Pittsburg approves sale of part of defunct golf course for technology park

Pittsburg took another step in its attempt to sell a portion of the now-defunct Delta View Golf Course this week when it agreed to sell more than half of the site to a Delaware company to build a technology park and data center.

The city has been trying to dispose of the property since the 175-acre golf course shut down in 2018. It reached an exclusive negotiating rights agreement with Energy Delivery Solutions that year, and was close to sealing the deal, agreeing to a price and timeline.

However, Energy Delivery Solutions was then acquired by AVAIO, and that briefly stalled the project.

Meanwhile, in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an amendment to the state’s Surplus Land Act. The act now requires that cities disposing of surplus lands have to first make them available to low-income housing developers and negotiate in good faith with those developers, according to Jordan Davis, Pittsburg’s director of community and economic development.

“But “we see this as a piece of land that would be highly sought after,” Davis said of the former golf course that the city had earmarked for a technology park that would house equipment for information technology operations such as computers, servers, storage hardware and more.

To push forward with its plans, the city sought from the state – and was granted – an exemption to the Surplus Land Act rules, since it had entered into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement before the law was changed.

But there is a catch – the land must be disposed of by Dec. 31 of this year.

In the latest development in the golf course saga, the City Council this week approved selling 101.7 acres of the land to Pittsburg Land Holdings, a subsidiary of AVAIO Digital Partners, for $16.7 million.

To get the exemption to the state’s Surplus Land Act, Pittsburg’s agreement with Pittsburg Land Holdings must mirror its earlier one with Energy Solutions, which included financing assistance from the city.

Resident Mark Linde questioned the appraised value of the property, which he said was about $200,000 per acre. Since the site already has power, he said he thought it was worth more than that.

“I feel that that actually increases the value of the property, especially for the parcels located next to the utility lines,” he said. “And, then, what guarantees do we have, other than in writing – I don’t see them putting any money down right away – that this isn’t going to end up like the Vidrio project, where the city lost an estimated $11 million?”

Linde was referring to a developer defaulting on the city’s three-block centerpiece downtown project, Vidrio, leaving it at only 90% built.

Councilman Juan Banales asked if the company could sell or pursue a different project on the site.

Jordan said that could only happen if the City Council denies Pittsburg Land Holdings’ plans for a tech park. If that occurs, the company could return the property to the city, pursue a different project or sell the property, in which case the city would share in the proceeds from the sale, he said.

The City Council approved the purchase agreement 4-0 vote, with Mayor Holland Barrett White absent.

The remaining portion of the former golf course, the council decided in 2018, should be used for recreation activities, though not all of it is planned yet. But 10 acres are designated for the Delta View Sports Fields, the first phase of which will include three multipurpose fields south of West Leland Road and east of John Henry Johnson Parkway.

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