Floyd Kephart's Oakland Coliseum City Plan Is More Land Than Stadium Project

Floyd Kephart, the leader of New City Development LLC, gave his Tuesday morning presentation which seemed to be light on details. But thanks to a talk he had with San Diego Union Tribune Columnist Dan McSwain, we can get a better picture of what it is. In truth, it's not much different than what existed months ago, and from what I can gleen from what I'm about to present, there has been a lot of talk toward implementing his plan, and not considering any other one. This is what McSwain wrote, in part: 1. “The Raiders have offered $500 million toward a $900 million stadium. The mix is $100 million from the team, $200 million from an NFL loan against future ticket sales, and $200 million from sale of seat licenses to fans.” 2. 'The Raiders would yield $7.5 million a year in tax benefits ($278 million over 37 years) to help offset maintenance and upgrade costs. And the team would keep any other event revenues.” 3. “At $500 million, the Raiders-NFL investment leaves a $400 million tab for somebody else. Kephart would cover this with a “conduit bond” repaid by tax revenues from development of the site.” 4. “His group would purchase 100 acres of the present O.co Coliseum site’s 120 acres at the appraised market value, probably between $100 million to $150 million, from Oakland and Alameda County, which jointly own the site.” 5. “Kephart’s private equity backer, which he hasn’t disclosed, then would spend an estimated $3.2 billion over 10 years to build 3,500 residences (apartments, condos and low-income units); about 380,000 square feet of retail space; 750,000 feet of office space; and two hotels at 550 total rooms.” (This reads like Brooklyn Basin.) 6. “Kephart’s plan would use a financing mechanism that can legally tax activities inside an infrastructure district as long as the property owners vote for it. In this case, that would include the city, county and Kephart’s group, although he’s proposed to help the city buy out the county, which has been more reluctant to participate.” Folks, this Coliseum City is still closer to the 800-acre plan than the compact 120-acre version that some of us were led to believe was going to emerge. What this is, is what got Oakland into trouble with the NFL before: the constant focus on a land deal, and not a stadium deal. Kephart and his people have had several months to solve a puzzle I came up with a solution to in just a few days. The problem is the project is complicated, and that's why the County of Alameda backed away from it, in the first place. The bottom line is we don't seem to be any closer to forming an answer that will get the Raiders the stadium they need in Oakland. A 55,000-seat stadium is a terrible idea, because then we can't host a Super Bowl, and that would get us the giant naming rights deal the Raiders would be fools to back away from. No more secret, backroom deals. Enough. Put this all out in the open. Heck, the public's going to have to see it anyway – the tax district provision means it has to go to the public for a vote. That's something Kephart didn't plan on and neither did the City of Oakland. Geez.

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