http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8538738.htm


Pitch by Mehran drops jaws in Dublin

By Sophia Kazmi
CONTRA COSTA TIMES


A 45,000-seat baseball stadium, a college campus, housing, a hotel and offices for 15,000 workers are all part of a massive plan for eastern Dublin floated by San Ramon-based Sunset Development Company.

The plan, brought unsolicited to the city of Dublin and Alameda County in January, was rejected because much of the land proposed for the project is already taken, including a 27.4-acre parcel being purchased by Ikea. However, it could be resurrected if the Ikea deal falls through, city officials said.

Alex Mehran, president and chief executive officer of Sunset, which developed San Ramon's Bishop Ranch office complex, met with Dublin council members individually earlier this year -- after Alameda County made a land sale agreement with Ikea, but before the council's March vote on the rezoning and approval of environmental documents -- to explain his plans.

"The first time I saw the plan, I was floored," said Councilman Tony Oravetz, who was awed by the gigantic proposal.

The Ikea property is only one small portion of the land proposed for the project -- which would spread from Dougherty Road to Hacienda Drive and Interstate 580 to 6th Street.

The written plan given to the city says the stadium would be built for the Oakland Athletics, but Mayor Janet Lockhart said Mehran told her "he did not have a tenant."

Mehran said perhaps he could buy the team, Lockhart said.

Calls to Mehran and Sunset Development Company on Tuesday were not returned.

The Oakland Athletics said they have never been approached by Sunset Development about a stadium in Dublin. Lewis Wolff, A's vice president of venue development, said the club is just "in the process" of exploring a lot of different options and gathering information about potential alternate sites.

Besides the stadium, the projects calls for 3.5 million square feet of office space, 300,000 square feet of retail, 1,549 homes, and a private college campus with a proposed enrollment of 2,500 that would include a library, classrooms and a planetarium.

The college's endowment would be funded by the Mehran family, said Lockhart.

Councilwoman Claudia McCormick said she was "horrified" by the Sunset proposal because it could cause more traffic problems than anything Ikea and its adjacent retail and restaurant center could muster. The plan proposes closing a section of Dublin Boulevard -- the city's main east-west artery -- on game days.

However, if Ikea goes forward, there is little chance for Sunset's "Dublin Transit Village" proposal, said McCormick.

"They told us that for this project to work, Ikea had to fail," she said.

If Ikea plans fizzle, the Sunset plan could come back to the table in a similar or revised form or other developers could jump on the property. "Anything is possible," said Pat Cashman, project director for the Alameda County's Surplus Property Authority.

Council members said at the time of the proposal, Mehran asked them to not talk about it. But Lockhart and McCormick said residents should know what has been proposed, and what other uses could be put to the land where Ikea is to be built.

Following the council's approval of plans for the 300,000-square-foot Ikea -- to be opened in 2006 -- a group of Dublin residents launched a petition drive seeking to overturn the approval.

"I'm not buying the threat: 'If you don't choose this, worse things are going to happen,'" said resident Laura Leitner, who began the petition drive.

Over the weekend, the Leitners and their supporters gathered 500 of the 1,400 signatures needed for a referendum allowing Dublin voters to decide whether they want an Ikea, she said. The petitioners have until May 6 to collect the signatures.

Talk of an A's stadium in Dublin is not new. In 1996, the A's owners asked Alameda County for land near the Interstate 580/680 interchange to build a new stadium. They were rejected.

Dublin? Nice place.

Setting by itself for baseball: decent.

Location in regards to the population base: Ick. Let's make that a monster ick. Why the A's even bothered to approach the county about land there in '96 baffles me, frankly.

My parents nearly had us moved there in the late '70's.

Fail to see how this could ever be considered a good location for a ballpark. Miles of tract housing (think of the neighborhood scenes in ET and Poltergeist and you get the picture).