Phillip H. Tagami (born 1965) is an American investor, politician, land developer and executive. He is the CEO of California Commercial and Investment Group and managing general partner for California Capital Group.

Biography

Tagami was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

in 1965. The son of an auto-mechanic, Tadao "Frank" Tagami, he received an

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United Stat ...

to attend St. James boarding school in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, but left at 16 to live briefly with his mother in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

before moving to West Berkeley on his own. A series of odd jobs, as an aerobics instructor, a roadie for several bay area bands, with Bill Graham Presents, and as a lacrosse coach led him into

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

and building management. At age 23 he worked for Randall Berger and in 1990 managed the renovation the Lake Merritt Hotel for Berger. In 1992 at the age of 27, Tagami and partners Epstein and Moss formed the California Capital Group, a development business and in 2009 incorporated as California Capital and Investment Group.

Development

Tagami rose to local prominence in 1998 as a

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

when he and his partners secured the right to renovate the historic Liberty House department store situated across the street from Oakland's City Hall. The $50 million renovations to the building that followed produced the Rotunda, which according to a 2005 article in the ''

San Francisco Business Times American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

'' was "widely regarded as the city's most attractive office complex." Tagami was selected for prominent restorations including the Fox Theater and the historic West Oakland train station, although the latter project never materialized. In 2009, Tagami and the California Capital Group were endorsed by a committee chosen by Oakland Mayor

Ron Dellums Ronald Vernie Dellums (November 24, 1935 – July 30, 2018) was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Californi ...

to redevelop of the former

Oakland Army Base The Oakland Army Base, also known as the Oakland Army Terminal, is a decommissioned United States Army base in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The base was located at the Port of Oakland on Maritime Street just south of the eastern entra ...

. The base was divided in 2002, with given to the city of Oakland and 168 to the

Port of Oakland The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. As of 2011 it was the f ...

. Tagami, in conjunction with the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

maritime developer AMB, is also a front-runner for the port's renovation project. In 2015, Tagami became involved in controversy surrounding the potential shipment of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

from the re-developed

. Concerns over the effects of coal shipments on local air quality and global climate change led to increasing concern among both activists and Oakland politicians. Oakland Mayor

Libby Schaaf Elizabeth Beckman Schaaf (born November 12, 1965) is an American politician who has been Mayor of Oakland, California since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served on the Oakland City Council. Schaaf won the November 4, 20 ...

asked Tagami to live up to his verbal agreement not to ship coal from the base. In June, 2016, the matter came to a head when the

Oakland City Council The Oakland City Council is an elected governing body representing the City of Oakland, California. Since 1998, Oakland has had a mayor-council government. The mayor is elected for a four-year term. The Oakland City Council has eight council memb ...

acted on a proposal by Mayor

and Councilman Dan Kalb to prohibit coal and petroleum coke trains from bringing coal to be shipped from Oakland. Schaaf and Kalb, along with medical, public health, neighborhood and union officials, advocated for their measure by arguing that these fossil fuels pollute the air and pose serious risks to workers and nearby residents. Subsequently, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted to ban the local storage and shipment of coal. On December 7, 2016 Tagami sued the city over its action. Tagami is seeking to overturn the ban on exporting fossil fuels and allow his company, Oakland Bulk Oversized Terminal, to ship coal and petroleum coke from the Port of Oakland, according to court documents.

Politics

Tagami served as an Oakland Planning Commissioner appointed by Mayor Elihu Harris. Subsequently, Tagami earned a further reputation as a political insider, with particularly close connections to

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...

Grey Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, only a few months into his second term, Davis was recalled and remov ...

and

Don Perata Don Richard Perata (born April 30, 1945) is a California lobbyist
and former Port of Oakland The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. As of 2011 it was the f ...

, where he served from 2000-2003. Tagami went on to serve as a world trade commissioner and a state parks commissioner for Governor Grey Davis. In 2005, as Brown was preparing to leave the mayoral office, Tagami indicated that he was considering running for public office, possibly starting with City Council before putting in a bid to serve Oakland as mayor. In 2008, Tagami attracted media attention when he publicly requested that the city council revise the city charter to require weekly timesheets from the mayor, demonstrating that the mayor serves a 40-hour workweek. This announcement followed on allegations by

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose� ...

news that for a third of record workday Mayor Ron Dellum's calendar could only verify his working four hours or less. Tagami announced that he was considering a spring 2010 ballot if the city council did not alter the charter. In 2011, Tagami was appointed to the

California Lottery The California State Lottery began in October 1985 after voters authorized it in Proposition 37, the California State Lottery Act of 1984. It offers a range of games including number draws, scratchcards and a mock horse race. The earnings provi ...

by Governor

. In May 2012 other lottery commissioners voted Tagami chairman for a one-year term.

External links

official website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tagami, Phil Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Living people 1965 births Businesspeople from Oakland, California