Irvine-based real estate developer SunCal Cos. is suing the city of Alameda for $100 million, alleging the Northern California city breached a contract over plans to turn a former Bay Area naval station into homes and commercial space.
An amended lawsuit filed by SunCal in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims that the city “violated the developer’s constitutional rights, breached its contract with the developer and acted in bad faith.”
Alameda and SunCal signed a development pact in 2007 to redevelop Alameda Point, a 1,500-acre former Navy base.
SunCal had proposed building nearly 4,000 homes and more than 3 million square feet of commercial space on about half the site, but was thwarted from moving ahead by a softening housing market and local opposition.
A ballot measure that would have allowed the developer to exceed the city’s density limits was rejected by voters earlier this year.
Alameda’s City Council subsequently voted this summer not to extend the development pact.
SunCal claims that vote was a “scheme” designed to kick out the developer after it did all the groundwork for the project.
SunCal officials said they spent $17 million in the past three years on the project.
The amended lawsuit also alleges that Alameda’s interim city manager “sought to enrich herself in a fraudulent scheme at the expense of Alameda’s citizens and the project’s developer,” according to the company.
The developer is seeking $100 million in compensatory and punitive damages and in lost profits from Alameda and its interim city manager.
The company said it is still “ready, willing and able to move forward in good faith and develop Alameda Point.”
