Plans to redevelop the old An-Fo Manufacturing Co building at 3129 Elmwood Avenue, on the edge of Oakland’s Jingletown, near the Fruitvale BART Station, have been approved.

As envisioned, a conversion of – and addition to – the existing structure would yield a 30-unit residential development, with 9 studios, 12 one-bedrooms, 9 two-bedrooms and parking for 22 cars.

On the market as an empty industrial building for $1.7 million in 2015, the Elmwood Avenue property is now back on the market with the plans for $3.2 million today.

And having been on the market for $3.9 million last year, touting the possibility for a live-work or co-working conversion, Green Day’s former JingleTown Recording studio at 829 27th Avenue has sold for $3.2 million to Great Stone Studios LLC.

58 thoughts on “Plans to Gentrify Jingletown”
    1. Not true, this area is not designated a elevated asthma zone. The glass plant is closing down and at this location prevailing winds are out of the south and west, so 880 isn’t an issue either.

      1. I didn’t realize we had asthma data at that granularity. This census tract certainly does have elevated asthma, along with diabetes and short life expectancy, and rampant poverty which partially explains those things. But it’s also not very populous, and of course a census tract is larger than one block. If you have fine-grained data please share.

      2. More industrial jobs disappearing? Yay! Maybe we can replace them with people coding aps to make their over-privileged lives even easier

    2. How about those living right next to the west side of the Bay Bridge? Is that also a good site to develop asthma?

      1. San Francisco age-adjusted asthma rates are only slightly above state averages, but since you mentioned it the 94103/5/7 are among the highest for asthma, with only 94124/34 (BVHP) being worse.

        Air quality is no joke.

    1. The proposal only includes 22 parking spaces for the 30 units — the surface parking pavement in the images is Elmwood St. or the adjacent building.

  1. After Saturday’s BART train robbery, I’d be even more reluctant to consider living anywhere in Oakland.

    1. After Saturday’s attempted kidnapping, I’d be even more reluctant to consider living anywhere in Pacific Heights. After last week’s street battle, I’d be even more reluctant to consider living anywhere in Berkeley. After Saturday’s motel shooting, I’d be even more reluctant to consider living anywhere in San Jose. After Monday’s assault, I’d be even more reluctant to consider living anywhere in Sonoma.

      Good luck with your hermit cabin in the woods, Stop Driving!

      1. I’ll take 1 attempted kidnapping over regular armed thuggery. PH is exponentially safer than Oakland. Only a fool would suggest otherwise.

        1. SF has much more crime than OAK. Parts of Oakland like Upper Rockridge, Montclair, Claremont Hills, are safer than Walnut Creek. Nice try at broad brushing a large diverse city like Oakland.

          1. Please stop with the “SF has more crime than Oakland”. Per capita violent crime is the issue people are concerned about, and it’s undeniably much much higher in Oakland than SF. You individual chances of being mugged or killed on the streets of Oakland are demonstrably higher than in SF. And hey, I’m an Oakland booster. But reality is reality.

          2. When people buy a home they don’t look at per capita crime rates for their neighborhood. They look at the number of crimes committed in the area within a certain amount of time. SF is way more dangerous for the average person going about their daily business. No city in the United States has the concentration of crime per square mile as does SF. Also, it matters who you are and what you are doing as far as the possibility of being a victim of violent crime. I’m tired of self-hating Oaklanders who go along with the “Oakland is dangerous” nonsense and never look at a crime map of San Francisco.

        2. Fair enough, maybe you remember the story of the driver being dragged out of his car and beaten by an SF biker gang on the 101 last month? That seems way more horrific than what happened on BART this weekend. I certainly wouldn’t want to avoid someplace where that happened.

          I’m not here to turn this into an SF vs. Oakland crime debate, as any article on socketsite seems to devolve into. I’m here to say live where you want; you shouldn’t be so scared about sensationalized crime stories in the media.

