Monday, May 7, 2012
Don Kuehne fires back against comments about his involvement with Sycamore North.
Former Hercules City Councilman Don Kuehne recently wrote in to defend his himself against claims of his role in the failed Sycamore North project. Prompted by comments under Patch’s recent post, Letter to the Editor: Here Are the Facts Around City-Owned Property Sales, Kuehne said he was unjustly blamed for Sycamore North decision-making that predated his term on the council. “All of the planning, design reviews, entitlement, and financing plans were completed before I came on the City Council in December 2008,” Kuehne commented. Kuehne began serving as a councilman in December 2008. His term was cut short in 2011, when he was recalled in a June election and replaced by Gerard Boulanger. In part, recall leaders pushed to remove Kuehne and…
Thursday, April 5, 2012
City Manager Steve Duran updates the community with his March 30 report, released April 3.
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Thursday, April 5
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
In a 5-0 vote, the Hercules City Council agreed to sell the half-build project to Presidio Development Partners, LLC.
The City Council approved an agreement Tuesday to sell the failed project to a San Francisco-based developer with plans to bring restaurants to Hercules.
The mood turned from skeptical to hopeful at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, after residents heard new plans for Sycamore North from the project’s new development. “Sycamore North was almost the undoing of the city,” said Mayor Dan Romero. “Tonight…I think that what you give us is a continuation of what was planned,” Romero said to the project’s new developers, Presidio Development Partners, LLC. All five council members voted to authorize a purchase and sale agreement with Presidio for the Sycamore North site. The city will get $425, 000 from the sale with the potential to make more if the project is highly profitable. Some residents showed up at Tuesday’s meeting to hear Presidio representatives’ presentation on their Sycamore North plan…
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The council will consider a purchase and sale agreement with a Bay Area-Based developer.
The Hercules City Council Tuesday will consider a Sycamore North purchase and sale agreement with Presidio Development Partners, LLC. Only half-finished, Sycamore North has drained the city of over $35 million. Hercules would need to spend $40 million, at the high end, to complete the project, which was first intended to have three stories filled with apartments and one floor for shops. The proposed deal with Presidio would involve turning most of the 40,000 square feet of ground-level planned retail into residential space, according to a city staff report. The report said Sycamore North is “not a good retail site in comparison with the competition, including the Market Hall/Red Barn site and Sycamore Crossing, which are the City’s two …
The Contra Costa Times reports on the tentative agreement made between the city and Sycamore North's prospective new developers.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
A February 14 City Council meeting could bring news on the future of the Sycamore North project.
A deal on the retail-residential building Sycamore North could be ready by the February 14 City Council meeting, said a report put out this week by City Manager Steve Duran. “There will be a few contingencies to be met before closing, related to some proposed changes on the ground floor that the buyer is currently finalizing and costing out. The buyer is hiring the original project architect to complete the design work and is in negotiations with the original contractor to complete the building,” the report said. The project was first intended to hold a high number of affordable housing condos. It was then on its way to being sold to a nonprofit that would use all of its 96 residential units as affordable housing. Hercules citizens, …
Friday, December 2, 2011
A sales deal could be reached by next month.
The City of Hercules could close a sales deal on Sycamore North by early January, city real estate consultant Frank Fox said. After months of searching for a developer to take the unfinished residential-retail project off its hands, the city has entered into exclusive negotiations with Presidio Development Partners, LLC. on Sycamore North. The exclusive negotiations period lasts through January 10, Fox said. If the city and Presidio reach a purchase agreement, the San Francisco-based developers would begin completing the project immediately. Fox said the city chose Presidio over a handful of other bidders in part because “(T)hey have been responsive to a majority of our deal points as it relates to our financial and potential affordable …
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
State housing finance officials are "supportive" of a market rate plan with little or no affordable housing in the mix, the interim city manager says.
Hercules has received news that it may be able to open the door to rework or eliminate affordable housing in its controversial Sycamore North project. California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) officials are "supportive about (the city) turning Sycamore North into a market rate project,” Interim City Manager Liz Warmerdam said at Tuesday’s finance committee meeting. Warmerdam and interim Finance Director David Baum traveled to Sacramento last Thursday to talk to CalHFA staff about selling Sycamore North with less or no affordable housing in the mix. CalHFA loaned the city about $5 million on the promise that the funds would be used towards an affordable housing project. Plans for the building currently require 73 of the building’s 96 …
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The resolution poses possible alternatives for the building's future.
City staff is recommending a resolution deeming current plans for the Sycamore North project "unfeasible." The resolution, which will be considered at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, also says the council should consider alternative options for the half-built building. Sycamore North was designed to have 40,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor with three stories of residential units above and parking underground. The building is unfinished and the city lacks funding to complete it. In July, city staff held a town hall meeting to discuss possibilities for the the project, which Municipal Services Director John Stier said is a huge financial "bleed" for Hercules. One of the options presented at the meeting was to sell Sycamore…
Phil Simmons
9:43 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012
G.C., I sadly have to say that vetting the candidates did not take place and the need to do so was not just for the one you refer to. That particular problem could have been corrected without damage to the election process if the recall team had vetted the matter, perhaps even with the same candidate. The bigger problem is that the recall team did not vet the political views of any on the … more ›