The seller of the former Oak Knoll Naval Medical Center has indefinitely extended its auction after a bidding war sent its price sky high.
Earlier this week, the General Services Administration, which opened bidding on Aug. 22, set a “soft” closing date of Thursday. A soft close means the date will continually be moved up a day as long as there is a new bid. If no bids are received today, it will close; otherwise the auction will remain open on Monday.
By late afternoon Thursday, seven prospective developers had already made the price climb to $42 million after a very active day of bidding. David Haase of the GSA said this is fairly typical for such an auction.
“For many of (the potential buyers), there’s no sense in sticking their necks out too early,” Haase said.
Earlier in the week, Haase predicted the auction would not end on Thursday unless “someone bids very high early on.” He also said that they have a figure in mind that they’d like to reach, but could not disclose it.
When the property was last up for auction in 2002, bids reached $22.5 million. Since then, Bay Area real estate prices have skyrocketed, with the median home price in Alameda County climbing nearly 45 percent, according to real estate research firm DataQuick Information Systems. But bids appeared to be heading toward twice what was offered in 2002.
In 2002, the prospective buyer could not come up with the funds and a legal matter prevented its sale until the matter was resolved last summer.
Bidding is done anonymously, but GSA officials have said names include some familiar residential developers.
The medical center was slated for closure in 1993, shut its doors in 1996 and has been nearly vacant ever since. The Seneca Center, which has programs for emotionally disturbed and abused children, occupies 6 acres of the site and Oakland will get 5.5 acres of the land following a lawsuit to recoup a $2 million investment.
The remaining 167 acres is considered to be prime real estate and cleanup is essentially completed. The buyer will have to raze some of the existing buildings on the land because they have been deemed seismically unsound.
Haase said the soft auction system is designed to benefit taxpayers.
“We’re trying to get every last bit of money possible for the land,” he said.

Posted: 09|26|05 at 9:16 am. Filed under: Property News.