Bits and pieces

After a lot of meetings, a lot of public comment and a lot of talk, the City is finally moving forward with the long term lease with Greenway Golf.  Details of the deal are in the staff report, the nutshell version is that it is a 20 year lease with a five-year option to renew.   For the rent portion:

$75 000 per Lease Year (defined as July 1 to June 30) equal monthly payments for years 1-4 plus those number of months in Lease Year 5 equal to the number of months from July 1 , 2012 to the Commencement Date when Greenway takes over the operations.

The greater of Minimum Rent of $300 000 in equal monthly payments or 8% of gross revenues up to $4,000,000 and 12% of gross revenues over $4,000,000 in Lease Years 5-The increase from $75 000 to $300 000 and the payment of percentage rent shall commence in Lease Year 5 after the expiration of the number of months between the beginning of Lease Year 1 and the Commencement Date as described above. In other words , if Greenway takes over operations on September 15 , 2012 , then the increase in the rent will begin in mid-September in Lease Year 5 rather than on July 1 in Lease Year 5.

The greater of Minimum Rent of $350 000 per year in equal monthly payments or 10% of gross revenues, up to 4,000,000 and 12% of gross revenues over $4,000,000 in years 9-20 and in any subsequent option period.

There’s some other stuff about contributing to the Captital Improvement Fund and Tenant Improvements.  The big thing is that Greenway will be the body to set green fees from now on.  It used to be the Golf Commission, but now it will strictly under Greenway’s control.   They have agreed to provide free golf for the high school golf teams though.

Higher appraisal

Quick post because I’m short on time today, the new appraisals have come out for the Mif Albright property and they vary pretty widely.

Just to refresh your memories the initial appraisal of the Mif Albright back in July came in at $9,150,000 to compare the North Loop property was appraised at $8,790,000.

Falling to pieces

I want to start this post out my pointing out that I have never seen any benefit to the Ron Cowan land swap and have been pretty down on the whole concept pretty much from the start.   Yes, even before all these people started cropping out of the woodwork to be so vehemently against the project.   But I have to say that the kitchen sink approach that is now being used to be against the land swap is almost as frustrating as the presumptuousness of Ron Cowan and Co.   Almost.

There are a lot of good arguments against the land swap, but the conspiracy theories, the allegations of collusion and the whole finger survey thing is just getting a bit ridiculous.

Show time Synergy

A few bits and pieces into the weekend. To follow up on the Chipman/Encinal/Del Monte terminals project, apparently the property is currently in foreclosure and under court receivership right now based on the discussion at the Planning Board on Monday, so it looks like things might be on hold for a while until that’s all sorted out.

I’m sure by now everyone has read the Op-Ed from Harbor Bay Isle Associates touting the Mif Albright Land Swap. So here was my overall reaction, I guess I had never understood why Ron Cowan was so despised in Alameda. I get the whole building a bunch of housing doesn’t necessarily make one that popular in Alameda, but the deep rooted contempt that is sometimes attached to his name was rather odd for newcomers like me.

Reading the op-ed made me understand a little better why there is such a contempt for Ron Cowan and Co.

I have to appraise you like I should

Yesterday, I wrote about my concerns about the proposed Mif Albright land swap.  At the City Council meeting, the direction was to negotiate further with Ron Cowan to come up with a better plan.   However, if they are going to be starting from the land appraisals that were done for the two properties then the City is already coming in at a disadvantaged negotiating position.

The City commissioned two appraisals to gauge the potential land value of the Mif Albright site and the North Loop site.   The appraisals generated the following potential values to the two sites:

It’s the Ron way

Tonight, there is a special meeting of the City Council to discuss Ron Cowan’s land swap plan for the Mif Albright Golf Course that had been rumored about for years, denied, and then sprung upon the public at another meeting earlier this year.

Here is the packet.  According to the Staff Report, here’s the nutshell of the new proposal:

• Provide 12. 25 acres of land for public sports fields on the North Loop Road parcels;
• Work with the North Loop Road Business Association , the Harbor Bay Business Park Association, and companies located near the North Loop Road site to contribute addition funding for construction of the sports facilities so that no public dollars are involved;
• Work with the property owners in the Harbor Bay Business Park to ensure that maintenance of the sports facilities is included in the work program of the Harbor Bay Business Park Zone of the City s Island City Landscape and Lighting District 8402 and paid for with assessments levied on the properties in the business park;
• Provide $5 million in cash to the City, which the City can allocate between the Golf Complex and the sports fields as needed , with an assurance that sufficient funding will be made available for the design and building of the new Mif Albright Course;
• Exchange title to its 12. 25 acres of land for title to the City s existing Mif Albright property; and
• Develop new homes on the Mif Albright property.

