The master developer and the labor consortium poised to build a new 2,300-acre residential and commercial community on the former Concord Naval Weapons Station land were directed by the Concord City Council Wednesday night to resume meeting and redouble their efforts to break an impasse over labor agreements stalling the project.
This move headed off, at least for a while, the possibility of the huge project suffering a major time setback – or perhaps canceling it altogether.
Wednesday night’s vote 4-0-1 vote – Councilwoman Carlyn Obringer abstained – came in response to an impasse between the Contra Costa County Building and Construction Trades Council, a consortium of area labor unions, and Lennar Concord, LLC, the lead developer of the weapons station remake, formally known as the Concord Community Reuse Project.
The crux of the impasse is whether Lennar can afford to use as many labor union workers as county labor leaders propose. Lennar officials have said that the difference between Lennar’s overall labor offer and the
Building Trades Council’s overall request is about $546 million.
Since June 2018, the developer and the union consortium have met nine times, and reached an impasse in October.
Councilman Edi Birsan offered a motion Wednesday that directed Lennar and the Building Trades County to “refocus” back at the bargaining table and arrive at an agreement they both support. Recommended goals include
40 percent of labor hires being from Concord; an approved apprenticeship program; priority for veterans in hiring and training; and paying at least a “prevailing wage” to hired labor.
These were all recommendations only, as such changes to the long-established “term sheet” of listed requirements of the developer needed to be on the council meeting agenda for changes to be made.
Kofi Bonner, co-COO of FivePoint-Lennar and of the reuse project, told the council he was confused over the new recommendations, and wasn’t sure they present a significant way around the impasse. But beyond that,
officials from both Lennar and the Building Trades Council on-hand agreed to meet soon, at a date to be determined.
The reuse plan for the 5,000-acre weapons station site – one of the biggest such projects in Northern California – calls for building 13,000 residences, commercial and office space, a college campus and other amenities on 2,300 acres. Most of the development would be near the North Concord-Martinez BART station, just south of state Highway 4 on Concord’s northeast edge.
The City Council was choosing Wednesday from among three basic paths forward. The council could have deemed Lennar’s efforts to secure labor agreements insufficient; in that event, Lennar faced relinquishing its role
as master developer for Phase 1 of the reuse project. The council could have deemed Lennar’s labor agreement sufficient, allowing the project could move forward with Lennar at the helm.
The council chose a version of the third option, to postpone a decision and have the developer and labor leaders keep working to find common ground.
Lennar is charged by the city with securing those project labor agreements.
Wednesday night’s session was actually a continuation of a meeting that started Tuesday night and continued for 6-1/2 hours of staff reports, discussion with Lennar and Building Trades Council officials and public
testimony from more than 80 speakers. The council had, by a 3-2 vote, adjourned just before 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Tuesday night, hundreds of area union members and their supporters crowded not only the council chambers and an overflow room and the courtyard at City Hall. Soon before adjourning their meeting early Wednesday morning,
Concord council members said they wish they had had a bigger venue for the meeting, and that it was too late to reserve a bigger space for Wednesday night’s continued meeting.
Bonner said Tuesday that his company would walk away from the Naval Weapons Station reuse project if it isn’t satisfied with labor agreements. While Bonner and others acknowledged Lennar used all union labor
at its recent project at Hunters Point in San Francisco, several people Tuesday night also said San Francisco’s housing market makes the extra cost of union labor to developers less affordable in Contra Costa County.
The U.S. Navy is awaiting a resolution of the Concord project labor agreement issue, and progress on a draft specific plan on the former weapons station land, to resume negotiations with the city of Concord for formal sale and transfer of the land to the city.
The northernmost part of the old weapons station, north of Highway 4, continues in operation as the Military Ocean Terminal Concord.
Stay strong union members. You are our last, best hope in preventing this project from moving forward.
Lennar should RUN from the city of concord. This project politics is a no win for any developer. And the legal ramifications for a hazardous site will bankrupt the company and the city. Deep pockets will follow this in court to anyone who touches it. Political bs and Union pressure ain’t worth the trouble either.
True. The city has already botched this one and this non decision just makes things worse. If you dictate the terms of who should be hired then there will never be “affordable” housing.
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Lennar will leave and no one else will come in willing to pay the union wages that are being requested for 100% of the project. I’ve talked with many union workers over the years. I ALWAYS ask them after they’ve had a renovation done on their home if they ONLY used union labor and PAID the prevailing union wage and they ALL say the same thing – NO. They want to charge their rates, but don’t want to pay them.
This will delay the project for years. It was NEVER realistic to expect the developer to ONLY use union labor for 100% of the project…NEVER. No one can make the economics work.
I used a UNION ROOFER and a UNION Solar contractor, and saved 10% on the project over non union. Not only did I save money, but I saved you money because all of the employees have full benefits. Many residential contractors pay their employees cash, and then the employees get to use food stamps, and other benefits.
