Coliseum City Oakland Gets Bay Investment Group: Rashid Al Malik, Colony Capital LLC

The Coliseum City Project (the focus of an Oakland City Council closed session meeting today) just got the “middle eastern investor” Oakland District Seven Councilmember Larry Reid was working on securing as far back as four months ago. That person is Rashid Al Malik, and he’s teamed with an organization, Colony Capital LLC to form the Bay Investment Group.

The Bay Investment Group’s website tells little other than that they’re located in The San Francisco Bay Area, but reads: “Bay Investment Group has experienced tremendous growth and at the urging of many investors, we are now negotiating possible investment strategy partnerships.” While none of those investment strategy partnerships are listed, one of them is the Coliseum City Project.

For those of you not into what’s happening, Coliseum City Project is a planned development that will, hopefully, house stadiums for the Oakland Raiders, Oakland Athletics, and Golden State Warriors. In all, it’s over 800 acres, includes hotels and office buildings, and would mark a significant alteration to the land around the Oakland Coliseum.

Colony CEO Thomas J. Barrack, Jr. offered a statement that was passed to this blogger by a source, and reads “We are very enthusiastic about the opportunity to work in partnership with the City of Oakland, Rashid Al Malik as Bay Investment Group and to develop this unique property, which we expect will become a transformational and vital urban, residential sports and entertainment center for this city.”

Today marks the closed session meeting I broke the story on and will be held at the Oakland City Hall.

Rashid Al Malik In Brief

Rashid Al Malik’s Linkedin profile says that he graduated from Western Michigan University (where he studied aviation) and he’s currently Chairman at HayaH Holding. Before that he was with BEBEME, Melwood Capital, and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise. In his last Facebook update, he lists himself as single.

This now brings to a close a significant period in the development of Coliseum City, and there are two people who are to be congratulated for getting this far, even if the negotiations don’t go well. That’s Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid and Oakland’s Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Fred Blackwell.

It was Councilmember Larry Reid and Fred Blackwellwho worked behind the scenes to get the involvement of Rashid Al Malik and Bay Investment Group in the Coliseum City project. And while it looked dicey at times, they never gave up.

Still Not Out Of The Woods

While this breaths new life into the Coliseum City Project, it’s not out of the feasibility woods as of yet. The Oakland Raiders new stadium, envisioned at 50,000 seats, is too small to draw the crowds and events, like the Super Bowl, which would cause it to generate enough revenue to pay a $1 billion price tag.

Moreover, anyone who even proposes a stadium with a $1 billion price tag and just 50,000 seats should have their head examined. For that price, it has to be over 65,000 seats, and really 70,000 is perfect.

Closed Session Agenda

This is the agenda for today’s closed session meeting:

Special Closed Session Agenda
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Page 2
3. Pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.8:

(a) CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORS

Coliseum City Properties (various properties bounded by

Property: _
San Leandro Street, 66”‘ Avenue, Eclgewater and
Hegenberger)
City Negotiators: I Fred Blackwell, Gregory Hunter, Larry Gallegos, Daniel
. Rossi –

I. Developer Negotiators: _ Bay Investment Group, JRDV Architects Inc; HKS
_ Architects, Inc., and Forest City Real Estate Services

Under Negotiations: ‘Price and terms for disposition of the property

Respectfully submitted,

Stay tuned.