And this time the agency’s staff didn’t have to go out looking for a new developer. Instead, they’re hearing out unsolicited proposals from interested parties, part of an agency policy to encourage new projects.
“We don’t want people to just go back and forth from San Francisco,” Basuino said. “We want to attract people to maybe have a working or recreational opportunity out in Concord.” Hillesheim wants to build over 1,200 new homes on the BART property at 75 units per acre — the maximum density allowed by a 2018 state law thatAiming for a larger development, he says, eventually will produce enough revenue to absorb the high costs of local labor and affordable units, the latter of which he wants to make available to military veterans and people with disabilities.
Novin contends that Brookfield’s original vision of setting aside hundreds of thousands of square feet for commercial office space no longer makes sense in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the work-from-home era it triggered.