Oakland Green Lights Four-Tower Project Over BART Station

OAKLAND, CA–The Bay Area Rapid Transit agency Board of Directors has approved a development including four towers, including office and apartment buildings, to be built over the Lake Merritt Station in Oakland.

A partnership between the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation and San Francisco-based Strada Investment Group is planning to develop 556 apartment units and 500K SF of office space in two phases on a site encompassing 2.6 acres at the BART station.

The station is located on the edge of Chinatown in proximity to Laney College in Oakland. The site is bounded by 8^th, 9^th, Fallon and Oak streets.

The first phase of the project will include a 28-story tower with 360 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, of which 36 will be designated affordable; and an 8-story apartment building that will feature market-rate apartments along with 97 affordable and senior housing units.

A public plaza running atop the BART tunnel will link the two buildings, with a master plan including parking for 408 cars and 250 bicycles.

The second phase, to be built on a parcel bounded by 7^th, 8^th, Oak and Madison streets, will include a 10-story, 495K SF office tower and a 7-story, 100-unit affordable housing complex that will include a daycare center.

The high-rise buildings are being designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz with glass fronts. The tallest tower will feature a twisting façade, while another building will have a cutaway for a landscaped terrace.

Construction is expected to begin at the Lake Merritt station site in 2024, according to a report in SF Yimby.

In July, Oakland city officials gave the green light to non-profit East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. to replace temporary shelters for about 80 homeless residents with two affordable apartment buildings on East 12^th Street and 2^nd Avenue in Oakland.

The non-profit is planning to build a 91-unit apartment building on East 12^th Street; it also will partner with Satellite Affordable Housing Associates, a Berkeley non-profit, on a second affordable multifamily at the same site.

Oakland-based developer Urbancore initially bought the land on East 12^th Street for $5.1M with plans to build market-rate housing, but canceled the acquisition when California enacted its Surplus Land Act, which requires cities to prioritize affordable housing on public land.

Urbancore then partnered with East Bay Asian Local Development and updated its plan to include 90 affordable housing units, but the city held out for 100% affordable housing, killing the deal in March.

Late last year, Oakland erected a series of small, prefabricated temporary housing units for homeless people living on the site. After the deal with Urbancore fell through, the city allocated $21M to East Bay Asian Local Development for its affordable housing project.