226 13th Street Map

Identified as Opportunity Site #6 in Oakland’s Lake Merritt Station Area Plan, the 226 13th Street parcel, which is currently a parking lot bounded by 13th, Jackson, 14th and Alice Streets, was envisioned as a potential high-rise site which could support the development of a 25-ish-story tower with over 400 units of housing and 21,000 square feet of retail space.

226 13th Street Site: NW Corner

But as proposed by Wood Partners, a seven-story building will rise across the site with 262 units of housing, an above-ground podium garage for 198 cars, and 12,000 square feet of retail space along 14th Street, from Alice to Jackson.

Covered by the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for the Area Plan which was certified in 2014, the proposed 226 13th Street development has just been granted an exemption from having to complete any additional environmental review.

Assuming that it’s approved by the City, the ground for the development could be broken by the end of the year. And with a budgeted 24 months to complete, the building could be ready for occupancy in late 2018.

8 thoughts on “Progress for Big Oakland Project Which Could Have Been Bigger”
  1. Good to see it going forward. Unfortunate that the 25 story condo proposal was not followed through on. It is what it is.

  2. Rather see this. A 25-story high rise condo project does almost nothing for housing affordability as the market for these kinds of luxury for-sale units in Oakland overlaps very little with the market for rental units that part of Oakland – and given that level of market segmentation, the filtering effects would be limited. We’ve seen this story play out before in San Francisco (or Vancouver) where the high-rise condo market pulls in demand from buyers that would not otherwise buy in that market.

    With a wood-frame mid-rise project which could either be rental or less obnoxiously priced for-sale, the market segment overlaps at least in part with current market participants in the Oakland rental or for-sale market.

    1. Courting new residents is what makes for great cities. If people already live here, then they already have a place to live.

    2. Although you may be right that a high percentage of units *might* be bought by non-area-residents (and therefore could be worthless units to the region), the lack of filtering is not an excuse for not building to add supply; filtering is not happening anywhere at anytime anyway. The entire region needs supply. True, I’d prefer it be a rental. BTW, Oakland could use the tax base help from every additional couple of hundred units a lot more than SF.

  3. With a two year build out, it will meet the slow down that is projected. A 25ish storey building would have sat half empty, IMO.

    1. I don’t how much things will actually slow down in regards to people looking for places to live / rent, but guarantee we’ll see less obnoxious 2 year flips and 20% over asking purchases. The BA has a lot of filling out it can still do, with a lot of need.

  4. So well served by transit and so underbuilt!

    Not that every project needs too be a high rise but with 2 BART stations in close walking distance what a missed opportunity, regardless of what building/economic cycle we’re in.

  5. Downtown Oakland has at least half a dozen high-rise proposals; this will still be a great building to build out the missing fabric.

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