What Nobody Tells You About Buying at Alameda Point
The brochure version of Alameda Point is 'waterfront redevelopment with a ferry, breweries, and an aircraft carrier museum.' All of that is real. What a glossy relocation guide tends to leave out: a recorded covenant restricting well drilling on parts of the property, a radioactive-contaminant cleanup dispute that's been unresolved since 2019, and the day-to-day reality of buying into a neighborhood that's still, quite literally, under construction in parts. Here's what's actually documented, sourced from the Navy's own cleanup reporting and Alameda County's public records.
There's a Recorded Covenant Restricting Well Drilling on Parts of the Property
A deed covenant recorded in 2013 in Alameda County's official records imposes ongoing conditions, restrictions, and covenants on portions of Alameda Point property, including limits on drilling, boring, or constructing wells -- a real, legally binding instrument specifically intended to reduce the risk of exposure to residual groundwater contamination left over from the Navy's decades of operations. This isn't a hypothetical concern flagged by this page; it's an actual recorded document, designed to be incorporated into deeds and leases covering the burdened property going forward. Whether a specific parcel a buyer is considering falls within that covenant's burdened area is a real, address-specific question that should surface in a proper title report -- but a buyer should ask about it directly rather than assume a standard disclosure packet flags it clearly enough on its own.
The Radium-226 Dispute Has Stalled Part of the Cleanup Since 2019
Alameda Point's environmental cleanup isn't a single finished project -- it's an ongoing program with real, current sticking points, and this is the most specific one this research found. Since 2019, a regulatory disagreement between the Navy and California's Department of Public Health over the acceptable cleanup standard for radium-226, a radioactive contaminant tied to the base's historical use of radium-dial instruments and equipment, has held up completion of remaining radiological work at parts of the site. Reporting on the dispute describes it as centered on whether the state's cleanup standard should be based on the specific location and intended use of a site or on a more generalized health-risk calculation -- and without an agreed standard, the Navy has stated it cannot complete remaining work or transfer certain remaining parcels to the city for redevelopment. Some individual buildings have seen real progress -- the Navy reported completing its final inspection and cleanup pass for radium-226 at Building 5 -- but the broader standard dispute affecting other undetermined parcels had not been resolved as of this research pass. This doesn't mean every home for sale at Alameda Point sits near active radium contamination; it means the specific parcels still affected by this unresolved dispute are not fully identified in the public materials this research reviewed, and a buyer near any Navy-held or recently transferred parcel should ask directly about its current status.
You're Buying Into an Active Construction Zone, Not a Finished Neighborhood
Depending on which sub-area a buyer chooses, 'move to Alameda Point' can mean moving next to years of ongoing construction activity rather than into a finished community. Site A's roughly 68-acre, roughly 800-unit waterfront development is actively under construction as of this research pass, following a real, multi-year lull in activity between roughly 2018 and 2025 -- meaning heavy equipment, construction traffic, and phased building has been and will likely continue to be a visible, audible part of daily life in and near that specific district for years, not a temporary inconvenience measured in months. Separately, the RESHAP supportive-housing redevelopment has infrastructure work underway as of 2024, and other planned areas, including Main Street Neighborhood North, aren't expected to see construction start before roughly 2030 under the city's current housing-element timeline. None of this is a secret exactly, but a listing photo or a builder's rendering doesn't convey what it actually sounds and looks like to live adjacent to an active phased development for the several years it typically takes to build out -- ask specifically what's planned for the immediately adjacent parcels, not just the unit under contract, before assuming the neighborhood you see in marketing materials is the neighborhood you'll actually live in for the next few years.
Alameda Landing Isn't Actually Part of the Former Air Station
This trips up more casual research than it should: Alameda Landing, the mixed-use retail district anchored by Target and Safeway that most Alameda Point residents rely on for everyday shopping, sits on a separate, adjacent former Navy property -- the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Alameda Annex -- not on the former Naval Air Station's own footprint. That distinction matters practically if you're researching environmental cleanup history: Alameda Landing's cleanup and transfer history is a genuinely separate process from the air station's own Superfund status, and conflating the two when researching either one's specific environmental record can lead to confusing or misapplied information.
The Antiques Faire Moved Because of New Construction -- a Small but Telling Sign of Change
The Alameda Point Antiques Faire, a well-established monthly market held on the first Sunday of every month, set on the former base's sprawling old aircraft runways with hundreds of vendor booths, had to shift its sales area roughly 250 yards east after 24 years in the same spot, when the Department of Veterans Affairs began construction on a new clinic and columbarium on the western portion of the runways. It's a small, almost anecdotal detail, but it's a genuinely telling sign of how much the physical footprint of Alameda Point is still actively changing -- even a beloved, decades-old monthly institution had to relocate within the district because new construction claimed its old ground.
None of This Means Avoid Alameda Point -- It Means Ask Specific Questions
Every fact on this page is real, sourced, and disclosed here because a buyer deserves to walk into a purchase understanding it, not because this page is arguing against buying here. Thousands of people already live at Bayport and Alameda Landing, the USS Hornet Museum and Spirits Alley are genuine, well-loved neighborhood assets, and much of the district's cleanup is genuinely complete and behind it. But 'genuinely complete on much of the site' and 'fully resolved everywhere' are different claims, and this page states both honestly: ask specifically about a given parcel's environmental transfer status, whether it falls within the 2013 well-drilling covenant, and what's planned for construction on immediately adjacent lots over the next several years, before assuming the finished version of Alameda Point shown in marketing materials is the version you'll be living in on day one.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: a recorded 2013 deed covenant in Alameda County's official records restricting well drilling and imposing land-use conditions on portions of Alameda Point (via alameda.granicus.com); the Alameda Point Environmental Report (alamedapointenviro.com) for the radium-226 cleanup-standard dispute, its 2019 origin, the Building 5 cleanup-completion update, and the Navy's 2025 Community Involvement Plan update; the EPA's Superfund Site Profile for Alameda Naval Air Station (cumulis.epa.gov) for overall cleanup and transfer status; Alameda Point Partners' own site (alamedapointpartners.com) and Alameda Post reporting for Site A's construction timeline and the 2018-2025 activity lull; MidPen Housing's RESHAP project materials for that project's 2023 DDA and 2024 infrastructure-work start; City of Alameda housing-element planning materials for the Main Street Neighborhood North timeline; Wikipedia's Alameda Point, California entry for Alameda Landing's distinct Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Annex origin; and Alameda Post's reporting on the Alameda Point Antiques Faire's 2022 relocation due to VA clinic construction. This page did not find a complete, parcel-by-parcel public list of which specific Alameda Point addresses remain affected by the unresolved radium-226 standard dispute or fall within the 2013 well-drilling covenant's burdened area, and none of that is stated as fact for any specific address here. Confirm a specific parcel's current environmental and covenant status directly with the City of Alameda's Base Reuse division and the Navy's BRAC Program Management Office before making a purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, environmental, or real estate advice.