The Department of Veterans Affairs this week took ownership of 624 acres of Alameda Point that will be used to build a new, one-stop medical and benefits center, a national cemetery and a wildlife preserve.

“This new OneVA facility will provide in one location our county’s veterans access to the benefits and services they have earned and deserve,” said Colonel Conway Jones, USAF (Ret.), Chairman, Alameda County Veterans Affairs Commission.

The project will include 158,000 square feet of medical clinics and office space and an 80-acre columbarium with space to hold the cremated remains of 300,000 servicemen and women and their family members.

An additional 512 acres w will be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a California least tern colony and migratory stopover for other birds, with some public recreational access.

“With returning veterans reaching record numbers, the facilities in downtown Oakland have been outgrown. Locating state-of-the-art primary, specialty and mental health services in one East Bay location is vital because many veterans face mobility challenges,” said Congresswoman Barbara Lee, speaking Monday at the land-transfer ceremony in Alameda.

“We owe our brave veterans one central location for all their medical needs,” she said.

The department will ask Congress next year for $208.6 million to build the project, which will be open for business in 2018 or 2019.

It will replace the department’s outpatient clinic in Oakland.

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