250 14th Street Site

While approved for a 16-story tower with 126 apartments over 3,200 square feet of retail space and a podium garage for 81 cars to rise up to 175 feet in height upon the Lake Merritt Station Area parking lot parcels at the corner of Alice and 14th Streets last year, the controversial 250 14th Street (a.k.a. 1429 Alice Street) project has yet to break ground.

And Golden Stone Investment Corp, the owners for the 250 14th Street parcel, are now pushing forward with plans for a 6-story building to rise up to 85 feet in height across the site, a plan which would yield a total of 79 apartments over a ground floor of retail space, the revised designs for which will soon be presented to the City for review.

Keep in mind that plans for a 35-story tower with nearly 200 condos had been proposed to rise upon the corner site prior to the Great Recession but were subsequently abandoned.

And yes, a shorter development will still result in the loss of the “Love Arts Music” mural which has adorned buildings on two sides of the project site since 2014. But as Oakland’s Planning Department opined last year, “murals are temporary art pieces and…development should not be limited due to their presence because it could negatively impact future allowances for murals to be installed due to concerns of property owners losing their development rights.”

32 thoughts on “Oakland Development Has Shed 29 Stories as Newly Proposed”
    1. Actually the big mural scandal in Oakland was the Kronnerburger/Key Route dustup which became the apotheosis of the “THEY’RE destroying OUR town” narrative. Oakland survived, but whether/not the tradeoff of local color for overpriced/undercooked sandwiches was worth it – or even necessary – is a debate I suspect will never be resolved.

      1. That was a beautiful mural. The building was vacant for a long time so the new restaurant was definitely an improvement even with the mural gone.

        1. And they fixed the clock too.
          Oakland has no shortage of murals, it’s just unfortunate some of the better ones – this and the panorama on 27th – were the ones that have been lost.

  1. Why focus on this development shedding “29 stories” when Oakland has already broken ground on a 33 story residential building, a 24 story residential building, while also getting ready to demolish a garage at 13th & Franklin where a 40 story building will soon break ground? I’ve never seen so many cranes in Oakland in my lifetime with plenty more on the way.

    1. I’d like to know the root causes and if specifically if they be related to actions of City Council or “community activists” who act more like a shadow government.

    1. Yes, but this development is an exception to other high rise residential going ahead in Oakland. Let’s try to focus on the positive instead of the few developments that may be shrinking.

    1. I know the SF Business Times has also focused on “shrinking” development in Oakland. Why not report on all the highrise residential under construction and about to break ground in Oakland?

        1. Indeed, I’m a little surprised that more haven’t offered up a “the cycle is over!” spin on this. Of course, the fact that these people have essentially sat out one of the biggest booms in Bay Area residential building history – it seems like this project has been shrinking the whole time of its (non) existence, and it’s been 18 mos since we last debated parking podiums here – makes it easy to think maybe they’re just “all hat no cattle” (or perhaps “all hardhat, no shovel”).

          1. Exactly. This may shrink entirely out of existence. This may be the Uber method of developing in Oakland.

    1. Yes – 6 story building = wood frame, which cost less per square foot. Perhaps that means that it will actually get built.

  2. Hope they have security round the clock if this version gets off the ground- fire seems to be attracted to new wood framed construction in the East Bay.

  3. This decision is short-sighted. It may be more profitable to build shorter and out of wood based on today’s conditions. But in the long run downtown sites so close to transit and services will be even more desirable and scarce in the future. Not to mention the loss of affordable units built either on site or elsewhere through development fees.

    1. It’s enteresting that developers a few blocks away, at 13th & Franklin, are about to break ground on a 40 story residential building.

  4. The Hotel Oakland and the Malonga Center are much older and taller buildings. This new development at 6 stories is a seriously stupid move. Is the developer broke and just trying to get something going? Can we really not do better?

    1. If the developer can’t do a dense development in this transit friendly area, he should sell the property to someone who can and will. They really need to utilize those ugly surface parking lots on 14th street. This should be a dense beautiful boulevard connecting Lake Merritt and City Center.

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