THE ALAMEDA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS has voted to finalize terms for the sale of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to a local development company.
After years of incremental progress, the Oakland Acquisition Company, an affiliate of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, is now a little less than a year away from closing escrow on the 112-acre site once jointly owned by the city of Oakland and Alameda County.
“Getting this far in such a complex deal has been a true community wide effort,” said Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas.
“I certainly look forward to a transformative project and collaboration with AASEG, the city of Oakland and the community to revitalize not only East Oakland, but the entire region through the Coliseum,” Fortunato Bas said.
Prior to being elected to the Board of Supervisors, Fortunato Bas played a key role in the deal as a member of the Oakland City Council.
As council president, she helped secure an exclusive negotiating agreement for AASEG’s purchase of Oakland’s 50 percent share in the property, along with conditions of approval that include affordable housing and an agreement to use local, union labor.
Tuesday’s vote allows the Oakland Acquisition Company to purchase what was once the county’s 50 percent share of the property from Coliseum Way Partners, an affiliate of the former Oakland A’s professional baseball team that bought the property from the county for $85 million in 2019.
The Oakland Acquisition Company has agreed to buy both Oakland’s and the A’s shares of the property for $125 million each, but needed the Board of Supervisors’ approval to move forward.
Prior to the vote, AASEG co-founder Ray Bobbit thanked the supervisors and county staff for their work in putting the agreement together.
“Clearly this is an important, critical step in a monumental process,” Bobbit said. “This has been a long process that’s occurred for almost five years at this point. We just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to move this forward.”
Supervisor Nate Miley said he was pleased with the deal but stopped short of a full-throated celebration, noting that the terms of the agreement won’t be finalized until the close of escrow on June 30, 2026.
“So this is another step in the direction to get us across the finish line,” Miley said. “When we get across the finish line, by that point in time, then we can break out the champagne, smoke the cigars and sing Hallelujah.”
He also said that the county’s “long journey” to reach an agreement included doing its due diligence in securing terms that defend the county’s interests, such as being protected from environmental clean-up responsibilities and claims related to any “pre-existing” conditions at the Coliseum complex.
Still, he echoed the other supervisors’ declarations that the deal is a momentous one.
“We recognize the fact that by having a team of African Americans take the interest in the property from the county it would be a tremendous, historic, transformative undertaking,” Miley said.
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