In the politically correct county of Marin, the following phrase is never heard in public…but it is often expressed in the safety of a private setting: “Novato isn’t really Marin.”
It may not have the kazillion dollar views of Sausalito or the rural charm of Inverness, but Novato does have plenty of something not found in Mill Valley or the tony boulevards of Ross: There’s development aplenty in Marin’s northernmost city.
In downtown Novato, a mixed-use project is going in near the old railroad depot. The site is already under construction and will include 125 condos and a 53,000 square-foot Whole Foods Market. The mixed-use project will include seven condos priced as very affordable housing. The city is happy to have new housing coming in, and is anticipating increased sales tax revenue from the market. Whole Foods is the second new supermarket to be built in Novato in the last two years. A Trader Joe’s debuted downtown last year.
Speaking of supermarkets, a bit to the south, Grosvenor USA is building a shopping center next to the Courtyard by Marriot, just north of Hamilton Field. Safeway is putting in a 55,000-square-foot market, while Peet’s Coffee is also building a shop. A gas station is also going in, along with 38,000-square-feet of retail space. The project should be complete by June.
After getting ImageMovers, a unit of Disney, to sign a long-term lease, Barker Pacific Group (BPG) is looking at wrapping up its 28-acre Hamilton Landing project. Hamilton has become the status address for creative companies. Video game producers Activision Publishing is stationed in one of seven restored Air Force hangars, and Take-Two Interactive and Nihilistic Software (a Sony Pictures Imageworks company) also call Hamilton home.
BPG also holds entitlements to a 58,000-square-foot green office building. At this point, the city needs to sign off on a design review, but the company plans to go ahead on a spec basis with construction of the building, though with the way the $150 million project has filled up, it’s likely the building will see some pre-leasing.
Financing for the project was supplied by BPG’s joint venture partner Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) and investment bank JPMorgan Chase. Since Prudential is an equity partner in the project, it’s somewhat unclear how long BPG, Prudential and the other partner, the Baupost Group, will remain in the deal. The project is 10 years old and generally speaking, PREI holds assets for three to seven years before selling off.
Take a right at the prison
From the “truth is stranger than fiction” file, let me present the latest from the noted wisdom factory known as the Marin Healthcare District. The district would like the state to donate some land next to San Quentin on which to construct a new hospital in 2009 or 2010, when the district regains control of Marin General Hospital from Sutter Health.
For the under-initiated, the health care district owns the Greenbrae hospital, while Sutter Health operates the facility under an agreement with the Marin General Hospital Corporation. A state mandate says the hospital must be made seismic-safe by 2013. Sutter Health has had the good sense to scrub up, disinfecting itself from lingering infection that is the fight between the corporation and the health care board. Over the years, the give-and-take between the board and the corporation has been only slightly less messy than a George Bush press conference (though not nearly as entertaining).
Board members Archimedes Ramirez and Sharon Jackson are doing their level best to persuade the state to donate 30 to 40 acres of land for a new hospital. In all, the state owns 432 acres of property, 270 of which isn’t being used by the prison. That number is a little soft however, since the state would like to build a new death row to replace the current model that’s busting at the seams. The price tag for a new government-sanctioned killing and housing facility is $337 million.
State Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), drafted a bill to delay the construction of the project until alternatives could be considered, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Though opponents of the new maximum security facility point out the prison is 156 years old and in woeful repair, Marin residents have wanted death row shut down for a very long time. Being known as the home of Mount Tamalpais, Point Reyes and the gas chamber is one too many landmarks for most folks.
Local politicians would like the prison leveled and the land donated so a new transit hub, housing and business development could be built. Given the lobbying power of the 30,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association union as well as the Governor’s desire to build a new death row rather than replace San Quentin, the likelihood of the land becoming available for transportation, commerce, housing or a hospital is a long shot.
The donation of land for the hospital isn’t an insignificant item for the district. Its consultant has opined that, for the 227-bed hospital to compete against Kaiser Permanente Medical Center’s 163 beds and Novato Community Hospital’s 47 beds, a new hospital—not simply a seismically retrofitted hospital—is in order. Free land would certainly help contain costs for the new facility that will keep 1,100 employees on the payroll.
