County Nears Garrison DealBack to News

After years of negotiations over the East Garrison project on Fort Ord, Monterey County officials say they are close to wrapping up a deal with the developers.

One county supervisor said Friday that financial terms have been a big issue, with the county not wanting to end up in a deal like the Seaside Highlands development. That project, also built on former Army land, saw the city of Seaside getting just $1 million for land now occupied by 340 homes, some selling for $1 million each.

“We want to make sure the county isn’t financially embarrassed,” Supervisor Dave Potter said. "Thank God that lesson occurred while this project was being designed. “Our board wants a better deal,” Potter said. But he declined to go into specifics of the real estate negotiations.

A 2003 option agreement with the East Garrison developers called for the county to get $1.5 million up-front for the land and “a back-end” share of profits. But those terms likely will change.

“If we are giving up the land, we have to make sure it’s a great deal for all county residents and not a real sweet deal for one side or the other,” Supervisor Fernando Armenta said.

Armenta said negotiations have focused recently on land price and profit-sharing terms.

Potter and Supervisor Jerry Smith recently became the county’s point men in dealing with the East Garrison partnership of Woodman Development Co., William Lyon Homes and Urban Community Partners.

In May, the developers’ attorney, Tony Lombardo, demanded direct participation by supervisors in the lagging negotiations, saying his clients spent $10 million on design work and the county was trying to change terms of the deal.

But Friday, supervisors and a developers’ spokesman said the final deal is nearly worked out. “I’m very optimistic that we have gotten it back on track,” Smith said. “This is way overdue. It’s three years overdue.”

“We’ve put a full-court press on this,” Supervisor Lou Calcagno said.

The Board of Supervisors held a special, closed-door meeting Wednesday to discuss real estate negotiations. And in recent weeks, County Administrative Officer Lew Bauman shuffled staffers involved in the talks.

“I can say it looks very close. It looks like it is almost imminent,” Armenta said.

Keith McCoy, a spokesman for the developers, said, “We are making very good progress.”

McCoy said the final development deal should go before the Board of Supervisors, along with the project specific plans, in July.

“I basically share his ambitiousness… but we are still (in) negotiations,” Smith said.

The East Garrison project, the first county redevelopment project on Fort Ord lands, calls for about 1,400 housing units — including 280 below-market units — a village-style retail center, studio space for artists, a fire station, library and school.

Smith, whose district includes the project site, said East Garrison is intended to be “a flagship”
in the redevelopment of the former Army base.

Complexities of the project — which included several projects on other East Garrison lands and the relocation of Monterey Peninsula College’s proposed public-safety academy — have contributed to the drawn-out negotiations, McCoy said.

“I don’t think the county staff anticipated it would be so complicated,” he said. “It’s been a challenge for us and the county to get our arms around.”

The East Garrison developers have grown frustrated with delays because two other major Fort Ord redevelopment projects — the 1,277-home University Villages residential-commercial project and the 1,080-home Marina Heights subdivision — already have won approvals from the city of Marina.

“Since University Villages started a year and a half later, it’s been a little frustrating,” McCoy said.

With William Lyon Homes, one of California’s biggest home builders, in the East Garrison project, one of the challenges in negotiations has been to make certain the retail center, artist colony, historical Army building renovations and facets of the project are built — in addition to homes, Potter said.

“The board wanted to make sure it was the project we originally talked about,” he said.

The 244-acre East Garrison project is billed as a model of “new urbanism” design with walkable neighborhoods and a small town center with retail and commercial space.

“This is a personal challenge to see this project get out of the ground and get done,” Smith said. “As things are delayed, costs go up.”