Alameda Maneuvers for Coveted Lab

By DAVID FERRY

ALAMEDA—When the Naval Air Station closed here in 1997, the city predicted the sprawling waterfront base would become a budding community, filled with housing, businesses and open space. Fourteen years and a handful of developers later, some of the most prime real estate in the Bay Area remains mostly undeveloped and underused.

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Peter Earl McCollough for The Wall Street Journal

Alameda Mayor Marie Gilmore, standing in front of hangars that were once part of a Navy air base, has led an effort to recruit the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to build its second campus on the site.

The decrepit, 70-year-old former air base that juts into San Francisco Bay presents challenges to potential developers, said John Russo, Alameda's new city manager. Among them: a remote location, crumbling sewage lines and other deficient infrastructure, and enough pollution for the Environmental Protection Agency to label the base a Superfund cleanup site.

Twice, Alameda worked closely with outside developers to craft plans aimed at rebuilding the entire 918 acres in one go. Each time, the plans faltered.

This time, a new city staff is working on a plan, and at least one big-name potential tenant has shown interest. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a federally funded lab run by the University of California, is searching for a site to build a second campus. It has named Alameda Point, as the former air base is now dubbed, one of six finalists.

The five other East Bay locations vying for the lab are Berkeley's Aquatic Park West; the Brooklyn Basin in Oakland; properties that span Emeryville and Berkeley; a horse racetrack in the cities of Berkeley and Albany; and a site the University of California owns in Richmond.

Richmond is thought to be a lead contender for the lab, in part because the University of California already owns the land under consideration. Richmond has mounted a campaign to recruit the lab, producing buttons and placing a billboard along the freeway. The lab would be a good fit for the historically industrial city, said council member Jeff Ritterman, as Richmond nurtures an emerging technology sector.

To compete with Richmond and the other sites, Alameda is offering the land on the former air base free.

Alameda officials believe the new lab, which initially would employ about 800 people, would serve as an anchor for future development. The research center would hopefully jump-start the development process, said Jennifer Ott, the city's lead manager for the project, adding that she expected high-tech firms would follow the lab to Alameda Point.

"The base closed in 1997, and we lost 14,000 jobs," Ms. Ott said. "Our community has been clamoring for jobs since then. We want a program and development that has jobs in it."

The base has more than enough space to accommodate the 45 acres the national laboratory is seeking. The air base constitutes about one-third of the island of Alameda, and features about 300 buildings, 30 miles of road and 16,000 feet of air strip—which, since the base's closure, has been home to flea markets and stunt shoots for the television show "MythBusters."

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Alameda Point Lab Partners LLC

A rendering prepared for the city of what the campus might look like.

"The city of Alameda wants [the lab] here—from the city council, our boards and commissions to our residents," Mayor Marie Gilmore said at a public meeting last week.

Officials at the Berkeley lab, known for research into energy, chemistry and other areas, said they won't select the location for the second campus until November. "We want to be in a place where the community wants us," said Sam Chapman, manager of community relations for the lab.

Alameda's pursuit of the lab represents a stark change from previous efforts to develop the land, when the relationship between developers and the city and residents was strained.

When SunCal, Alameda Point's last outside developer, put forth a ballot measure that would have allowed the company to build 4,800 housing units at the former base, residents rejected it, 85% to 15%. After the 2010 vote, the city canceled its contract with SunCal, prompting the company to sue Alameda for breach of contract. The suit is pending.

SunCal declined to comment on the litigation, but a representative said the company is still interested in developing Alameda Point and would work to accommodate the lab.

An earlier plan was abandoned in 2006, when the lead developer, a consortium of Shea Homes, Shea Properties and Centex Homes, withdrew after five years of planning and negotiations. The developer said the nascent downturn in the residential market and the $108 million the Navy wanted for the land at the time made the project economically unfeasible.

Both previous plans called for substantial housing. Mr. Russo, the city manager, said that while details of the Point's future remain fluid, he expects new plans to contain less housing.

Several hundred residents turned out for last week's meeting between lab officials and the city. In a standing-room-only theater, officials from each group outlined their visions for the lab's second campus. Of the dozens of residents who spoke, including leaders of groups ranging from the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society to the island's Democratic Club and its Chamber of Commerce, none opposed the lab.

Gretchen Lipow, a local activist, worked to scuttle the SunCal development due in part to how much housing it projected. She said her community organization had been looking for a major tenant to use a big chunk of the land instead. "In some ways, we've been waiting for you," she told lab officials.

Write to David Ferry at david.ferry@wsj.com