Progress continues with the process to revamp the Oakland Army Base, pushing the redevelopment process closer to fruition.

Recently,the Port of Oakland and the city of Oakland joined together to apply for a $40 million federal grant that would help fund the first phase of the redevelopment of the former Oakland Army Base. The $438 million phase is expected to create nearly 5,000 jobs on the 365-acre site.

The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant would come through the U.S. Department of Transportation and could be a big score for the former army base. Port officials said they hope to win the grant to turn their part base into a world-class trade and logistics center.

"This is a great opportunity for us to develop an amazing, cutting edge facility that will showcase Oakland and the region," Isaac Kos-Read, a spokesman for the Port of Oakland, said.

Specifics for the first phase of development on the port side include adding improvements to the backbone infrastructure of the former military site and constructing a new rail terminal.

Port officials said they are pleased with the pace of the development that holds large implications for the city.

"We're real excited about where things are right now," said Kos-Read. "There's so much that has to be done, but things are definitely moving forward, and that's a great thing."

In addition to the federal grant application, the Oakland City Council recently approved a policy that gives exclusive rights to demolition and remediation contracts to Oakland businesses.The new policy is part of Oakland's Local Business Enterprise program and under the policy, at least 33 percent of the contract bidders workforce must be Oaklanders.

Oakland residents have been frustrated by a series of development stop-starts at the former base. Many city officials and grassroots groups say they are anticipating that once it is fully complete, the base will be an important entity in providing local jobs to residents.

Redevelopment of the site is expected to be expensive and complicated. Significant environmental clean-up of the site is needed and basic infrastructure, like establishing electricity and roadways. The aging site has an almost none existing infrastructure system, Kos-Read said.

"Probably the biggest challenge of this project has to be the infrastructure and utility," he said. "It's an old military site and it has all of the infrastructure problems you would expect. There's a bunch of leaky pipes, bad roadways, just layers upon lays of utilities that are antiquated."

And for all of the excitement around recent progress, the Army Base is still a long way from any ribbon cutting ceremony. According to Kos-Read, the site is about two to three years away from completing any new development and about five to 10 years away from the site being fully built out.

The Oakland Army Base was decommissioned in 1999, resulting in the loss of more than 7,000 jobs in the region, according to the Port of Oakland.

Currently, the city and the Port of Oakland are in extended negotiations with private developers California Capital Group and AMB Property Corporation, which signed a negotiation agreement with Oakland in 2009.