Seaside >> The wheels of progress continue to grind their way through land that was once an Army base as the Fort Ord Reuse Authority began the demolition process for removal of the first 10 of 27 buildings within Seaside’s Surplus II area Wednesday, making way for the city’s proposed Campus Town development project.

The building removal kickoff event took place before noon at the Seaside Public Works Maintenance and Operations building parking lot at 205 Col. Durham St.

“This is the very center of the former Fort Ord. … It marks the removal of rather significant amounts of impediments to our recovery program,” said Michael Houlemard, Fort Ord Reuse Authority executive officer.

Houlemard pointed out that it takes more than just hiring a bulldozer to take down a building.

“Building removal is difficult. It means removing contaminants that have the potential for a carcinogenic impact or a potential to hurting young children because of the lead-based paints and asbestos in some of these buildings,” he said. “Some have things that are so tenacious in making it difficult to remove that it can cost as much as $1 million each for some of these larger buildings to be demolished.”

In 2014, the Seaside City Council entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with KB Bakewell to develop the Campus Town project, which is a proposed 85-acre development of 1,485 housing units, 250 hotel rooms, 75 youth hostel rooms, 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, and 50,000 square feet of office space. It is designed to provide arts, entertainment, retail, recreation and housing opportunities to students, faculty of CSU Monterey Bay and the region at large.

“I look at this as the lighting of the fuse for the explosion of economic development that’s going to happen here, … the vitality that is necessary for our citizens,” said Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio.

Rubio said he hopes the Campus Town development will provide a living and working opportunity.

When Fort Ord closed in 1994 as a consequence of the federal government’s Base Realignment And Closure process to increase military efficiencies, about 3,500 buildings constructed between the early 1900s and the late 1980s were left behind.

Since 1996, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority has served as a national model in base reuse. The agency’s work has seen $31.5 million in building removal throughout the former Army base to date. A $19.4 million credit to future land sale revenues is allocated in phases II and III of the Dunes On Monterey Bay in Marina. The remaining Fort Ord Reuse Authority building removal obligation is $9.5 million within Marina’s Stockade area and the Surplus II area within Seaside.

In August 2015, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority and the city of Seaside agreed to use a portion of existing Fort Ord Reuse Authority Capital Improvement Program Surplus II building removal funds to hire an industrial hygienist company to survey hazardous materials present in 27 dilapidated Surplus II buildings and to better understand the cost for removal of buildings in this area. Study results were completed in 2017 and the city is now proceeding with removal of a portion of the buildings. Hazardous materials will be removed prior to actual demolition of the buildings.

“This is a significant step forward for continuing to fulfill the dream that is (Fort Ord Reuse Authority), that is the reuse and conversion of the former military base,” said state Sen. Bill Monning. “Perhaps the signal achievement is the establishment of CSU Monterey Bay and it will be CSUMB and the Monterey College of Law that will be the beneficiaries — those student bodies, faculty, staff — to have a campus town within walking and biking distance to feel part of a student community. … It’s converting swords to plowshares, if you will.”

Monning cited the proposed development’s proximity to the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery, another Seaside accomplishment, that will accommodate those families visiting the final resting place of loved ones.

But at least one tenant in the buildings that are marked for subsequent phases of demolition is still in litigation with the city of Seaside.

The nearby Christian Memorial Tabernacle and its leader, Rev. Samuel Gaskins, have recently been in court fighting eviction from the property at 2699 Col. Durham St. in Seaside. The city and the church leader have been in litigation since June with another hearing in the case scheduled for Monday.

According to Gaskins and his lawyer David Balch, the Army donated the old Fort Ord Army Chapel to Gaskins in the late 1990s and the reverend restored and converted the building into the Christian Memorial Tabernacle’s sanctuary. The city of Seaside contends that the church had an informal agreement with the Army to occupy the building on a temporary basis and says “there is no legal basis to allow the church to remain in a city-owned building.”

Rubio said he is hopeful the two sides can come to an agreement.

James Herrera can be reached at 831-726-4344.