that's something that we should have a deeper conversation about here Yeah. Because these are policy topics where there's an economic perspective, but it's not, you know, an economic economics where it's like, you all as business owners have need to weigh in, and this is your stakeholder moment to do that for the council. So I think we should be thinking about those as well and what the city's initiatives are gonna be in 2026 Yeah. That that you all might wanna have a voice in as a as a body. So I

think that's a great idea. I mean, even, like, on the agenda, the council agenda last night, the housing ordinance, the revisions that are going to be made to the the housing update. Yeah. Thank you. You know, I mean, that's not as directly a business impact that it is in a way. So I agree anything that is time sensitive policy wise would be really great for us to hear about it. And I feedback on. I agree with you. That's one of

the challenges that businesses have is medium employers, or small, and also work across the course. So it's just everything is tied up. So that's in the track. We have to make sure that we show them that we have all the things available for the Mhmm. To attract the view. Yeah.

So why don't I I I don't really I don't currently have a good handle on what's coming for 2026. I know we will have a very good handle soon because we're gonna have the state of the city before our next meeting? Oh, right after our next meeting? Just the day after the The day after, but maybe we can be maybe in the in in between time, we can send out a list of what we think is coming in 2026, and you all can just provide feedback offline offline that might lay it on schedule for different items.

To my understanding, the mayor will address the housing, transportation, economic development, innovation. We suggested some topics, and she said she mentioned through Sarah that she will cover all these and address on March 1. And I

I know we're launching polling as well right now for a potential 2026 measure, so it could be interesting to discuss the polling. I'm sorry. What's A poll polling for a measure. So it could be interesting to see the polling results as well here. I don't know how that tees up with the next meeting. Might be too late, but let's see.

We're

good. Yeah. I think you can I'll send out stuff ahead of time so that you have plenty of time to think about. So

So it sounds like for March, we'll think about business traction and workforce development and then talk talk to you then and to Melanie about it Yeah. Workforce.

Sounds interesting. Mhmm.

Oh, okay.

So there's no No? The dates? You

looking for public comment? Yes. Still letting nobody nobody answer.

No public okay. Oh, so we do have to have a a official vote on if we're voting to approve the the dates for for 2026. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Okay. Thank you.

Staff communications. You have any other things, Abby?

Yeah. At the December 16 council meeting oh, so first of all, this Saturday at 02:00, we will be doing, as I mentioned, a a walk through at Albany Point teeing up the next phase of housing development that's to the north of West Midway Avenue. So that's the the beginning of the conversation. I know that it's a really challenging time of year to be attending a lot of things, and this happens to also be the day of holiday lights and the book parade and the hot chocolate stroll and pretty much everything else that Alameda. This is really the beginning of the conversation, really asking the questions and taking a sidewalk.

We'll we'll intend to come back to city council in probably February or March with with more data information on kind of the feasibility of doing the next phase of the next our next RFQ for a developer for that phase of of housing. So if you can't make it, there will be a future opportunity. And then on at this at the sixteenth December 16 city council meeting, the council will consider an extension to the exclusive negotiating agree agreement with Little Upper House LLC for the Ray Ann Performing Arts Center that will be a very, very short term extension just to get us over the finish line with bringing the entire real estate transaction for that Performing Arts Center in the spring, we hope. So just so you guys know, that's on the radar. You I hope you all know city manager Jennifer Ott is her last day is Friday.

No way. Really? I know. Shocking. It's shocking me. We're we're pretty devastated. Me, especially, as the person who gets to sit in her former seat. And they have the council has selected an interim city manager, Adam Holitzer, whose first day will be Saturday, and he'll be at my event. He is he he is the former city manager in Sausalito, and and he this is pretty much what he does. He acts as an interim city manager, so he won't hold that seat.

And so I'm excited. I've I've I've heard good things about him. So while they are while the council takes action to continue recruiting a a permanent city manager. And the other item that I'm looking to bring to city council in early twenty twenty six, as I mentioned, is a disposition strategy update. I think at this point, I don't know, for those of you who followed the city council meeting last night, there is now a backlog of items that is forming.

So Yeah. I will be on when there's time, which I think will probably be February to discuss the phase two infrastructure within the reuse area and potential transaction for the for some of our properties, kinda how we're gonna get to that $43,000,000 target I mentioned to build the next phase, and also just kind of giving an overview of the the the fact that the master infrastructure plan now costs 900,000,000 and sort of teeing up that discussion with council. So that's coming, I think, in February. So those are the items that I think I've got. And then, also, we are the World Cup you should mention the World Cup.

Well, that's right. This Friday too. Yeah. So this Friday, they're gonna announce final teams in the World Cup, including the team that's gonna be housed here in Alameda.

So they will announce. Are you are you familiar with

announce the they're going to announce the where the pools and which pool will be had will be based in Santa Clara. Right. And then those sets of teams can consider the roots and the Claremont Hotel as their home base. So it's not I don't I don't know that we'll get final final. It's a little confusing. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. I got it right. Okay. I know we've had our messaging mixed.

Heard of this. So so are you familiar with the the Albino where the roots are playing? Mhmm. Mhmm. So we were approached then by FIFA, guess it was. Mhmm. If if if we could support having one of the teams housed and use that as a base camp for the training facility during the World Cup. Mhmm. So then we went for the council and then pledged a portion of the TOT hotel tax. Essentially, we if if we do have a team here, then there'd be more people staying in our hotels during that period of time.

And so the increment, we said, okay. We we will pledge that because there are costs associated with housing the team. It's exciting. So, yeah, so we'll see. Hopefully, it'll be a Where is this? They're

The practice It's at Bay Farm.

It's, yeah, it's at Harbor Bay.

It's where the old Raiders practice facility used to be. Do know

the SURF facility. Yeah.

Yes. The SURF facility went to post session, and I believe they're continuing to pursue with the intent to bring an exclusive negotiating agreement with the part with the party to counsel. Is leading on this effort and advising, but I think in early twenty six. So I think

it's Is

it is it BluTex? Does it sound just BluTex? Yeah. That's really stretchy interpretation. Yeah. So

Studying hyperthetics. Okay. Any discussions from the panel members? Conditions? Well,

I will just give

a plug. The Alameda Food Bank, if you haven't been to the new Alameda Food Bank, it is quite spectacular. They're having a community open house on Saturday, the thirteenth. I think it's from ten to two. You can drop in anytime if you haven't checked it out. Highly encourage it. It is really they did an incredible job.

Okay. And nothing from the public, so we're we're we're adjourned at 07:58.

Thank you. Thank you. That's a good

time.

Yeah.