Port of Oakland Selects Master Developer for Jack London Square Expansion
Due Diligence and Additional Community Input

OAKLAND, CALIF.--The Oakland Board of Port Commissioners selected LCOR/WDG Ventures Tuesday as the master developer of Jack London Square. However, over the next 180 days, Port officials and LCOR/WDGV must complete substantial due diligence and negotiate a lease prior to approving an actual development plan. Concerns relative to parking, transportation, and traffic flow in the popular entertainment/business area must be considered. An extensive transportation improvement study is already underway by the Port and will be a major consideration for the development team. Market and economic feasibility studies, site constraints, and review of conceptual plans must all be completed. A series of additional community meetings will also be scheduled before any detailed plans are drawn up for development of the seven parcels at the Square. Based on completion of these activities, construction is estimated to begin sometime next year.

Port commissioners unanimously voted on Tuesday to negotiate exclusively with LCOR/WDGV for 180 days, following that an agreement is to be signed for development of more than 10 acres. LCOR/WDGV is a partnership between LCOR Public/Private, which works exclusively on developments created through public/private partnerships, and WDG Ventures, a San Francisco firm that is the local developer of the Sony Metreon retail entertainment center.

Both Port staff and commissioners praised LCOR/WDGV for its clear concept, its strong and diverse team with roots in the local community, and its commitment to public participation. Before making its presentation to the Port, LCOR/WDGV contacted more than 15 community groups and held more than a dozen meetings. It also established a website, www.jacklondonfuture.com, to encourage community participation in the planning process.

"We have all the critical elements of a successful development - a great location on the water, anchor entertainment tenants, safety, a positive economy and excellent demographics," said Omar Benjamin, Director of Commercial Real Estate for the Port of Oakland. "Now we have a master developer who is ready to work with us to make that vision real. We liked the fact that LCOR/WDGV obviously put a lot of time into its plans, including developing a detailed outline of the steps that need to be taken in the first 90 days," said Benjamin. He added, "The team is eager to get started and so are we."

"We want to roll up our sleeves and work with port and city leadership to bring a new vision of the Jack London Square waterfront to reality as quickly as possible," commented John Stainback, senior vice president of LCOR Public/Private, Inc. "We share the Port’s sense of urgency to capture the benefits of a booming national economy, and to use the Jack London Square area as a catalyst for the continued economic expansion of Oakland," said Charles M. Collins, chairman and president of WDG Ventures.

LCOR and WDGV, plus 36 other team members, have worked on developments across the country, ranging from San Francisco’s Sony Metreon Center and Four Seasons Hotel and Tower to the international arrivals terminal at New York City’s JFK Airport. The team includes the Hilton and Bass hotel groups, as well as Lehman Brothers, one of the world’s largest investment banking firms. Lehman Brothers, which has financed more than $19 billion in real estate projects during the past five years, provides equity and debt financing for LCOR’s development projects. The team includes 26 firms based in the Bay Area. Eleven are headquartered in Oakland and four others have offices in the city. Twelve firms have offices in the "local impact area" of the project. In addition, 14 are owned by women or minorities or are designated as disadvantaged business enterprises.

Cost of the Jack London Square project, which includes seven parcels stretching from the foot of Clay Street to the Amtrak station at the foot of Alice Street, is estimated at $200 million. LCOR/WDGV’s preliminary development concept includes the following:

The Embarcadero Signature Building would rise above the Interstate 880 freeway, making Jack London Square readily visible from the City Center complex in downtown Oakland. The tower would combine retail and office space.

A first-class hotel, managed by one of LCOR’s partners such as Hilton Hotels Corp. or Bass Hotels & Resorts (owners of the Inter-Continental Hotels and Crowne Plaza), would be constructed on the land located near the present the Jack London Village shopping complex. The complex is scheduled to be removed later this year.

A Festival Terminal near the Alameda/Oakland Ferry Service terminal. This would be a highly visible building, designed to become as much of a landmark as the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and would include a food hall, with ethnic food stalls and restaurants reflecting the mix of commuters, area workers and visitors.

An Urban Entertainment Center, with a plaza surrounded by small cafes and restaurants, would create a regional and national destination for visitors.

The community and others who would like to receive news about the various steps in the planning process or host a meeting to discuss the development may sign up via e-mail at: www.portofoakland.com. You may also telephone the Port of Oakland at (510) 627-1213. LCOR Public/Private, Inc. is based in Berwyn, Penn. Among its major projects are the $1.2 billion international passenger terminal at New York City’s JFK airport, which is being constructed entirely with private funds, and the Oyster School in Washington, D.C., which is being built at no cost to the school district. WDG Ventures, Inc., is a San Francisco-based real estate developer and consulting firm emphasizing urban entertainment, hotel, residential and medical projects. Three other developers had responded to the port¹s initial request to present their qualifications for the project. The Port of Oakland, established in 1927, is an independent department of the City of Oakland employing some 560 people. The Port extends approximately 19 miles along the east side of the Oakland Estuary from the border of the city of Emeryville immediately north of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, to the south to the border of the city of San Leandro. Port facilities include four major marine terminal areas covering almost 1,000 acres; Oakland International Airport which covers an area of over 2,500 acres; 1,100 acres of commercial, industrial, recreational and other land; 950 acres of underdeveloped land; and about 9,800 surface acres of water area.

The Port & You | Maritime | Airport | Real Estate | Newsroom
Job Center | Doing Business | Community | Environment | Contact Us