OAKLAND — The long-delayed sale of the Oakland Coliseum may finally be on track to closing, with Alameda County leaders set to consider new terms on Tuesday that would fully divorce the county from responsibility over the property.
The county supervisors were expected on Tuesday afternoon to approve a 30-day timeline for new terms to be met over the sale of the 112-acre Coliseum Complex, which includes the stadium, arena and surrounding parking lots.
Perhaps the East Bay’s most important piece of real estate, the complex had been jointly owned by the county and city of Oakland until 2019, when the county sold its half-share to the A’s.
Now, with a successful vote Tuesday, that still-pending transaction with the A’s would be reassigned to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, an Oakland-based development group bankrolled by the Black-led investment fund Loop Capital.
AASEG has long promised that a completed deal would set the sports property on a path to be transformed into a new hub of restaurants, retail, housing, entertainment and live sports.
Oakland, meanwhile, is eager to receive $125 million for its half of the deal by the summer to help close a drastic budget deficit, which is currently expected to result in about 91 layoffs to city workers.
But the deal has run into numerous hurdles, including a tentative payment timeline announced last year by ex-Mayor Sheng Thao that group co-founder Ray Bobbitt now says was less concrete than how Thao described it. There were also hang-ups at the county level over the sale’s details.
“I don’t think there’s a lot left to negotiate,” Bobbitt said in an interview Tuesday morning about the terms likely to be discussed with the county over the next 30 days. “You just have to paper it all up, go through all the steps.”
African American Sports and Entertainment Group founder and managing member Ray Bobbitt speaks during a press conference at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
The new term sheet, set for approval Tuesday, offers some insight into what the county’s sticking points may have been.
As part of the deal, the county would release the A’s from any further obligation toward the property, allowing the baseball franchise to secure a sweetheart $40 million profit from its former home after buying the county’s share in 2019 for just $85 million. The A’s are set to play home games in West Sacramento next season, before eventually moving to Las Vegas.
AASEG would promise not to file any claims against the county over hazardous materials that could be discovered during the redevelopment. An environmental review of the site in 2015 found none that required immediate mitigation.
A completed deal would also bring an end to a lawsuit by Communities for a Better Environment, which had alleged the county didn’t sufficiently explore opportunities for affordable housing at the Coliseum site before selling to the A’s.
AASEG has promised an undetermined number of housing units — with a portion guaranteed affordable — in its upcoming redevelopment, which appears to have satisfied the nonprofit.
“Our campaign is to ensure that whatever is developed at the Coliseum benefits the people of East Oakland specifically and Oakland as a whole,” Vanessa Riles, a campaign coordinator for a coalition of nonprofits that includes the lawsuit’s plaintiff, said in an interview.
AASEG is expected to deliver a $10 million payment to Oakland soon after the deal closes, though, unlike a previous $5 million installment, the upcoming payment would remain in escrow and can’t be accessed until the sale exits escrow at the end of May.
By then, AASEG will have paid another $95 million for the deal, with a future $15 million slated upon issuance of permits and an additional $16 million to pay off longstanding bond obligations for improvements to the Coliseum complex.
The city is no longer actively budgeting this year’s payments against its deficit, but leaders are still aching to put the money to use — with new policy dictating that the revenue first be used to stave off the temporary closure of several fire stations.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.