          1. Let’s also remember the many assaults and mugging on muni. Also, the crime happened in BART’s jurisdiction in the last south bound station in Oakland in deep east Oakland. This is a BART security issue which won’t even be registered in City of Oakland crime stats.

    2. Support federal concealed-carry laws. That’ll be the prompt end of such behavior. I’ll see to it personally.

          1. Some Guy, you trust people to use guns safely, but then you don’t trust people to behave civilly without the threat of death? How does that work?

          2. Some children of east oakland evidently can’t be trusted to behave civilly without the threat of death. Is this not readily apparent after the weekend’s BART flashmob robbery?

            I’ll accept the risk of getting accidentally shot by a vigilante bystander vs getting purposely beaten up by a bunch of punk thugs. It’s worth it to me.

  2. Can we not falsely equate new housing with gentrification? I see nothing to suggest this will be high-end, and some of the most dramatic examples of gentrification in the Bay Area have occurred with little new housing, such as Rockridge and Bernal Heights.

      1. I think you’re confusing “Rockridge” with “Upper Rockridge”, which is perhaps understandable since the name originally referred to east of Broadway; anyway, I would agree w/ Mr. f: it (west of Broadway, and particularly west of College) definitely went from mid-range housing prices in the 70/80’s to seven figures today…not sure what else one would call that process (save perhaps that it was never really low-end, and so couldn’t go all the way from low-priced > high-priced).

        1. But once again, gentrification doesn’t require a neighborhood to become “high-priced” or “high-end” in the absolute, but simply more highly priced relative to the existing neighborhood norm.

          1. So if you’re paying more than the previous renter or owner paid it’s gentrification… that’s pretty much the entire Bay Area, CA, USA, World! Everywhere gets gentrified! Said like Oprah.

          2. The term seems to have evolved – or more precisely people use it rather inconsistently. I’m not sure one could talk w/ a straight face about the “gentrification” of – say – Pacific Heights, just b/c it has gone from the top 5% to top 1% (or whatever the specific metrics are).

          3. The term is Aristocratification. Gentrification is when the middle class pushes out the working class, then artistocratification is when the upper class pushes out the middle. Then when the 1% pushes out the upper class you call it San Francisco.

        2. That’s true, prices for homes west of college are now well over a million. Even south of 51st Street in Temescal the median price is close to a million dollars. Yes, lower Rockridge, Temescal, Idora Park, Bushrod, Longfellow are all at various stages of gentrification.

    1. While gentrification doesn’t require new housing to be built, linking the speculative development of new housing in a neighborhood to gentrification isn’t a false equivalency.

      Gentrification doesn’t require the development of “high-end” housing but simply housing or services that attract a more affluent group of residents, on average, as compared to the existing neighborhood.

        1. Nor is it the only project in the pipeline for Jingletown. Anybody fretting over our headline is welcome to write-in or mumble “Further” between “to” and “Gentrify” above.

  3. Literally 10’s of thousands of people in this part of Oakland are below the poverty line – most in slum apartments which have not seen a code enforcement officer in 50+ years.

    Rates of children with lead poisoning are some of the highest in the country. Hundreds of people are living out of shopping carts under freeway’s. The morgue picks a couple of od stiffs up every week out of here.

    It would pretty much be impossible to find a less affluent group of residents than the existing neighborhood unless you went to the Central Valley. So in a way …. It’s gentrification?

    1. You’re a little off. Jingletown is a relatively (for the area) affluent pocket of art studios, condos, and single family homes along the estuary. Housing prices are approximately $160/sq ft greater than the surrounding area ($560/sq ft in Jingletown vs. $400/sq ft for Fruitvale).

      Since Oakland implemented the Central Estuary Plan, this has been where most of the development in East Oakland has been, with several new condo and apartment buildings under construction or approved. So this isn’t really out of character for that part of Oakland. Now projects just need to start happening on the other side of 880.

      1. The problem with “the other side of 880” is it’s kind of no fun to live within 500′ of the elevated BART tracks AND a regulary-used freight/Amtrak rail corridor AND 880 itself. Noisy all the time with a little respite from 1AM-4AM.

