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As rumors swirl over the fate of Blackhawk Plaza amid bankruptcy proceedings and the appointment of a receiver for the property, local officials are seeking to provide some clarity and assurance to residents concerned that it could be imminently redeveloped into housing.
Contra Costa County District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen has launched a new page on her website dedicated to information about the sparsely occupied retail plaza and its future, which she says will be updated as the county receives more information.
“There have been numerous inquiries to our office about what might happen to Blackhawk Plaza and whether it could be redeveloped into housing,” Andersen said in her weekly newsletter on Feb. 27. “NO applications have been submitted to redevelop the shopping center or build housing at this time. It is anticipated that the pending litigation could take several years to resolve.”
That litigation includes bankruptcy filings by Andrew Stupin of Ramanujan Group LLC, a foreclosure on the property purchased by the company in 2020, and multiple lawsuits between the former owner and tenants of the plaza on the edge of unincorporated Danville.
Last month, an Orange County judge granted a motion to appoint Douglas Wilson as a receiver for the property, who is tasked with recouping the value of a $50,000 loan to Stupin that was never repaid to creditor NanoBanc amid bankruptcy proceedings.
The receivership includes “all leases and rents, profits, revenue and other proceeds” generated by the property such as cash, security deposits, rental income, tools, records, and infrastructure, and could allow for selling a portion or all of the site.
While that could, in theory, lead to the plaza’s redevelopment – with the county’s general plan allowing for residential development at the site – Andersen said that if or how residential development could unfold remains unclear without a project application on the table.
Any redevelopment of the property would have to be done in collaboration with the Behring Global Education Foundation in order to ensure access to the Blackhawk Museum, which is designated as a separate property owned by the family of the community’s late founder and developer Ken Behring, according to Andersen.
“Not only could the County require this to happen as part of a development agreement, but there are existing legal agreements between whomever owns Blackhawk Plaza and the Behring foundation which would also likely mandate this,” Andersen said on her website.
Andersen noted that a 5.73-acre parcel of the site dedicated to the Blackhawk Homeowners Association and serving as a buffer between the plaza and adjacent open space would also likely remain off limits for redevelopment, which would depend on consent from the HOA. She added that regardless, it would be “extremely unlikely” for the county to approve housing development on that buffer zone.
