SUCCESSES

Project: New, Redeveloped Broadway Plaza Shopping Center in Walnut Creek, CA

Solution: Helped develop a comprehensive and sophisticated approval strategy that led to the city council's approval of the project.

Success: Broadway Plaza is an open-air shopping center home to many fine retailers and restaurants. This upscale center contains 80 specialty shops including Nordstrom, Macy's, Apple and lululemon.

Issue: NextEra Energy, the largest wind farm developer in the country, owns many of the historic wind farms in Alameda County's Altamont Pass, as well as in Contra Costa County. The older generation wind farms can be upgraded with newer, state of the art wind turbines, which are more energy efficient and have less impact on the environment.

Solution: Zell & Associates provided communication and advocacy services designed to gain support from the Contra Costa and Alameda County Boards of Supervisors.

Success: NextEra obtained project approvals and entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google. About 770 old turbines from the 1980s will be replaced by 48 new machines, producing twice as much energy – enough to power Google's corporate campus in Mountain View with 100 percent renewable energy.

Issue: Despite the desperate medical need for upgrades to a local hospital's outdated Emergency Room, the project faced fierce neighborhood opposition.

Solution: Zell & Associates created a public affairs strategy – using earned media, community advocacy and outreach – to craft a plan that achieved the hospital's goals, while accommodating neighborhood concerns, and which received discretionary approvals from the City of Berkeley.

Success: The Berkeley Zoning Adjustment Board approved the much-needed ER upgrade, and future appeals were avoided through lasting community relationships. The new ER is now serving patients.

Project: Diablo Energy Storage, a 200-megawatt (MW) battery energy storage project developed by LS Power, located in Pittsburg, California. The project will provide significant benefits to the City of Pittsburg, Contra Costa County, and the region while helping California reduce greenhouse gas emissions and more reliably operate the electric transmission and distribution grid.

Solution: Build community support and gain planning commission and city council approval.

Success: One of the state's largest battery storage projects is under construction and will serve the electrical grid in 2021 and beyond.

Issue: A well-respected non-profit community service organization serving low-income and disabled populations in West Contra Costa County needed funding to continue their good work in job training and supportive employment.

Solution: Zell & Associates provided pro-bono consultation and direct advocacy to ensure that the organization received adequate budget allocations from various local funding agencies.

Success: Adequate funding was secured to ensure the continuation of these valuable programs.

Issue: Blake Griggs Properties, in partnership with BART, is developing a 600-unit mixed-use transit oriented apartment project in the City of Walnut Creek to meet local housing limits and improve quality of life, as well as encourage the use of public transit to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

Solution: Zell & Associates implemented a public affairs strategy – using earned media, community advocacy and outreach, and advocacy with the City of Walnut Creek – to craft a plan that achieves the City, the community and the client's goals.

Success: The Walnut Creek Transit-Oriented Development Project began construction in 2020.

Zell & Associates represents Comcast in Contra Costa County, providing strategic counseling and other assistance working with local government agencies on customer reliability, local franchises, and community and government relations.

Project: New Transbay Rail Crossing (LINK21)

Solution: Build early political and stakeholder support for this transformational transportation program and project, coordinating rail services throughout Northern California that will provide significant greenhouse gas benefits, economic stimulus and produce hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Success: The New Transbay Rail Crossing was included in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's (MTC's) Plan Bay Area 2040 while earning support of key transportation leaders and Building Trades Councils throughout the Bay Area.