Business & Tech
Port Project Would Create Hundreds Of Jobs
Oakland residents would receive preference for the jobs, according to an agreement.
OAKLAND, CA — At a jammed-packed room at the Port of Oakland commissioners meeting last Monday night, commissioners gave the first approval to bring some new life to part of the city's former army base, a Port spokesman said Friday.
Those on hand applauded the loudest for a jobs agreement the Port has crafted with the developer CenterPoint Properties. "We're going to give a leg up to local people," Port spokesman Mike Zampa said, including the chronically unemployed, single parents and people from the most disadvantaged parts of Oakland.
"We want our neighbors to benefit as the Port benefits," he said.
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The deal will become official in January, if Port commissioners give their final approval Nov. 30.
The final approval would give the go-ahead for a $52 million center on Port property, which includes part of the former the army base. The center would coordinate the transportation of goods, which Port officials
call logistics.
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Zampa estimated that hundreds of permanent and construction jobs would be created at the 440,000 square foot center on 27 acres.
The Port acquired the 187-acre property between 2003 and 2007, after the Army decommissioned its Oakland base in the 1990s. During that time, the City of Oakland received a similar amount of land.
The transportation center would be the first part of a planned Seaport Logistic Complex on the Port's land, which would hold distribution centers and a railyard close to the marine terminals.
With the acquisition of the 180 acres, no other port in the nation has the land now to marry transportation and logistics like Oakland.
"This is the advantage that Oakland has," Zampa said. In other places industrial land is at a premium, according to Zampa.
Construction on CenterPoint's logistics center could start as early as the first quarter of 2018.
The center would be the largest distribution center at any West Coast port, Port officials said.
But port officials have been emphasizing the jobs agreement, Zampa said.
Preferences in hiring will be given to residents of Oakland, especially those living closest to the Port. Special consideration will be made not only for the chronically unemployed and single parents but also for the formerly incarcerated and veterans.
There's also funding for a West Oakland Job Resource Center, which would train candidates for employment and could refer applicants to employers at CenterPoint's center.
The location for the Seaport Logistics Center is planned for Maritime Street near Oakland's Outer Harbor, where the Port last year opened a $100 million railyard.
— Bay City News; AP Photo Ben Margot
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