Two Planned Residential Towers Would Add More Than 550 Units to Downtown Oakland - The Registry

Two Planned Residential Towers Would Add More Than 550 Units to Downtown Oakland - The Registry

This id the Oakland Project in the previous blog posting...



District Development’s 1900-1944 Broadway project will include about
10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 333 parking spaces.
The project’s studio, one- and two-bedroom residential units are
designed as apartments “with flexibility” to be condominiums, said Seth
Hamalian, managing principal of San Francisco-based District
Development.


It will sit on one now vacant and one underutilized lot.
Emeryville-based architecture firm Brick, LLP is designing the project,
which will include a tower clad in precast concrete with glass window
walls, metal panel and brick, according to a city report about the
project.


The developer also plans to restore the historic four-story Tapscott
Building next door to the residential high-rise. The building will be
incorporated into the overall project with residential units above
ground-floor retail. A 20-foot wide outdoor courtyard will separate the
new construction from the Tapscott Building. District Development is in
discussions with capital partners and aims to begin construction on the
project during summer or fall 2016, Hamalian said.


Adding housing to the neighborhood is a “positive,” said John Dolby, a
senior vice president at real estate firm DTZ in Oakland. “A lot of
people are moving downtown,” he said, and there is a need for more
housing. Apartment vacancy in that neighborhood is less than 5 percent,
Dolby said. These projects also are conveniently located near the 19th
Street-Oakland BART Station.


Additionally, more retail is welcome in the area, said Steve Snider,
district manager of the Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt-Uptown
District associations, which are community benefit district corporations
committed to revitalizing downtown Oakland.