The Merc’s Tracy Seipel has the scoop on the six downtown property sales, and it’s not as good as expected. SJRA had the cumulative appraisal of the properties at $26 million, whereas the combined bids submitted (deadline 4 PM Monday) was $19.6 million. The lower sum may be enough to acquire the remaining ballpark site, but it won’t cover the Autumn Parkway project or mitigations, which are just as important to the execution of the project.
Lew Wolff did not have any of the winning bids:
One bidder who won’t be considered: A’s owner Lew Wolff, a prominent developer, who made an offer for the annex and parking garage at the Fairmont hotel, which he already owns. But instead of bidding on each property separately — as required — Wolff made a combined offer for an undisclosed price that the agency won’t consider, agency chief Harry Mavrogenes said.
Was Wolff only in there to get the bidding up? In any case, SJRA reserves the right to pull any of the parcels off the market if it feels the highest bid isn’t high enough, which may be the case for the Fairmont garage. Hopefully they won’t have to dip into existing cash reserves to get everything done.
Among the highest bidders are the biggest builders in the South Bay, specifically Barry Swenson and Sobrato. The good news is that they have proven track records of delivering on big projects in and around downtown San Jose. And it wouldn’t be surprising if they were pulling for the ballpark effort since the ballpark’s success could have an indirect effect on their ability to further develop and sell in the area.
There’s some question as to whether or not SJRA should hold off completely until the market improves, but there’s no telling when that will happen. Besides, does anyone remember how much the land was supposed to cost when the agency started acquiring land? There’s a fair price and then there’s a fair price.
newballpark.org 
Damn straight it’s a buyers market R.M. Folks are buying the same model house that we bought back in 05 and paying over $600k less! But I digress.
I’m going to slightly disagree with you R.M. on the “importance” of the Autumn Parkway project at this time. Yes, definetely, for future access to the Diridon Transit Center and HP/Ballpark the Autumn Parkway is a must. Very important for future access from the north and 880. But right off the bat (no pun intended), I don’t see it being completely necessary for the ballpark project. In the interum ballpark patrons coming from 880 could continue south on Coleman/Market and utilize parking in the downtown core/San Pedro Square area’s; kind of happens now with Sharks games and other events at HP. Fans coming from Fremont and Tri-Valley also have 680 at their disposal for access.
IMHO, city should take the money offered and run. Wolff there to get the bidding up? Definetely!
Does anyone know if there are any legal ramifications to disingenuously bidding up land transactions like this? For a career real estate entrepreneur, wouldn’t it be pretty transparent to incorrectly bid on both the Fairmont parcels instead of submitting separate bids?
@Briggs – I can’t see how it’s illegal. The bidding was supposed to be blind among the bidders.
@TonyD: in the S-EIR (and discussion at the planning commission hearing), Autumn Parkway was identified as required mitigation to be in place before opening day.
Thanks erw for the info.,
Most likely the “Phase One” of Autumn Street will be the required mitigation, which will funnel traffic to Julian Street and west towards HP Pavilion parking; or east into San Pedro Square ($7 million for land, $4 million for construction per Mercury News 4/25/10).
As long as they use the proceeds from the land sales around town to buy the land by Diridon it really shouldn’t matter when they do the transaction. If they wait until the values of their owned assets rise, then the price for the land at Diridon will just be higher also. May as well keep things moving along right now to keep the momentum going for San Jose.
I would sell the parcels that achieved market or above and reconsider those that did not—its quite possible that some choose not to jump into the Fairmont garage and retail believing that LW would outbid them anyway—according to local brokers the bid on these 2 peices was much less than what the market value is—
not to get off topic—definetely seeing increased public optics on the A’s situation…no doubt by design….http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-giants-san-jose-as-2011-1
Well I guess not everyone at the Merc is in favor of the A’s moving to San Jose:
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_17264421
@James – You realize that Sthe trophy also made stops in Sacramento, Modesto, Stockton, Pleasanton, and even New York! The former 3 are (or were) homes of A’s minor league affiliates, while Pleasanton is in in Alameda County, part of A’s TR.
@ML – Curious on your thoughts why LW would pursue the FMC purchase first instead of Diridon? Couldn’t he theoretically buy all the parcels and build a baseball first, soccer second stadium with it?
Nothing in that article would seem to be against the A’s moving to the south bay.
ST: Yeah I understand that, I’m just saying it seems like this is really the first person from the merc to spin it positively for the giants.
Dan: I guess its not really said anywhere that the A’s should not move, but just the tone of it makes it sound more on the giants side of things
Just because Bruce Newman was writing about something doesn’t mean he’s editorializing about it.
@ST – There’s no agreement yet between Lew and San Jose regarding the A’s. Quakes stadium was always supposed to be first.
That Newman article was just plain stupid. 2300 fans showing up out of a county of 1.8 million is somehow representative of how we all feel down here?
I’ll have to send Newman a “nice” email.
@tony d. – That would be pointless. How about exercising some restraint?
@TonyD–I’ll send Newman a real nice e-mail too. Finally some balanced reporting from the Mercury.
SJRA knows their days are numbered and are making moves quickly and swiftly to ensure several projects move forward including the ballpark which probably the highest on the list.
The Autumn parkway project is useless without the ballpark there. Right now it is pretty easy to get to and leave Sharks games for the most part as there are several ways to leave Downtown.
I do agree that if the ballpark gets built the Autumn parkway projects is necessary because on those rare days when the Sharks and A’s play at the same time it will be needed.
Also if an NBA team comes after the lockout it will be even more imperative to have that transportation project completed.
With Jerry Brown eliminating RDAs this will push forward the impending MLB decision on where the A’s move.
San Jose will have everything ready to go this year while Oakland will be midway through an EIR that may not get completed if RDAs are eliminated this year.
The City of San Jose vs. Major League Baseball coming to the Supreme Court in 2012. Selig will go down the way he deserve….In shame! Ha!
This plus the Giants will walk way with what they deserve…”Nada”
Having been a government beat reporter, we don’t directly put our opinions in articles, or else we aren’t beat reporters very long. Sometimes (on longer stories, not meeting reports) you can tell where the beat reporter stands by seeing who gets the quote that ends the article.