Richmond: Point Molate readies for next phase
By Karina Ioffee
kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted:   07/30/2015 02:31:12 PM PDT0 Comments | Updated:   99 min. ago

RICHMOND -- For years, the Point Molate peninsula has beckoned with its promise of beach access, trails, homes and other amenities, like a finger pointing toward some glimmering horizon.

But since the U.S. Navy transferred the property to the city in 2003, the 320-acre site has sat vacant, the subject of reports, advisory committees and plenty of dreams.

This month, another report was issued, at a cost of $10,000 to the city, recommending that a hotel with a conference center and restaurant, single-family homes, a watercraft rental center and one or more wineries could be just the type of revenue-generating projects the peninsula needs.

Other potential uses floated include live-work cottages for artists, and upscale campgrounds where visitors could stroll along the 1.5 miles of shoreline and admire the lights of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and Marin County beyond.

It sounds great in theory, but many wonder if Richmond will ever implement any of the grandiose plans, given the area's lack of sewer connections and potable water. Another hurdle is the ongoing litigation by the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians and Upstream Point Molate LLC, a developer, who sued the city after it rejected a proposed casino at the site.

A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Richmond in 2013, but the company has appealed the decision. There's also ongoing work to clean fuel and other contaminants that began in August and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

"There are many of us who wonder whether we will all go to our graves without anything having been done at Point Molate," said Mark Howe, a member of the Point Molate Community Advisory Committee and owner of MSH Group, a Richmond construction and development company.

Meanwhile, the $28 million left by the U.S. Navy to pay for the remediation is dwindling, with only $10 million left, according to Howe.

Among Howe's concerns is that the new report, authored by Sedway Consulting, a San Francisco real estate economics firm, failed to consider alternate sources of revenue, such as a development easement that he says Chevron has long coveted as a buffer for its nearby refinery.

"I was surprised it didn't explore this at all, and that's pretty low-hanging fruit," Howe said, adding that Chevron was willing to pay $50 million for a buffer zone in 2004 and may well be interested today. "The report was a rehash of everything we've heard before. If you want to get anything done, you have to find the money. There's no way around it."

A Chevron refinery spokeswoman declined to say whether the company would be interested in a similar offer.
Lynn Sedway, who authored the market study, said the report was preliminary and aimed only at reviewing the market conditions for some of the possible uses.

"The easement is a subject for a later date or something to be done by an engineer," Sedway said.
Chevron already owns property on all three sides of the peninsula, and some think the refinery would prefer the status quo.
"Chevron's goal all along has been to limit access to Point Molate," said Don Gosney, who has served on various committees focused on restoration of the peninsula. "As a matter of fact, they want all of us to go away -- as far away from their refinery as possible. ... When they offered $81 million for the entire site a dozen years back, their plan was to put higher fences around the property and exclude all access to the site."

Not everyone has been critical.

Bruce Beyaert, a local preservation expert who also sits on the Point Molate Advisory Committee, said the document had many good ideas.

"The core uses that could generate money for the city are wineries and a hotel and conference center," Beyaert said. "If developed, it has the potential to pay for restoration of the many historic buildings on the peninsula."

Thirty-five structures on Point Molate are either on the state or federal register of historic places, meaning the exterior can't be demolished during construction. The biggest and most impressive building is Winehaven, the former brick winery with turrets and crenelated parapets that make it look like a medieval castle, and that served as headquarters of the California Wine Association before being shuttered by Prohibition in 1920.

Although no inventory has ever been done, Howe estimates that up to $20 million is needed to install a sewer system. Then there's potable water that needs to be piped in and roads to be widened.

"When the soil remediation account is exhausted, where does the city get the money?" Howe said.

One way the city could generate money is by selling a parcel of land to a buyer to finance infrastructure costs, said Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, an architect who specializes in historic preservation. The city could then create a nonprofit and work to attract potential developers.

For now, Howe and local venture capitalist Bob McNeil have said they would pay to retrofit the winemaker's cottage, a 1,700-square-foot home that sits atop a hill, in order to show investors the peninsula's potential. The home could be rented out for weddings and other special events as a way to drum up interest and get more people out to Point Molate, Butt said.