--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "5/17 SJ Mercury" <batn@xxxx> wrote: Published Monday, May 17, 2004, in the San Jose Mercury News San Jose plans to buy 74.8 acres for airport growth By Rodney Foo San Jose is planning to spend $81.5 million to acquire a 74.8-acre parcel owned by FMC, the old plant site where the Bradley Fighting Vehicle was produced, to help meet the needs of the city's growing airport. Mineta San Jose International Airport, scheduled to undergo a $1.3 billion master plan expansion that includes a new north concourse and central terminal, needs the land to store large construction equipment and to meet needs for rental car storage and employee parking, city and airport officials say. City officials plan to sell bonds to finance the purchase and then pay off that debt by leasing the land to the airport, which in turn would recover the money through fees and charges levied on airport users and concessionaires. "There are no general fund dollars involved in this," said Paul Krutko, chief of the city's Office of Economic Development. The city council is scheduled at its meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to authorize staffers to negotiate a purchase agreement with FMC. The agenda item also directs the staff to apply for a federal loan, essentially an equity line of credit, that would be drawn on to help purchase 23 contaminated acres, contained within the parcel, as those acres become clean. If approved, the acquisition would be one of the largest and most expensive purchases of land from a single owner in recent memory, according to the city's real estate division. The problem of airport construction equipment storage appeared to have been solved in the summer of 2002 when the city was on the verge of buying a 15.75-acre parcel from Novell for $30 million. But the city retreated and instead let eBay acquire the property, located next to Highway 101, Charcot Avenue and Orchard Parkway, in order to keep one of San Jose's largest companies and employers in town. The city had also coveted the FMC property, but initially the price was too steep. Krutko said the cost would have been about $46 a square foot, compared with the current negotiated price of $25 per square foot. When FMC offered the land again to the city, the drop in price and low interest rates for financing made the deal hard to pass up, Krutko said. Negotiations took about six months. In the years to come, that property -- already zoned industrial -- and an adjacent 25 industrial-zoned acres that belong to a private developer, could become sites for more than 3 million square feet of office or hotel space, Krutko said. The FMC property, near Interstate 880 and within walking distance of a proposed BART station, might be a site worthy of consideration for a baseball stadium. Asked for his assessment of property as a location for a ballpark, Lew Wolff, who has been hired by the Oakland A's to search for a new venue, said, "I wouldn't know ... really don't know enough about it." Wolff was quick to point out the A's have not received permission from Major League Baseball to move or encroach on an exclusive territory, the South Bay, that was granted to the San Francisco Giants by MLB. City Manager Del Borgsdorf said the purchase's "total focus has been the airport." Neither has he engaged in any talks about a stadium at the site, Borgsdorf said. Krutko speculated that a stadium next to an airport -- like Shea Stadium beneath the noisy flight path to La Guardia Airport in New York -- "might not be the best involvement for baseball." In addition, he said, there would be security concerns if a stadium was situated virtually next door to airport runways. Contact Rodney Foo at rfoo@xxxx or (408) 975-9346. --- End forwarded message ---