Central Business District.

This is the element of a vibrant City that Hayward is lacking. Here’s a cure:

The government block fronting on Winton at 880 bound by the old Police Department, world war 2 era county buildings and post office plus the School District headquarters could be redeveloped consistent with the newer County Building across Amador Street. The newer building is 180,000 square feet.

Five buildings of that scale can fit on the front of the block. Approaching 1 million square feet. That’s plenty of space to build a modern police department perhaps a new library above it at the courtyard level and all other present government uses plus three quarters of a million square feet of new use maybe a new hospital or corporate campus, community center, restaurants, there are many possibilities.

The center of the block can be an obscure parking structure with a civic courtyard on top overlooking the park to the west.

Parking is very expensive $60-80,000 per space. If this parking can be reused at night it would divide the cost and make the project much more economically viable. The Elmhurst frontage may be appropriate for a housing component. I would like to see an incentive to our Police and Emergency workers to reside in the City. This could create that opportunity.

We as a City can complete a project like this and profit. It should not be a burden but a benefit. We could have a design competition and let developers compete for our business. They can benefit and so can we.