It’s a tale of two cities and a county working together for the common good. Two groundbreaking ceremonies were held Sept. 29 in both Dublin and Pleasanton celebrating the beginning of construction for a new BART station and surrounding apartments, a hotel, offices and retail shops.
A large mound of brown dirt in Dublin and a small heap of tan dirt in Pleasanton were dug into with gold shovels to mark the occasion. Officials at both ceremonies applauded each other for their ability to join together to make the project a reality, calling the $80 million endeavor a “model for the future of transportation.”
The project, which was originally supposed to get off the ground in the 1990s, didn’t fully gain steam until the past couple years, after a public-private partnership between developers, BART, county and city officials was formed. BART was hit with financial woes in the late 1990s and it became clear the project wouldn’t be possible without the help of private funding. Of the $80 million price tag, $50 million will come from the transit agency’s revenue, $15 million from local and state funding and the remaining $15 million will be drawn from private partnerships.
Slated for a 2009 opening, the station will be located in the median of Interstate 580 between Golden Gate Road in Dublin and Stoneridge Mall Road in Pleasanton and will provide an additional station in the current 10-mile gap between East Dublin/Pleasanton and Castro Valley.
The idea of transit oriented development (TOD) became incorporated into the plans for the BART station to encourage people to live, work and use public transportation.
On the Dublin side of the new station, which has yet to be formally named, will be 210 apartments, a 150-room hotel, 7,500-square-foot restaurant, a parking structure, and 150,000 square feet of office space. Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart said she is excited for the retail development.
“I fully expect this to be the catalyst for change in the fabric of downtown Dublin,” she said.
A total of 1,200 parking spots will be available for those who want to park and ride. Apartments and retail shops could be built on the Pleasanton side and officials are anticipating the station’s close proximity to the Stoneridge Shopping Center to boost sales at the mall and encourage greater use by shoppers.
The mall itself currently undergoing an expansion that includes the construction of a new Nordstrom department store and two upscale restaurants, according to Stoneridge General Manager Alice Waterman. The Cheesecake Factory will open to the public for dinner on Nov. 6 and for lunch and dinner Nov. 8, Waterman said. Chinese restaurant P.F. Chang’s is expected to open by December.
Other public agencies involved in the BART project include the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, Alameda County Surplus Property Authority, Tri-Valley Transportation Council and private developers Jones Lang LaSalle, UBS Securities, Windstar Communities and Ampelon Development.
Mayor Jennifer Hosterman said she thinks the new station, which will have linking pedestrian bridges across I-580, will encourage riders to visit both cities.
“Anything we can do to get people living and working in their community will go a long way towards relieving traffic congestion,” she added.
BART officials are projecting that 6,000 riders will pass through the new station’s turnstyles when it opens in 2009 and ridership will hit 8,600 in 2013.
County Supervisor Scott Haggerty said the new station is just one example of the many projects that are needed to lessen traffic loads in the Tri-Valley.
“I-580 is one of five congested corridors,” Haggerty said.
With the Valley’s population projected to increase in the future by 20 percent, he said that while the BART station is an important milestone, transit and government officials need to capitalize on other opportunities to improve transportation.
“Please vote for props 1A, B and C,” he added, referring to state propositions on the November ballot involving transportation and affordable housing.
