Deal explored to obtain property at entry of campus

EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 19, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.

For years, college and district administrators have been negotiating terms for the property rights of the Army Reserve staging area sitting at the south entrance of the college.

Contra Costa College President McKinley Williams said, however, he hopes to have negotiations for a real estate exchange for the Army Reserve Second Medical Brigade property done by the end of the academic year.

"It is critical for (the) college to own that property and control what our front door looks like," Williams said.

"I know that the way (the Army property is) currently configured with the fence, barbed wire and blocks, it doesn't look like you're coming onto a college campus," he said. "It doesn't add to our ambiance at all."

For the past 10 years, Williams said, the college has been in discussions with the Department of the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers to reach a land deal resulting in the district owning the $3.7 million property across the street to the Gym Annex Building on Castro Road.

Neither the district nor the college, however, can simply pay for and buy the property. Instead, district Chief Facilities Planner Ray Pyle said the district and Army have to exchange real property.

"The Army has the ability, through federal law, to exchange real property with other organizations rather than buying or selling property," Pyle said. "They don't really have the authority to buy and sell, but they can do real property exchange."

A real property exchange is when two buildings or pieces of property of equal value are traded.

"What we're looking at possibly doing (is) using our funds, and the source of the funds (are) not identified 100 percent, to build the Army another building, probably on Mare Island (in Vallejo)," Pyle said.

Although Williams is hopeful the negotiations can be finalized by the end of the academic year, Pyle said it would take up to three years to design and construct a building of equal value.