    2. What are you talking about? Have you been to Jingletown? And Fruitvale is generally small single family homes.

  4. Gentrification simply means being able to walk down a public street without looking over your shoulder every 20 seconds.

    Re: asthma, that glass plant has been permanenty closed for at least a year, rumor is it is up for sale, 20 beautiful acres of condos incoming (?). Maybe Mr. or Ms. Socketsite can sleuth around a bit and give us some info on that.

    Even with the glass plant closed you still get to breath 880, same as anyone else living within 500-1000′ or so of a major freeway. (Especially elevated ones.)

    On the whole my little section of frootvale has gone from grade D to grade C over the past few years. Viva los gentrificadores.

    1. I’ve heard (was it here) that demolition of the glass plant has begun, and that the owners are shopping plans. Redevelopment of that site would be YUGE for the neighborhood.

      1. No demolition happening yet, unless it’s all internal. But yes, replacing that abandoned factory, right along the waterfront and walking distance to BART, with housing would be awesome for the neighborhood.

        But might be a tough sell for some reason. Riaz has had their renovation of the old Lucasey manufacturing building approved for quite awhile, but that hasn’t started construction yet. Of course, as mentioned above, that’s in a much less desirable location, smack dab between 880, heavy rail, and BART tracks.

      2. The Oakland Estuary area in central Oakland could be a very charming residential and even entertainment neighborhood. All the bridges crossing the Estuary have to possibility of creating a charming area. London and Paris make great use of their waterways why can’t Oakland. Oakland has more bridges than any city in the Bay Area why not take advantage and dress up the area.

      3. Does anyone have a link to an article about the Owens-Illinois plant closing? There are old articles about their Hayward plants closing over a decade ago.

        1. Repeating what I said elsewhere due to excess enthusiasm; Socketsite please do keep us posted on what’s going down with the Owens Illinois glass plant at the Fruitvale street bridge. 20 acre parcel on the estuary, Alameda’s right there, 24 hr fitness nearby.

      4. Back when I grew up in the Fruitvale there was an oil cracking plant at High Street and East 8th that was really disgusting. Thank god that closed down. My dad worked with a group called People United for a Better East Oakland (PUEBLO). They were able to stop a medical waste incinerator from being built next to the High Street Bridge and to demand that Owens-Illinois install scrubbers on their smokestacks that would reduce the level of pollutants. He would be gratified that the plant is shutting down.

        1. When I moved to fvale a few years ago the glass plant was stilll operating. On windless nights and mornings the entire area within a mile radius of the plant smelled like a glass kiln. Unpleasant “burned” odor. No wonder so many people die of asthma and heart disease here. (Among other factors — poor diet and stress being huge contributors as well.)

      5. It seems highly possible, the city has been putting what must be the high 10’s of millions (my armchair guess) into redoing intersections, replacing sidewalks, and all manner of related heavy infrastructure upgrades in Fruitvale the past couple years. Not to mention CalTrans replacing the 29th street overpass (over 880), and stripping lead paint / repainting 1000’s of feet of 880’s steel-beam raised support structures in the area.

        1. Yes, 880, Fruitvale/Jingletown are seeing some nice improvements. It’s about time Caltrans improved 880 between DTO and Oakland International Airport. OAK is now the third busiest gateway airport to Europe in CA. Caltrans and the City of Oakland need to improve maintenance and aesthetics of 880 and surrounding area between the airport and DTO. Fixing and improving jingletown is a start.

        2. Bus Rapid Transit is currently beginning construction on International, and that will include a lot of pedestrian upgrades to the entire corridor. High Street is going to get a makeover near 880 and the Home Depot that will open up access to the Owens-Illinois plant area, and there are also funded projects to improve Fruitvale Ave between the Estuary and Foothill. Lots of public investment will be happening in Fruitvale over the next 2-3 years.

          1. Nice. Looking forward to seeing all the improvements in Fruitvale and Melrose.

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