Most residential customers just don’t think to look around, and shame on union members that don’t.
I am a UNION worker.
Why do we have to kowtow to the mafia?? We have labor laws and safe practices and OSHA … but unions can still force us to use their labor under their terms? I honestly don’t understand
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Just leave the land alone for the animals. Why does just about every open space have to have buildings on it….oh wait, money/ greed.
You know…on the other side of town there is this thing called MT DIABLO STATE PARK. Not to mention all the open spaces. Give me a break, Concord is a metropolitan city and the development needs to be done not just for Concord, but for the region.
Back in the `90s, selling of military bases to increase federal coffers was euphemistically called the “Peace Dividend.” The fact is that CNWS land is worth way too much to governments at all levels to allow it to go unused. The federal government will get their cut, either from Concord, or from a private developer.
We have plenty of OPEN space and don’t need more. That’s the BIG blunder with this development. Less than 15% should be open space. The rest should be for housing and jobs (business centers).
There is a lot going on at Mare Island that could also be happening in Concord if the City doesn’t screw things up. CNSW land is not going to sit idle forever. The federal government will not let that happen, because they want the money. Concord has the first opportunity to deal with the land, but if they don’t do something soon, someone else will step in.
A big chunk of our economy is based on development, and that won’t stop till every inch of space is full, and overcrowded to the point of complete saturation. Standing room only. More and more people stream in every day. Any and all fixes will be short lived and temporary. Get used to it.
Have you ever been in a plane and flown over the Bay Area (or the country for that matter)? There is a lot of open space. Just because you can’t see if from where you are standing doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If in a scifi world Concord became a depressed and desolate would you think, “ah look at all the open land and ease of traffic!” or think, “Yikes, our dying town needs help.” Progress and change happens and we must move with it. A person decides what clothes fit them best, what car suits their needs, what foods make them feel good..same goes for where you live. You can either choose to wear something that doesn’t fit, make a lifestyle change so it fits again, OR change your clothes.
Concord Mom – do you know that most of the land you mention is already owned? Do you know the that ridgeline and beyond near the CNWS is owned by Seeno and there is planned development? What appears to be open space is not always as it seems.
Hold Tough Concord! This is the last large, possibility area changing project we will see in our lifetimes. The people who build these homes should have a reasonable chance of owning them. We need good paying jobs for Contra Costa. Prevailing wages should be paid to all while this project is built and after.
Do not build before improving the infrastructure, BART can’t handle thousands of more commuters, and neither can the nearby freeway system. Developing without improving first would create a transit hell. Not even getting into the hazardous waste, water and energy demands.
Turn the whole thing into a big redwood grove. We have enough houses.
It is so frustrating to see people make blanket statements without any facts. We indeed have strong labor laws in California, because of the unions multi century fight. These laws are only enforced when a complaint is filed, and many workers are extorted still to this very day to keep quite or loose their underpaid position to someone else that will be quite. Follow the California Department of Industrial Relations, and the cases they close regularly, and you will see this state is far from a labor sanctuary!.
Second issue is that Lennar agreed to the very terms reinforced by the City Council last night, in 2016! Do some research folks. Section 16.a of the Term Sheet references the Hire Concord First policy. The city had also issued a Clarification Letter in 2014, spelling out exactly what the Hire Concord First policy was intended to do.
Not word for word, but I believe Council Member Edi Birsan said this last night- using cheap labor to build housing only perpetuates the need for affordable housing.
Don’t be confused with wage rates on this project and wage rates in San Francisco. Most crafts have rates for Contra Costa County that are lower than San Francisco, but know that all crafts have fought long and hard to have any of the rates that would be used, and those rates provide a living wage, healthcare, and retirement, and state certified training. Without the guarantee of these rates, you will most likely end up with workers making the minimum wage for construction, no certified training for a career, and no retirement or healthcare. What that means for those that don’t look at the big picture, when you loose those benefits in the workforce, hospitals get left with the bill for healthcare and then that gets passed to us. And when someone has no healthcare or retirement, who do you think pays for it?
Concord is trying to be the responsible city that all cities should be, and they are trying to build a long and prosperous future with this project, and the workforce it will build as well, and all of the supply chains used to build it. The very same Builders that say we have a shortage of skilled and trained workers, are the cause of it.
Lennar is asking for wages and benefits to be cut for all workers (ultimately driving down wages regionally), wages that they agreed to years ago. Lennar is not offering to cut the wages of their own staff. Just in the top 7 leaders in Lennar alone, they are paid $65,000,000.00
Lennar is playing the game, and trying to strong-arm Concord and its hardworking labor force. Hold them accountable, we can’t afford not to.
IronHead – Well said.
