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Vallejo Mare Island redeveloper's plan to clean up key north entry draws criticism - North Bay Business Journal

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One of the nearly dozen public commenters at the meeting opposing the two new arrangements, Brad Beltane, was concerned that the security license would give Nimitz “carte blanche” to mistreat the homeless found in north Mare Island.

“I understand why in making a development that you want that security, but the city needs to do its part first that the people in most desperate need get the help they need,” Beltane said. The lay-down lease has a one-year term, with three yearlong extensions possible, at an annual rate of $1.

Here’s the near-term urgency for the new Mare Island security and lay-down-area leases, according to Kelley and Nimitz’s redevelopment manager as of the beginning of this year, Southern Land Company: Kreysler & Associates, fabricator of large architectural enhancements such as sculptures and facades, has run out of room around its Mare Island plant to store large sections of the futuristic skin being produced for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Mayor-elect McConnell echoed the comments from Beltane and others who spoke against the two new agreements that these deals should wait for the new council to be seated in January to consider arrangements that would persist for years.

Tom D’Alesandro, president of West Coast operations for Southern Land, said the security license and lay-down area were needed sooner than that.

“If we wait, we will miss the window for putting in the fence, and Kreysler won’t be able to add a third shift,” he told the council.

Ramping up for the Lucas museum

Kreysler wants to add 40 employees to keep up with demand at its Mare Island plant, Brian Kagy, Southern Land’s operations chief in Vallejo, told the City Council. But the manufacturer needs secure yard space there to stage the finished panels for delivery to the museum job site when needed.

The Lucas museum is set to honor the life’s work of filmmaker and Marin County resident George Lucas, best known for the “Star Wars” series, now owned by The Disney Co. The museum is under construction in Los Angeles and before the coronavirus pandemic was expected to open late next year.

Kreysler has had its 35,000-square-foot fabrication plant at its headquarters in the Green Island Road industrial area of American Canyon since 2000, but the 45,000-square-foot Mare Island highly automated factory was opened early last year specifically to handle fabrication of composite building facades like the Lucas project.

In late 2018, Kreysler secured a three-year contract to produce the museum façade. The 700-foot-long, 270-foot-wide building was designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects to look like a cloud. That look will be achieved through 1,500 rainscreen panels attached to the structure via 5,600 special trusses, according to a review of the project by trade magazine Composites Manufacturing. The glass-fiber-reinforced plastic panels’ average size is 8 by 30 feet.

Growth of other island tenants

Factory_OS, an off-site builder of modular multifamily housing, also has made a big expansion on the island recently. It added over 100 employees and a second factory building, with over 100,000 square feet of production space.

The company has been turning out a number of modules for projects around the Bay Area, and dozens of finished modules are being staged in fenced lots with lights and security cameras further north on the island but not in the lay-down lease area. Southern Land officials told the City Council that Factory_OS was not one of the prospective tenants that needed that additional acreage.

Along the waterfront just north of Factory_OS is Mare Island Dry Dock LLC, which in the last 30 days added 27 new workers, bringing the 7-year-old company to 203 employees, said Christina Snyder, executive vice president. The union shop draws 62% of its staff from Vallejo residents.

Because it is one of the last large shipyards on the West Coast, demand for repair services has been strong, and now all four of the “grave” (in-ground) drydocks are full, and so are the company’s three berths on the wharf.

A newly installed security fence and tightened cybersecurity both to federal standards has allowed the company to land more contracts for Navy ships, Snyder said. The Emery S. Land vessel, with work approaching $50 million, came as a result of those upgrades, she said.

“To date, we have 29 vessels booked this year,” she said.

Including the dry dock staff, subcontractors, vendors, and ship crew and management, 1,200–1,300 people are checked into that shipyard during each work day, many of them staying in hotels in Vallejo and cities as far away as Dixon.

More updates on Mare Island plans and progress

But the comments at the Nov. 10 council meeting underscored the need for a return to the quarterly updates on the redevelopment progress and process for Mare Island, D’Alesandro told the council.

“We’ve heard comments and criticisms earlier today, and we take them seriously. And we will respond,” he said.

Next year, Southern Land plans to restart community outreach akin to the meetings held in 2018–2019 as HOK was preparing ideas for a master plan for Nimitz on the island, finish more market research, define next phase of rehabilitating existing buidlings and finalize the north Mare Island term sheet update and development agreement.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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