The Port of Oakland has appointed Carl Cade as Chief Real Estate Officer, effective September 14, 2026, handing him responsibility for developing and revitalising the agency's property portfolio, including Jack London Square, the Oakland Estuary and Oakland Airport Business Park.

The move puts a 25-year real estate veteran — one with a track record that includes a USD 15 billion school construction programme for the Los Angeles Unified School District — in charge of assets the port treats as revenue and economic-development levers beyond its container terminals.

Who is Carl Cade?

Cade is an Oakland native. His career spans real estate development, asset management, finance, strategy and construction across retail, office, industrial, residential and infrastructure portfolios.

His CV, as set out by the port, includes several large-scale, high-visibility projects:

• Helping create and lead a USD 15 billion school construction programme that delivered 150 new schools for the Los Angeles Unified School District
• Redeveloping major shopping centres at Westfield
• Managing the LA Times real estate portfolio at Tribune Real Estate Holdings
• Revitalising San Francisco's Ferry Building with Hudson Pacific's Northern California repositioning and construction teams

Cade holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Urban Studies from Vassar College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He serves as Vice Chair of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco and previously sat as Commissioner of LA Fire and Police Pensions and Chair of the LA Neighborhood Land Trust.

What does the appointment change?

The portfolio Cade inherits covers some of Oakland's most commercially and politically visible waterfront property. Jack London Square, the Estuary and the Oakland Airport Business Park sit alongside the port's maritime operations, and their redevelopment carries both fiscal and public-interest weight for a landlord port that depends on non-terminal income streams as well as cargo revenue.

Executive Director Kristi McKenney framed the hire in exactly those terms. She said Cade's expertise and experience in high-profile developments are well suited to elevating the port's waterfront assets to their highest public purpose, creating new economic opportunities and experiences for Oakland's residents and the wider region.

For port stakeholders — tenants, developers and the forwarders and shippers whose container business funds the agency — the appointment signals continuity of a strategy that treats real estate as a core pillar of the port's financial model rather than a sideline. A chief real estate officer with infrastructure-scale delivery experience, including a 150-school construction programme, brings execution capacity to match the ambition.

What comes next

Cade starts on September 14, 2026. The port has not yet detailed a specific project pipeline or investment schedule for Jack London Square, the Estuary or the airport business park, but the trajectory is clear: McKenney's statement points toward redevelopment aimed at new economic opportunities, and Cade's hiring suggests the port intends to push its non-maritime assets toward higher-value uses in the years ahead.