Well I like what I am hearing recently....Looks like San Jose may be home to the San Jose As soon as well as the Santa Clara 49ers....I think residents/homeowners can smile about this and see some value added to their homes! We would welcome 2 new professional sports franchises to the SOUTH BAY, at least this realtor would! I would think it should only help home values in the area.
I personally have been a backer of this effort:
http://baseballsanjose.com/
The Oakland As can do a Silicon Valley Relocation at any time it suits them as far as I am concerned!
The city of San Jose has released plans to allow the A's an option to purchase six parcels of land, about 5 acres in all, for a downtown stadium - and at a reduced rate.
Mayor Chuck Reed suggested Thursday that this arrangement is one more piece of the puzzle to convince Major League Baseball that an A's ballpark in San Jose is a viable proposition and that it could proceed with few impediments if approved.
"This option allows Lew Wolff one more thing to tell the commissioner that has been done," Reed said, "and that San Jose is still able to move forward."
Wolff, the A's co-owner, said that the option to buy downtown land, located near the Diridon Caltrain station, was not tied to any requests by Major League Baseball, but it does help dot some i's.
"It's just a piece of getting it done, if we are fortunate enough to get it done," Wolff said. "But Major League Baseball had nothing to do with this. We're in no different position than we were before."
The final purchase price, were the A's to exercise the option, would be $6.98 million. The city paid $25.1 million for the proposed ballpark site, including relocation costs, and the value of the entire site, according to an appraisal conducted last September, would be $13.97 million if the area were to be developed for "highest and best use."
Reed said that the city's offer to the A's is below the market value because the team still would have to spend $400 million to $500 million to build a stadium. In addition, Reed said, the option stipulates that the land would go to the A's only to build a stadium. In other words, the team couldn't snap up cheap land to put up an office tower or condos instead of a ballpark.
"It's a favorable price based on the fact that it's restricted to a baseball park," Reed said. "What San Jose is getting out of it is that we're taking land that is generating almost nothing and we'll be generating revenues."
If the proposal is passed by the San Jose City Council on Nov. 8, the A's would have the right to pay $50,000 for a two-year option to purchase the land, plus a $25,000 option for a third year. The A's owners will not buy the site outright, however, unless Major League Baseball decides to grant the team the right to move to San Jose, which is considered part of the Giants' territory.
The sale and ballpark also must be approved by San Jose voters, possibly in the June election. MLB, which has dragged out its decision on any potential A's stadium for nearly three years, has promised to help fund a special election, if one is required.
Simply buying land is no assurance of anything. The A's owners already have purchased a large quantity of land for one failed stadium endeavor, 143 acres in Fremont. The team still owns that property, according to Wolff, and is seeking to sell it.
There are three remaining privately-owned parcels needed to complete the San Jose site, but Reed said he does not believe the city would use eminent domain to acquire them. "We think we'll arrive at a reasonable price," he said. "It's a real-estate deal."
It is unlikely baseball owners would consider the A's stadium at their meetings in Milwaukee next month because the Dodgers' ownership situation is expected to dominate the agenda. Meetings scheduled for January might be more likely.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/27/SPEJ1LNAPJ.DTL#ixzz1cUzLEDQ0
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