EPA Region 9 – Bay Street Project, Emeryville, California

Photography by the City of Emeryville

The Bay Street Project highlights the City of Emeryville as a city in transition that embraces and preserves its rich cultural past while utilizing creative techniques to stimulate economic and social development. Faced with the challenge of creating an engaging urban retail and entertainment environment, the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency and its project partners redeveloped an underutilized former industrial land area, known as South Bayfront, into the Bay Street “urban village,” containing smaller retail uses, restaurants, cafes, a multiplex cinema, and parking facilities. In the creation of Bay Street, the stakeholders became trailblazers in handling historic and land use preservation issues, redevelopment and cleanup cost recovery law, and in leveraging financial resources.

Before Redevelopment

Before Redevelopment

After Redevelopment - Arts Festival

After Redevelopment - Barnes & Noble

Historically the 21-acre site was primarily used for industrial and manufacturing purposes since the early 1920s. Significant industrial activity included a lime and sulfur plant, formulation and packaging of pesticides and insecticides, manufacturing of iron oxide pigments, reconditioning of used drums and barrels, trucking operations, a machine shop, and offices. A large portion of the site soil contained arsenic, lead, DDT residuals, volatile organic compounds, and petroleum hydrocarbons. Using a proactive approach, the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency (Agency) initiated the cleanup investing $27 million to assemble the nine properties and provide remediation activities with the oversight of the California EPA Department of Toxic and Substances Control. Since the private sector was unwilling to do so, the Agency spent $500,000 to assess the extent of contamination on the site. The Polanco Redevelopment Act authorized the Agency to purchase and clean up the contaminated property and resell the land to the selected developer, while simultaneously pursuing reimbursement from the responsible polluting parties. Emeryville's strategic use of the Polanco Act was the first case to use the Act to successfully win cleanup recovery costs.

Land use mitigations were utilized to address certain environmental features of the Bay Street site. Redevelopment efforts preserved the Temescal Creek, a naturally flowing waterway, using design and landscaping techniques to highlight the creek for community enjoyment. The presence of archeological artifacts of the Ohlone Native American tribe provided an opportunity to familiarize the community with a prominent Native American legacy. A variety of sponsored programs continue to honor and appreciate the Ohlone people.

Property acquisition and site remediation was accomplished using $27 million of tax increment and tax allocation bonds. Upon completion of remediation activities, the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency sold the land to the selected developer. Repayment will occur over a 25-year period. Due to the difficulties in obtaining financing for mixed-use projects, the developer obtained pre-leases from 60% of its anticipated tenants in order to secure financing for the construction of the project. No federal or state funds were used in this project.

The Bay Street Project is a work-in-progress. While the retail portion of the project is complete and already in use by the community, the 355-unit residential portion is expected to begin construction this fall. It is a complex project that involved 15 years of planning and development. The Emeryville Redevelopment Agency worked with developer, Madison Marquette, to create a master plan in accordance with city design guidelines to create a vibrant mixed-use project. The Bay Street master plan contains a combination of entertainment and retail uses totaling approximately 380,000 sq. ft., including an 80,000 sq. ft., 16-screen multiplex cinema and apartment housing that will offer renters the unique opportunity to live within walking distance of many of the city's amenities. No large anchor stores are planned; smaller retail uses, restaurants, and related uses will create a village environment. Concealed structures will provide 1,900 onsite parking spaces and a proposed pedestrian structure will connect the development to the eastern part of the city.

Bay Street has already become a new downtown center for Emeryville and Bay Area residents, serving as a venue for community events such as a weekly Farmer's Market and summer concerts. Bay Street is also a vehicle for community economic development. Bay Street's retail component currently brings in approximately $1.0 million in sales tax annually, $1.4 million in property tax annually, and has increased the number of jobs in the site area from 150 to 690.

Bay Street's cutting edge mixed-use design project exemplifies the success a small city can achieve if all sectors of the community work together to harness resources, develop a shared vision for the future, and collaborate with creative and experienced project participants.

For more information regarding this project, contact Patrick O'Keeffe at (510) 596-4357 or pokeeffe@ci.emeryville.ca.us .

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