I agree. Hiring non-union labor from the hinterlands will drive down wages for the rest of us. It is a false argument to say you can’t make money on the Bay Area inflated house prices
Lennar was the contractor for Mare Island. Lennar couldn’t follow through, so they sold the development rights off to The Nimitz Group. The Mare Island project is 500 acres, the same size as Concord Reuse Phase 1.
It would have been best for the city of Concord if Lennar had walked away last night. It’s possible they actually do want to walk away, but want to do it slowly in a way that they can save face. If they abruptly leave, it could hurt their stock price and scare off future investors. A second major Bay Area blunder would hurt their standing. So meanwhile, Lennar will play games with the city.
No one has mentioned the Avalon Bay/downtown Concord white picket fence deal that fell through last year. That is what spooked Lennar and other developers. To my knowledge an agreement was signed and later Council added some changes. Avalon Bay was told to take it or leave it. Avalon bailed.
I keep reminding City Council they were elected to serve the 129,000+ residents of Concord, not only union residents who live in Concord or the area. Many (unpaid) Concord residents have spent the past 15 years attending and participating in hundreds of meetings and workshops to get to this point. We negotiated the community benefits Lennar has to offer: open space/parks and trails. affordable housing, restore Mt. Diablo Creek and more. We can’t lose these community benefits! IF this goes forward it will benefit current and future Concord residents. City Council needs to make their decisions in the best interest of their constituents, ALL residents of Concord!
In both cases, all aspects of the projects where known up front.
The community benefits you speak of where in the bid documents that both Lennar and Catellus bid from, along with what the Council Reinforced last night. This is a money grab high profit at the expense of the community play that is typical of highly profitable developers that claim to be broke.
Lennar is not offering anything they had not been obligated to already, and is rather trying to pocket extra money by not doing everything they agreed to!!!!!! Labor is part of the ALL Residents of Concord, and Lennar is trying to cut them out and fool you.
READ THE TERM SHEET FOLKS
I can’t agree with you IronHead. I spoke with all parties involved including a third party. If the unions kill this deal they can walk and find other projects. Sure, they would want to work in Concord but they will find other work. If this deal dies ALL Concord residents will likley lose the community benefits.
CNWS wants to be a Redwood Grove and Open Space … forever … maybe a vineyard or two “Development” has invited Willie Brown into town, and you see what that did for San Francisco. Final word, Gittyup has spoken.
Clean up the hotspots, tear everything out but the bunkers, weld those shut, and enjoy of of the most unique parks in the country. You can even keep the museum.
I’ll post a PayPal link for my consulting fee.
Are you kidding me? The union is requesting/ requiring more union workers be used. I am all for unions… bu the higher Union wages along with the prevailing wages they are stating to be used are going to drive the prices way up on these homes. Hey I am for it as I might as well get out of the area at a high dollar.
But we are going to over price these houses out of the surrounding market, and drive the rent up even more. We live outside of SF because of how much it costs…
On one hand we get politicians screaming about the housing crisis and on the other hand these same politicians bow to their big labor masters and actively drive up the cost of housing. Not only do they kiss big labor’s ass they require crazy title 24 standards to appease their environmental bosses. The solar requirement along with the last four title 24 updates added $40,000 to the cost of a new house.
Only 20% of the construction industry in Ca. is unionized. The percentage drops dramatically in residential construction. Math question for you union supporters. What happens when you eliminate 80% of th bidders for a project?
Forcing Lennar to pay more for union labor is nothing more than a tax on the home buyer to pay back the unions for votes and campaign cash. The quality of the product doesn’t change and production actually goes down! Instead of relying on your ideology go ask some one that works in residential construction.
I own a non-union residential construction company. I know a lot of other non-union residential contractors , and we dont pay our employees cash. We pay all of our taxes. We offer benefits. We have workers comp insurance. The vilification of the merit shop by unionists is BS. Sorry for the long rant, but I have first hand knowledge how these corrupt PLAs work.
East Bay Regional Parks plans to use some bunkers to house historical era info such as Native Americans, early Concord history, WW2 and Port Chicago explosion, Vietnam War, and more.
Thank you JRocks
The City leaders should not have told the Labor leaders that they would get PLAs if they did not plan on making sure that would happen.
Thank you Jrocks for speaking the truth.
JRock gave us the realistic truth. And it’s sad.
With all due respect to the Building Trade Unions, they brought this on themselves. Their lead person back in 2016 struck some type of what he thought was a PLA promise with Kofi Bonner while the Council was still in the process of selecting the master developer. Despite many of us advising the Council and this BTC leader (I know I personally spoke to him) that Lennar is not trustworthy, the trades union came out in full support of Council selecting Lennar as master developer. They did this even though the Council was unethically allowing Lennar to be the only bidder on the decision. No one to blame but their own selfishness of not caring about the bad deal for Concord because they thought they had an “in” with Lennar.