Oakley: Construction on DuPont Property Could Begin This Fall

Long awaited construction could soon begin on the DuPont property in the City of Oakley as a presentation was given last week on the future of the property to local elected officials.

A copy of the presentation was not provided, however, Antioch City Manager Ron Bernal provided an update on the project in his weekly city manager report–Oakley has provided no update to its residents on the property. The DuPont property is located off Bridgehead Road at Wilbur and upon development, could bring an estimated 3,000 jobs to the area.

According to a source who was at the meeting, NorthPoint Development is working to a close a deal with an operator for the space in Phase 1 and is hoping to make a formal announcement in the September or October timeline noting Oakley has been working on this for more than a year.

Bernal stated the following in his City Manager Weekly Report:

Redevelopment of Old Dupont Site Along with Mayor Wright and other Bay Area leaders, I attended the EC2 Fifth Tuesday Meeting where there development of the Old Dupont site in Oakley and the proposed CCTA ½ cent sales tax measure slated for the March 2020 ballot were presented. The exciting development along the Oakley waterfront by Northpoint Development of Kansas City Missouri, one of the nation’s largest industrial developers with over 70M square feet of developed space, will begin construction this fall and open their first business the third quarter of 2020. With 3000estimated employees at full build-out, this project is the type of development East County is looking to attract.

When asked about the project, Oakley City Manager Bryan Montgomery stated “Ron said it well,” and provided no other details on the projects potential or what the council could be discussing.

Montgomery did add that they were working to bring jobs to East County and the former DuPont site could be a big part of it.  NorthPoint Development is currently working on various studies and things could make an Oakley City Council meeting agenda in a couple of months.

Here is a link to the potential project provided by Montgomery: https://www.ci.oakley.ca.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Oakley-Logistics-Center.pdf

According to Chemours, who is returning the property to use for the community, has been remediating the site by performing soil remediation activities to clean it up to allow for industrial or commercial use, as well as recreation purposes, provided a history of the property on its website:

Photo provided by Chemours

In 1955, DuPont purchased over 500 acres of land along Bridgehead Road (in what was then considered part of the City of Antioch) in Contra Costa County California. The property was bordered by the San Joaquin River to the north, Burlington Northern railroad tracks to the south, Big Break Road and the Big Break Marina to the east, and Highway 160 to the west.

DuPont operated a manufacturing plant on the site from 1956 to 1997. At the height of the facility’s operations, DuPont employed nearly 600 people. The facility was originally built to make the gasoline “anti-knock” agent tetraethyl lead; however, DuPont began manufacturing refrigeration cooling compounds called Freon® shortly after the facility began operation. In 1963, DuPont expanded its operations again to include the production of titanium dioxide, a white pigment used in a variety of household products.

DuPont stopped all production activities at the former manufacturing facility in 1998 and demolished many of the buildings in 1999. In October 2013, DuPont announced that it was going to separate its Performance Chemicals segment from its other businesses. On July 1, 2015, all remedial obligations for the site were transferred to Chemours. Chemours is working with the DTSC to remediate the site with the intent of returning the site to productive use that will benefit the Oakley community. Three parcels (the Western Development Area, Eastern Development Area, and Focus Area [FA] 1) have already been released for unrestricted development. Soil remediation in the portion of the site referred to as FA3, is complete.