Developer reveals plans to transform Benicia refinery

BENICIA – Representatives of Signature Development Group, an Oakland-based real estate development company, revealed how they plan to redevelop the 900-acre Benicia Valero Refinery site into a mixed-use neighborhood at a meeting Thursday hosted by the Progressive Democrats of Benicia.

Around 100 attendees filled the Benicia Library conference room to hear the plans. Signature Development founder Michael Ghielmetti and senior vice president of development Jonathan Fearn explained that they started meeting with Valero in mid-April of last year, shortly after Valero announced plans to restructure, idle or cease refining operations at the refinery. 

Signature has worked on several large-scale developments, including a Meta campus and Oakland’s new waterfront neighborhood Brooklyn Basin. The company has a confidential agreement with Valero to develop the site, but Ghielmetti said they’re only in a “pre-application submittal” period, with no significant actions taken yet beyond surveying the site and talking with Valero.

“I don’t want anyone to think this is anywhere near what I would call a finish line,” Ghielmetti said. “We are actually warming up to start the race.” 

The company is aiming to submit a formal application to the city this fall. It would then take several years to conduct an environmental impact report, change the zoning to allow for mixed-use, demolish and clean up the refinery, get approval from City Council, and begin building. 

Signature’s proposed plan for the site so far includes rezoning the refinery and the “buffer zone” around the refinery into a neighborhood filled with housing, retail shops, hiking trails, and a community park. 

The map above shows the proposed development area. The gray industrial area is where the refinery currently sits, and where the “soil is probably most impacted” by refinery byproduct, Fearn said. 

The area would have to be remediated regardless of what moves in, and would require the cooperation of several local, state, and federal agencies to clean-up. Fearn said the area would then remain an industrial sector for businesses like advanced manufacturing, which use robotics or artificial intelligence to automate certain parts of the manufacturing process. 

Ghielmetti said they are “not contemplating” putting in a data center after a resident raised concerns. 

As for the retail area, Ghielmetti said they imagine something similar to The Veranda in Concord — an open-air shopping plaza that has retail stores, restaurants, a movie theater, a gym, and a playground. 

Fearn said they are considering bringing in “large format retailers” like Home Depot or Costco, with the actual businesses to be determined once the project is approved. He added that they don’t want any retailers they bring in to compete with businesses in the downtown area.

“We want to enhance, not take away from, what’s already there,” Fearn said.  

Housing would be built in the grassy hills, shown in light yellow on the map. Fearn said they’re looking at building single family homes, but also considering senior living and townhomes as well. There would also be a number of affordable housing units, Fearn said, as required by the city’s code. 

They’re also proposing building a community park, similar to Heather Farms in Walnut Creek, that would feature sports facilities and areas where people could picnic and barbecue. 

The “flex” areas on the map, meanwhile, are places where they haven’t figured out what to put there yet. 

Some residents expressed concerns about the project, particularly when it came to the retail area. “It’s about community values, and the examples of retail look like Walnut Creek or much bigger cities to me,” said Marilyn Bardet, a longtime Benicia resident who’s also on the Valero Community Advisory Panel. “Benicia would be irrevocably changed.” 

Elizabeth Patterson, the former mayor of Benicia and a former planning director, said she’d like to see the council create a citizen advisory task force for the project, which would be made up of residents who could advise the council on what the community wants. “It’s helpful for the community to see that happen because they feel a sense of ownership when they’re in the loop of decision-making,” Patterson said, adding that it should be the residents, not the consultants, driving the process. 

Mayor Steve Young told the Sun that he’s hopeful about the project. “I’m thrilled when I see this because [Valero] could just pack it up, put a fence around it, and say we’ll remediate it when we want to remediate it,” Young said. 

Young said the development still hinges on the refinery fully closing down though. “We can continue to plan, but we can’t really start doing anything until the [refinery issue] is resolved,” he said. 

Young said the state is still interested in using the site to import gasoline and diesel fuel. Valero business law chief David Giles said during a Community Advisor Panel meeting in April that ships would arrive from the Gulf of Mexico, the UK and Asia, and transfer fuel from the same product pipelines into the same product tanks that Valero used.

“We’ve expressed concerns about that, but we don’t have a lot of cards to play,” Young said. He said if the state wants to do that for a few years, “we could probably be okay with that,” since the project would take that long to plan regardless. But it would be difficult on the city if it went on for longer, Young said, as the city would not be receiving any new tax revenue or job growth under that import and store model. 

“I get it from the state’s point of view … but the way it stands right now, there’s not a whole lot of economic benefit for the city,” Young said. “If this goes on for 10 or 20 years, then we’ve got real issues. So we’re hoping it’s not that, and it’s something more short-term.”  

There are around 60 Valero employees left on-site and over 500 contractors working on the cleanout process, Valero general manager Lauren Bird said at the April advisory panel.

For councilmember Terry Scott, the Signature presentation was at least a good sign that “there’s actual work being done and investments being planned” for the future of the refinery site. 

“It’s going to be a lengthy process, and it’s going to involve the majority of the citizens and businesses, working on something today that won’t be realized for at least a generation,” Scott said.