Local builder Seeno one of three vying for Naval Weapons Station project
CONCORD, CA (July 15, 2021) — Local builder Seeno and two other companies have submitted proposals to be the new master developer for the former Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) housing project.
Applicant Brookfield Development, based in New York, has more than 70 active development and redevelopment sites ranging from offices and retail to homes. City Ventures out of Southern California focuses on housing construction in the state’s coastal urban infill neighborhoods.
The Seeno application is in combination with Discovery Homes, the Lewis Group of Companies and California Capital Investment Group. According to Guy Bjerke, Concord’s director of base reuse, they are the only applicant that has built previously in Concord. Discovery Homes is currently selling units at the Willow Terrace Townhomes on Enclave Place.
City staff is working to create a summary matrix of the applicants. “We’ll be releasing it to the City Council and public in late July. And then everyone will see it at the same time, council included,” Bjerke told the Pioneer.
“If there were a lot of applicants, the council would choose which ones to interview. Because there’s only three, in all likelihood, the council will interview all three. And that will probably be in late August,” he added.
Last year, the council ended an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Lennar/Five Point after the developer could not meet the city’s requirements for local union labor contracts on the $6 billion project.
Bjerke said the new Request for Proposal included 135 pages of specifics that the city wants to see in the project. The next developer must adhere to the city’s Concord First policy, which requires 40 percent of construction labor be local hires and payment of prevailing wages on all construction.
Bev Britton
Bev Britton graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Dakota and moved to the Bay Area with her soon-to-be husband Jim in 1986. She was features editor at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek before becoming managing editor of the Contra Costa Sun in Lafayette in 1995. She retired from newsrooms in 2001, but an ad for the Clayton Pioneer drew her back in. The family moved to Lake Wildwood in the Gold Country a few years ago - but working at the Pioneer keeps her in touch with her old neighborhoods in Concord and Clayton.