Today’s SunCal Oak Knoll Press Conference Cancelled
A press conference for this morning, to be held at the entrance to the SunCal Oak Knoll property, and previously announced by Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid’s office, has been cancelled. Larry Reid is to SunCal and Oak Knoll as Alameda Councilmember Lena Tam is to SunCal and their Alameda Point Revitalization Initiative.
Last week, Reid’s office announced a press conference to be held at the entrance to the SunCal Oak Knoll site on Mountain Boulevard in Oakland, “to announce a work schedule that has been agreed upon by the City, the bankruptcy trustee, SunCal & Lehman Brothers.” Reid’s office did not respond to inquiries to clarify if it was SunCal or Reid’s office that was holding the press conference.
The trouble is, as of Friday of last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Court records don’t support the claim that an agreement has been reached between the City of Oakland, the bankruptcy trustee, SunCal and Lehman Brothers. Rather, the court records suggest still more fighting between attorneys for SunCal and Lehman Brothers. The press conference looks like one more example of SunCal, in response to the negative publicity over their failure at Oak Knoll impacting their chances to develop Alameda Point, jumping the gun with an attempt at positive press coverage that isn’t supported by the facts.
Residents living near Oak Knoll have reported the presence of security guards at the site since late October, but it’s not clear who’s paying for them. SunCal spokesman Joe Aguirre has not yet responded to inquiries on this point – the court documents don’t show any evidence that the bankruptcy trustee has released money for security guards, so is SunCal paying for the guards? If so, and SunCal has money for security guards and other hazard abatement work at Oak Knoll, why did they ignore the June 12, 2009 order to abate hazards at Oak Knoll until they started getting bad press over it? Last week, SunCal announced that they had purchased just over one thousand property lots in the Las Vegas area, using just over $20 million of DE Shaw’s money. Are they using DE Shaw’s money to pay for the guards at Oak Knoll?
It seems that SunCal has finally acted out of desperation over the risk their neglect of Oak Knoll might hurt their chances to drive through their Alameda Point Revitalization Initiative on February 2, 2010.
Tags: 94501, 94502, Alameda, SunCal Plans for Alameda Point
It seems like residents of Oakland are not the only ones a wee bit miffed by SunCal’s running around the country spending cash to buy more residential lots, despite its failing to live up to its promises and economic obligations in Oakland and elsewhere in California. See:
http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/07/owner-of-bankrupt-oc-project-buys-vegas-land/42879/