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EBCRC Mission/History
Our Mission as a non-profit organization is to promote new economic activity, small business development, job creation and home ownership in low to moderate (LMI) communities at former military bases in Alameda County, California.
The East Bay Conversion and
Reinvestment Commission was founded in 1993 when Congressman Ronald V.
Dellums authorized legislation establishing a National Pilot Project to identify and create innovative approaches to improve
the defense conversion process. In converting Alameda County
military bases into new economic opportunities, the EBCRC was the first
reuse authority responsible for bringing together the key stakeholders to
begin the planning process. The EBCRC's mission was to carry out the
mandate of the National Pilot Project. The EBCRC has representation from
elected officials, the Port of Oakland, private sector, national
laboratories, the University of California, labor unions, environmental and
community groups. The EBCRC was also instrumental in creating two
interjurisdictional organizations, the Local Reuse Authorities (LRAs) of
Alameda and Oakland city. These two LRAs have the primary
responsibility of creating and implementing a reuse plan for the
redevelopment of the military base properties in their
jurisdictions. The efforts of Congressman Ronald V. Dellums, the EBCRC and the LRAs in Alameda
County led former Secretary of Defense, William Cohen to announce that
"Alameda is the crown jewel of military base conversion".
Since 1993, the EBCRC has helped to bring $50 million federal support dollars into Alameda County to successfully close the bases and spur economic redevelopment of these former military facilities. The EBCRC continues to assist LRAs and base closure communities across the country by providing technical experiences. In addition, the EBCRC also manages a National Demonstration Project that provides business support services to small businesses affected by base closure in Alameda County through its Workers to Business (WBO) Owners Project. Most recently, the EBCRC established the nation's first Defense Conversion Revolving Loan Fund (DC RLF) to support small businesses on former military bases in Alameda County.