CONCORD — After investing three years of their time and money laying out the groundwork for a massive development that could add 12,000 homes and thousands of jobs at the Concord Naval Weapons Station, the project’s developer is deciding whether to continue or pull up their stakes.
One day after the Concord City Council decided not to step in to settle their dispute with local labor over how much of the $6 billion redevelopment of old U.S. Navy land should be done by union workers, developers Lennar Concord LLC and Five Point declined to say or speculate what its next move will be. The council essentially told both sides to go back to the table and work out their differences, culminating a hearing that began Tuesday night and, after six hours, was continued to Wednesday evening.
“I’m not sure this gives us guidance to get out of impasse,” Lennar executive Kofi Bonner told the council at the end of Wednesday’s meeting. “One wonders how one goes forward.”
Lennar, which was selected in 2016 to redevelop the former weapons station property, has invested about $15 million so far in consultant costs; reimbursements to the city for staff time spent on a disposition and development agreement; creation of a specific plan; and the drafting of an environmental analysis, according to city documents. When Lennar and the Contra Costa Building Trades Council indicated they were at an impasse over union labor, the council was asked to step in and decide whether the labor agreement offered by Lennar satisfies city-approved terms.
On Wednesday, the council instead instructed both sides to keep negotiating and established nonbinding guidelines that include hiring a certain number of local workers, running an apprenticeship program, offering assistance and workforce placement/training to veterans and maintaining a prevailing wage standard. The unions had suggested most of those guidelines.
The council also directed Lennar to return with proposed changes to other terms of the development that might help broker a deal with labor, as long as no community benefits from the project — such as the affordable housing — are removed. Bill Whitney of the Building Trades Council said he was encouraged by the council’s decision.
“They wanted to do it as cheaply as possible,” Whitney said about Lennar.
The proposed development would be the biggest in Concord’s history and one of the largest in the region, slated to cover 2,300 acres with 13,000 housing units and millions of square feet of office, retail and campus space. Lennar representatives say the amount of union work desired by the trades council would cost more than half a billion dollars and eliminate profits. City staff advised the council that Concord’s consultants have validated those numbers, but cannot share Lennar’s proprietary financial information publicly. The unions contend Lennar has not been negotiating in good faith. The talks have spanned more than a year.
Councilmember Edi Birsan, who called for further negotiations, said he didn’t want to decide who was acting in good or bad faith. For more than six hours Tuesday, the council heard from almost 100 residents, union workers, business leaders and housing advocates. About half of the speakers supported the unions, while others urged the council to keep the project moving. Local business leaders described the site as a potential hub for technology companies and other job creators, and housing advocates said they wanted to see the vision of 3,000 affordable homes come true. The hearing stretched past midnight, so the council continued it to the next evening.
Although Lennar representatives wouldn’t say what will happen next, a city staff report suggests the company might walk away from the project if forced to use more union labor. In October, Lennar stopped reimbursing the city $37,000 a month for staff time spent on redevelopment planning. The city also has a financial stake in the project, having spent roughly $14 million in planning costs that City Manager Valerie Barone said would be repaid over time. Councilmember Carlyn Obringer and Vice Mayor Dominic Aliano asked Lennar representatives during the meeting whether they planned to resume payments, but didn’t get an answer because that wasn’t part of the agenda.
“People can interpret it in different ways, but to me it’s like sending the city and community the middle finger,” Aliano told Lennar of its stopped payments.
