Oakland and the behind the scene development deals...

As it turns out, that $1.5 billion Oakland waterfront development deal announced with great fanfare simultaneously by Mayor Jean Quan in Oakland California and Gov. Jerry Brown during his trip to China requires local taxpayers to make a $25.6 million down payment.
And as interesting as the financing is, the deal has some equally interesting personal and political connections, as well.

The local developer is Signature Development Group, whose president Mike Ghielmetti has known Brown since he was Oakland’s mayor and Quan was only a councilwoman.

Ghielmetti is a big Oakland booster. At one point, the site — which runs from near Oak to Ninth Street, in an industrial area just south of Jack London Square — was touted as a possible home for a new Oakland A’s ballpark.

His father and business partner is Jim Ghielmetti, owner of Pleasanton-based Signature Homes and chairman of the California Transportation Commission.

Another key player is Bruce Quan, an Oakland native now living in Beijing and a longtime friend of Mayor Quan (no relation) and her husband Floyd.

It was Quan who put Signature together with their new Chinese financial backers.

To help swing the deal, Oakland has agreed to spend $25.6 million in unused redevelopment money to buy a pair of parcels from Signature, with the option to build affordable housing.

If the city doesn’t build the housing within five years, it can sell the land back to Signature at the same rate it paid for it.

Meanwhile, the city’s $25.6 million will be used — along with $28 million from a Chinese developer, Zarsion Holdings Group — to clean up the site and finally get the 63-acre Oak to Ninth development going. The “shovel ready” project, now being called Brooklyn Basin, includes 3,100 housing units, 200,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, and 30 acres of parks that include wetlands restoration.

Mike Ghielmetti declined to say how much his company was putting up at this point.

One twist is that Oakland’s share of the cost is coming from the same type of redevelopment money that Brown has yanked from other cities in order to help balance the state budget.

However, since Oakland’s part of the deal was agreed to back in 2006 when Brown was still mayor, the $25.6 million has been exempted — with the state signing off this past week.

“It wasn’t political. ’’ the younger Ghielmetti said. “There happened to be some very good timing involved.”

Brown’s press secretary Evan Westrup echoed Ghielmetti, saying the governor’s only involvement was as “a supporter’’ — first as Oakland mayor and recently to help “move the deal forward’’ in China.

“It was an opportunity to highlight what is possible when California companies connect with Chinese investors who are flush with cash and looking for opportunities…and that really was the extent of our involvement,’’ he said.

Seems to me that luck was helped by some insiders....