OAKLAND — Sometimes no news is good news. The Association of Bay Area Governments’ board of directors emerged from a two-hour closed session Thursday without making a decision to vacate its Oakland headquarters in favor of San Francisco.

The board was scheduled to vote Thursday night on a South of Market location for the shared regional headquarters for ABAG, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The air district board gave its blessing Monday, and MTC, which is handling the location search, is scheduled to vote Wednesday.

East Bay leaders are not letting go without a fight and raised several questions Thursday about the selection process. The real estate firm hired to complete the search recommended an eight-story building at 390 Main St. in San Francisco as the best choice.

“It’s an important decision, a once-in-a-lifetime decision,” said Oakland Deputy Mayor Sharon Cornu. “It’s worth getting all the facts (about the proposals). Our team has made over 200 phone calls (to board members of the three agencies). We are hearing a strong preference for the East Bay. Oakland offers the best value and the best location. “… But at the end of the day, it’s a business decision.”

MTC spokesman Randy Rentschler said earlier this week that the San Francisco deal depends on all three agencies voting in favor of it. Ezra Rapport, ABAG’s executive director and secretary/treasurer, said Friday

that while the board did not take final action regarding the proposed move to San Francisco, it did ask staff to communicate with MTC before its vote next week. Once those discussions have taken place, the board could decide to reschedule the vote, he said.

Board member Rebecca Kaplan questioned whether the San Francisco building was ready for occupancy and whether staff had fully analyzed how much rehabilitation would be needed before the agencies could move in. She pointed out that the selection committee was supposed to provide two final options for relocation, one in San Francisco and one in Oakland, but that did not happen.

According to the staff analysis, the most likely option in Oakland, a new high-rise office development at 1100 Broadway, would not yield needed third-party rents to make the project financially viable.

The three agencies in 2009 agreed to join forces to try and find a shared facility to replace undersized and outdated facilities in Oakland and San Francisco.

The air district is located in San Francisco, but ABAG and MTC’s 277 employees share an office building at 101 Eighth St. in Oakland. BART also owns a share of the building.

About 60 percent of the employees of the combined agencies live in the East Bay.

The criteria required that the new location be within a half-mile of BART and other public transit. It has to contain at least 350,000 square feet of rentable space and be able to meet seismic and ADA codes. It also has to be able to achieve LEED certification status.

A consultant narrowed down the responses to five that met the basic criteria, including the as-yet unbuilt office tower at 1100 Broadway in Oakland, and the Clorox headquarters at 14th and Broadway.

Clorox was removed from consideration because the owners wanted to lease, not sell.

The empty lot at 1100 Broadway in Oakland has already received its planning entitlements for a Class A, LEED-certified office tower and is located over a BART station. But the financial analysis ruled it out as too expensive.

After vetting the pros and cons of the sites, a 500,000-square-foot building at 390 Main St. in San Francisco has emerged as the preferred location. The three combined agencies need 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of space, including room for public assembly and board meetings. The extra space will be rented out to help the agencies recoup costs.

It also allows room for future growth within the agencies or for other government agencies such as Bay Conservation and Development Commission to move in, if the need and opportunity should arise.

The failure of the ABAG board to vote for the San Francisco site could potentially derail the plan.

“The objective is for all three to commit as a collective group. I don’t know what happens if one does (vote for it) and the other two don’t,” said Rentschler earlier in the week. “No doubt, we want space for all three agencies to be together.”

Contact Cecily Burt at 510-208-6441. Follow her at Twitter.com/csburt.

Article source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_18533562