For more than 20 years, the northern border of Seaside has looked like a ghost town, where dilapidated buildings from the former Fort Ord continue sliding further into decay, and where the only people you’ll likely see are in cars, on their way to somewhere else.
But if things go as planned – and that’s a big if, because few things ever go as planned on the former Fort Ord – the table is being set for the Campus Town project, which would transform 122 acres of blighted land into housing, retail and a hotel, to break ground as early as next spring.
“That continues to be the schedule we’re working against,” says developer Danny Bakewell Jr., whose KB Bakewell Seaside Venture II, LLC, was awarded the contract by the city to build the development.
In an effort to keep to that schedule, the city has hired outside engineering consultants in recent months to assess the hazardous materials on the property in advance of the city’s planned demolition of its buildings, so it can transfer the property to Bakewell with a clean slate and he can begin developing immediately.
But even if no hazardous surprises become setbacks for the project’s timeline, litigation might. On Aug. 19, a group calling itself the Committee for Sound Water and Land Development of Fort Ord filed an appeal in the California Sixth Appellate District, seeking to overturn the dismissal of a case it brought in Monterey County Superior Court which aimed to overturn the environmental approvals for Campus Town.
(From emails the Weekly obtained through a Public Records Act request earlier this year, the Weekly learned the plaintiff in the case – the “committee” – is developer Paul Petrovich, who for a time was trying to develop another Seaside project, Main Gate.)
“That is the X-factor in timing,” Bakewell Jr. says. “That at this point is the biggest holdup that we have. The city is not able to transfer the title [to the land] with the lawsuit there. We are moving forward and spending a lot of money, and we’re confident, but there’s still a lot of risk involved.”
Trevin Barber, who came on as Seaside’s economic development manager in July, projects even more confidence than Bakewell about Campus Town’s prospects.
“This project is going to happen, but it might not be exactly in the first quarter [of 2022],” Barber says. “I think it’s important to remember: This is a cornerstone development for the city.”
The Seaside City Council is also laying the groundwork for the project in other ways: On Sept. 16, the council agreed to a new location for a fire station in the city at First Avenue and Gigling Road, after earlier this year informing the Presidio of Monterey Fire Department that the city would not be renewing its lease for their station at Lightfighter Drive and Gigling, which expires in August 2023.
A lot could change in the six months before Bakewell is hoping to break ground on the first phase of the project, but he remains hopeful both for the project’s fate, and its regional impact, if built.
“It takes what was considered the worst property on all of Fort Ord and removes a tremendous amount of blight, and creates a tangible asset for the city of Seaside,” Bakewell Jr. says. “We’ve labored with this thing for over seven years now, and we’re not going anywhere.”