Passing the baton

Tuesday night’s City Council meeting marked the last night that Acting City Manager, Lisa Goldman, would be sitting in the City Manager’s seat, making way for incoming City Manager, John Russo. I’m going to take this opportunity to say that Lisa Goldman has done an amazing job in the interim of taking care of the City given the challenges it is currently facing (and will continue to face). Honestly, the best part about this recent East Bay Express article about John Russo and Alameda was this part:

Russo said he plans to appoint Lisa Goldman, currently serving as acting city manager, to be his second in command…

While there was a lot of talk about her immediate predecessor being a straight shooter and “telling it like it is,” watching Lisa Goldman during all these discussions about the budget have been a revelation. I haven’t watched that many years of City Council meetings, just since I started this blog, but by far, she is the first City Manager (along with Controller Fred Marsh) to present the budget — and its problems — in such plain and honest terms. It was nice to see the City Council appreciate her efforts too. And I am so glad that she is sticking around because the City is facing some challenging times ahead.

So this upcoming Monday will be John Russo’s first day on the job and of course we’ll all be breathlessly watching to see if he mucks up.

Sporting chance

All right, yesterday I mentioned in passing (and tweeted it) even earlier:

Ron Cowan's proposal for the Mif land swap is up: http://www.cityofalamedaca.gov/City-Hall/Harbor-Bay-Golf-Course-Proposal

— Lauren Do (@laurendo) April 14, 2011

As City Staff promised they slapped up Ron Cowan’s land swap proposal up on the internet pretty darn fast.   And it must have been a task because it looks like from the scans that whoever put together the packet might have actually typed (!) a portion of the application.   And by typed, I mean, with a real typewriter.   You know, the one not connected to a monitor.   The kind that goes clickety-clack when you press the keys.   Yes, typed.  Someone get Harbor Bay Isle Associates a copy of Adobe Acrobat and a lesson in creating forms, stat!  But I digress.

Reporting on the CAFR: you’re doing it wrong

On Tuesday night, after the whole business about the Golf Complex was completed.  The decision was that the City Council would give City Staff time to review the proposal by Ron Cowan before making any definitive decisions.    KemperSports seemed sufficiently chastened by prospects that any number of alternate operators might be able to fill in for them and came in a lot more flexible than before.   Acting City Manager Lisa Goldman confirmed that our former Interim City Manager had made promises to KemperSports that the City would issue tax-exempt bonds to finance KemperSports’ capital improvements to the site (in the neighborhood of $5 million) and that KemperSports would pay the debt service on the bonds, which Lisa Goldman put the kibosh on because it wouldn’t be kosher.

The City Council asked to have City Staff work on a pinning down a few more items in the Alameda Junior Golf Association term sheet and then to bring back a lease to the Council.   I’ll talk more about the Cowan plan when I get a chance to review it, but another equally interesting conversation occurred after most people vacated the room last night that John P. hinted at in yesterday’s comments.

Don’t tell me not to live, just sit and putt

Tonight, the City Council, which has been meeting quite a few times since the new Council was seated, will be taking up the issue of the Golf Course, different options and asking for direction from the City Council on how to move forward.   Interestingly enough, as part of the packet, City Staff has included several letters from a few different golf operators who are interested in stepping in if Kemper is unwilling or unable  to do what the City Council would like them to do.  At least three different companies: Bellows Golf Management, Greenway Golf, and Bill Casper Golf, have sent solicitations to the City of Alameda.

And, if that wasn’t enough to complicate matters, there is a letter from Ron Cowan of Harbor Bay Isle Associates who has now come forward about his interest in the land swap idea that was floating around two years ago.   The land swap idea, just to remind folks, is that the City would transfer the land that the Mif Albright is currently situated on for this site that is currently owned by Harbor Bay Isle Associates.    He is offering to build Alameda favorites, soccer fields and baseball fields, in exchange from being able to build his homes on the Mif Albright land.