Seal Beach naval station is looking for a developer to make use of 28 unused acres

Unused land at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station is being looked at by potential developers who could put the 28 acres to use, maybe for housing, retail, office space or a hotel.

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The 28 acres are two parcels at Pacific Coast Highway and Seal Beach Boulevard that have been underutilized, Navy officials said, adding that there is now a plan to lease the federal property to a master developer.

The Navy can lease out land it deems underused, but the project or projects must create commercial and quality-of-life benefits for weapons station personnel and the local community. City officials say they hope whatever is built will also generate revenue for Seal Beach.

To woo interested builders, the Navy recently held a conference at the nearby Navy Golf Course that included a site tour and a discussion of potential amenities that would benefit both military families and civilians. The Navy will invite companies to compete in a two-step bidding and pricing process. Responses for the lease program are due by Sept. 30.

One parcel is completely vacant; the second has a concrete pad and a small metal building used by the government for equipment training and motorcycle safety courses.

“This is the first substantive move the base has made since they announced that they wanted to out-lease that property,” said Councilmember Joe Kalmick, who represents the district next to the base, and said he has kept tabs on the Navy’s progress on the 28 acres since government officials first announced the option in 2022.  He was at the recent meeting about potential development.

Nothing has really happened since 2022, he said, but the recent meeting and a looming deadline for proposals show a stepped-up sense of urgency.  In June, base leadership informed the community that they were in the final stages of releasing a developer solicitation, and in August, the first conference for interested private developers took place.

Kalmick said at one point there was almost a deal between the base and the city to build a swimming pool on the property, but the proposed $1 million lease was a no-go, Kalmick said.

“They’re actively soliciting bids for anything,” he said, about what might actually be built. “They haven’t said we want it to be housing, retail, or recreational. Their only parameters are that it must, in some ways, benefit the Navy and its personnel. Whether it’s a dry cleaner, a gymnasium, or housing they would want to have in that location, nobody knows.”

What Kalmick does know is that anything built on the land has to comply with Seal Beach’s building codes.

“At the meeting, it was strictly a presentation and no questions and answers,” he said, adding that most in attendance were from the Navy and from the city of Seal Beach, and the key points included project parameters.

The land extends from the corner of Seal Beach Boulevard and PCH north to a point just below the existing Navy housing. Then, going east on PCH, it reaches a point just before the bridge by the channel, then angles and connects. The Navy has said it does not want to split up the parcels for lease.

Right now, Kalmick said the only thing he’s observed happening on the land is a forklift training class.

But he added that, among the caveats to building on the property, the developer will be tasked with rebuilding a new training center on nearby Navy land, behind a new fence line that the Navy will require for security.

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To ensure security between the newly developed area and the rest of the base, Navy officials said that the parcels to be developed must be “completely segregated” from the remainder of the weapons station.

“The selected proposer must design and construct a new perimeter security system inclusive of fencing and walls on the eastern and northern sides of the base’s PCH parcel site immediately upon lease execution,” a Navy official said, adding that the government promotes public use of the land only in a way that fits with the overall mission of the base.

The Seal Beach station is one of the West Coast’s most important Naval bases and is responsible for weapons storage and the loading and maintenance of ships in the United States Pacific Fleet.

Kalmick said among the challenges he sees for the parcel near PCH is how people would get in and out of the property.

“If you’re coming west on PCH into town, you can turn right, but you’d have to go down an embankment to get onto the property,” he said. “If you’re coming south on Seal Beach Boulevard, the only way to get into the property is to make a U-turn on PCH. There would have to be a major new traffic plan to make that work.”

Nonetheless, Kalmick said once the proposals come in, the new development could be a boon for Seal Beach.

“Whatever is there could provide more housing for people; it could provide retail for our residents; and if it were a hotel, we’re sorely in need of more hotels,” Kalmick said, noting that the city presently has three, and those are near occupancy year-round.

Anything built on the property would need to go through the city’s planning department, especially if variances are required. It would also have to meet city zoning codes, and if anything is completely out of the ordinary, the project may have to go to the City Council.

“It’s exciting for Seal Beach that a large property has the potential for bringing (what) would benefit our community from a service standpoint, a revenue standpoint, or aesthetics, as opposed to just an empty lot behind a fence,” Kalmick said. “To me, that’s something we need.”

While the city is financially healthy, he said, “We don’t have a lot of revenue sources; we don’t have hotels, we don’t have car dealers, we don’t have cannabis; our revenue is entirely from sales tax, property taxes, and fees.

“Our costs keep going up, and they’re going up at a faster pace than our revenue is going up,” he said. “So anything we can do that would produce more revenue for the city is something we need to be positive about.”

“If we can ultimately have some collaboration on what goes there,” he added. “And the city can have some strong input, even better.”

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