The city of Oakland is selling its stake in the former home of the Athletics baseball team to local investors that are planning a sports-anchored redevelopment that could include thousands of houses.
The city council on Wednesday unanimously approved a purchase and sale agreement with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group for the sale of the city of Oakland’s stake in the Coliseum site. The local investment and development group agreed to acquire half of the site for a minimum of $105 million, filings indicate, with an exact price not disclosed.
Oakland said it was negotiating to sell its 50% stake in the 112-acre site last month, according to previous reporting by CoStar News. The A’s own the other half and bought it from Alameda County in 2019. The investment group is in talks with the baseball team to gain full control of the site, according to reports.
The A’s, currently in its last season in Oakland, are expected to move into a new, $1.5 billion stadium in Las Vegas in 2028. The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel will be demolished to make way for the facility.
If AASEG gains control of the Coliseum, it is reported it wants to repurpose the complex in a $5 billion project that aims to add new sports facilities, entertainment venues and a hotel. The redevelopment also expects to build thousands of affordable residences, according to a statement by the city.
Oakland’s office sector is facing record vacancy levels as businesses left the city’s downtown corridor en masse during the COVID-19 pandemic. The market is posting a 19% vacancy rate, a 25-year high, according to CoStar data.
The group could join a growing number of developers jumping on the trend of sports-anchored entertainment developments, with similar projects taking place in California and other states like Nevada, Tennessee and Florida.
An example of another sports-centered redevelopment in the state is the redevelopment of nearly 100 acres surrounding the Honda Center — a city-owned hockey arena in Anaheim, California — into a mixed-use center proposing to include nearly 2,000 residential units, along with offices and other commercial uses.