Schnitzer shredder fate remains in play

More than baseball fans have an interest in negotiations playing out between the Oakland A’s baseball team and the government of that California city surrounding the team’s request for a new venue.

The proposal favored by the A’s involves a waterfront redevelopment or gentrification effort that could entail dislodging scrap recycler Schnitzer Steel Industries from its long-time home at Howard Terminal in west Oakland.

A counterproposal voted on favorably by Oakland City Council July 21 scales back the gentrification aspects of the project and attempts to carve out a path forward for industrial and shipping companies in the Howard Terminal area.

According to the Oaklandside.org website, “Any final agreement [will] need to ensure that longshore, trucking, and other jobs at the Port of Oakland won’t be lost as a result of the project, per the City Council’s terms.”

That condition has not yet been seconded by the baseball team. In an April 21 “term sheet” posted to its website, the A’s stated in part, “This project means more than just a ballpark for us and for Oakland: public access to the waterfront, green space and parks [and] housing for Oaklanders.”

After the July 21 council vote, the Walnut Creek, California-based East Bay Times reported Oakland A’s team president Dave Kaval as commenting, “We’re disappointed that the city did not vote on our proposal that we’ve been asking for some time,” and that the council proposal is “not something the A’s have consensus around.”

Local and national sports media reports continue also to focus on A's executives visiting Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon, to explore whether friendly new stadium terms could be in the offing in one of those cities.

In Oakland, it also is unclear whether industrial customers of the Howard Terminal piers see even a scaled-back stadium proposal as compatible with their operations.

The East Bay Times says Scott Taylor, CEO of Oakland-based GSC Logistics Inc., reportedly told city council, “Time and again, those of us who actually operate at the port have made it clear that the A’s project as proposed, with thousands of residential units, offices and allowances for party boats, is not compatible with the 24-7 operations of a heavy industrial working port.”

At a June 30 conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings, Schnitzer executives did not raise any potential threat to its Howard Terminal operations in its 24-slide presentation.