From the Associated Press

OAKLAND — A 180,000-square-foot, historic port terminal building currently being used to store cotton could instead house several wineries and serve as the bayfront face of a proposed mammoth housing development in Oakland’s waterfront area, a developer has proposed.

What to do with the aged Ninth Avenue Terminal building, which sits just south of Jack London Square, has been a point of disagreement among preservationists and some Oakland city leaders as they debate how to fit the site in with the proposed 3,100-unit Oak to Ninth mixed-use housing project.

The winery idea has received praise from Councilwoman Pat Kernighan, in whose district the building sits, and preservationists who prize the building’s place in local maritime history.

Developer Stuart Rickard, who proposed the Vintners’ Center in response to local preservationists’ desire to preserve the Beaux Arts part of the terminal building, formed a business group including engineers, a builder and the vintners.

Signature Properties, part of the partnership that is developing the Oak to Ninth project, already submitted a plan that would preserve the terminal’s facade and 20,000 square feet of the structure.

Councilman Larry Reid, who has made clear in the past he finds the building an eyesore, was not as quick to offer his support for the winery idea. Despite his reservations, Reid said he would keep an open mind until determining whether the new proposal is financially feasible.

Councilwoman Kernighan said, “It’s in keeping with the industrial warehouse-type of building, and it offers a reason for the public to go down to Oak to Ninth. The idea of tasting rooms and urban wineries will add something distinctive to that whole project.”