Investor Group Submits 'Coliseum City' Plan

Image: Draft rendering Coliseum City from City of Oakland’s April 2015 plan.

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The head of an investor group that’s hoping to build a massive development at the Oakland Coliseum complex including a new football stadium for the Oakland Raiders said today that he’s submitted a detailed plan to city of Oakland and Alameda County officials.

But Floyd Kephart, the lead executive of New City Development LLC, said in an email that he won’t comment on his group’s proposal until he speaks to an invited audience, including the news media, at a restaurant in Jack London Square on Tuesday morning.

Kephart is the chairman of the board of Renaissance Companies, a San Diego firm that advises hedge funds, private equity groups and financial institutions.

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New City Development is the investor group he heads and it has an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city of Oakland and Alameda County to develop a project, called Coliseum City, at the 120-acre Coliseum site that would include a new football stadium as well as housing, retail stores, hotels and office space.

Oakland Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio told reporters at a briefing outside City Hall this afternoon that city and county officials will review the investor group’s proposal in detail and then meet with the Oakland City Council and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in closed sessions in mid to late September.

Cappio said if city and county leaders are happy with the investor group’s proposal they can work with it to try to finalize a development.

Otherwise, they can end their relationship with the group when the exclusive negotiating agreement expires on Sept. 24 or they could decide to extend the negotiating period in hopes that the investor group will come up with a better plan, she said. The key part of the development plan is financing, as it’s estimated that it will cost $900 million to develop the Coliseum site.

Kephart’s group has hoped that the city and county would contribute a significant pot of money to pay for the development but Cappio said the city and county only want to pay for infrastructure costs, such as storm drains, streets and lighting.

Cappio said, “We will be looking at the financing information very carefully. We know what the funding gaps are.”

Asked by reporters to quantify those gaps, Cappio said, “We’re trying to find hundreds of millions of dollars to make this work.”

Cappio emphasized that Oakland officials also are meeting with Oakland A’s baseball team officials, who are interested in building a new ballpark at the Coliseum site but haven’t expressed interest in participating in the Coliseum City project.

She said, “Our vision for Coliseum City is to create a vibrant new destination for the city that would include as many sports teams as we can keep.”

The Raiders are also looking seriously at building a new football stadium in the Los Angeles area if nothing materializes in Oakland but Cappio said that doesn’t bother her.

Cappio, who worked under former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown from 2000 to 2007 and then worked for him in state government when he became governor, returned to Oakland City Hall in April to serve as assistant city administrator, where one of her top responsibilities is working with the city’s three professional sports teams.

Cappio said, “I’m not easily discouraged. That’s why I came back to Oakland: to make things happen.”

--Bay City News