Progress was made Tuesday, July 25 at the Riverbank City Council meeting where the City Council members unanimously approved the Economic Development Conveyance (EDC) Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the transfer of the Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant from the United States Government to the Riverbank Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA).
“This is a significant milestone in this project,” said Debbie Olson LRA Executive Director. “I really want to mark this with progress and I want everybody to embrace and celebrate what we have done already prior to this.
“I am very proud to be a part of this project.”
Olson explained that the plant, also known as the Riverbank Industrial Complex, has gone from only having six businesses to 42 businesses currently on site. She pointed out that previously, there were 60 full time employees at the plant and now there are over 200 employees. They were leasing approximately 180,000 square feet in the beginning to now over 500,000 square feet.
The transfer of the plant from the Army to the City has been in the works for about 10 years. The LRA and the City of Riverbank will be receiving two parcels. Parcel A is a developed portion of the property and is 74 acres. Parcel B is an undeveloped clean portion of the property that is less than 30 acres.
“The momentum has really picked up within the last eight to 10 months,” said City Manager Sean Scully. “Congressman (Jeff) Denham helped a lot. He helped push it through and got a timeline established with the Army.”
Both Parcel A and B were acquired at no cost from the Army and the City plans to obtain some Requests For Proposals (RFPs) from master developers.
“The document that they signed Tuesday night, even though we don’t have legal ownership for 60 days on the one and some other time on the other,” added Scully. “It gives us all the same abilities as legal ownership. We can lease out things. People can sublease from us. It basically is the real estate contract that locks in the Army and the City.”
The City will be hosting a ceremonial signing to celebrate this achievement that has taken several years at a later date.
