277 27th Street Site

As proposed and working its way through Planning, the Oakland Acura Dealership at 277 27th Street will be razed and a 18-story building with 448 residential units over 66,500 square feet of retail space will rise across the Auto Row site which covers the majority of the city block bounded by 24th, 27th and Valdez Streets (save the buildings fronting Valdez and one parcel at 299 27th Street).

277 27th Street Rendering

As designed by HKS for the Holland Partner Group, the retail component of the project is primarily oriented along the 24th Street frontage with a large anchor tenant space at the corner of 24th and 27th.

277 27th Street Rendering: 27th Street Aerial

The 27th Street frontage would contain a secondary residential lobby as well as a small retail or other commercial space and the retail garage entrance for 139 cars.  The building’s primary lobby and residential garage entrance for 150 cars would be located along 24th Street.

277 27th Street Rendering: 24th Street

The wings of the L-shaped residential building would rise to a height of 200 feet.

277 27th Street Rendering - 24th Street Aerial

From the Planning Department’s preliminary review of the design which will be formally presented to the Oakland’s Design Review Committee tomorrow:

“Staff feels that the base of the building and the interior floor plate layout is well designed in a manner that will allow for a successful retail environment. The design tucks the parking back into the middle of the site so that it is not a highly visible component of the project when viewed from the streets, and the architect has done a good job of providing the necessary loading berths required for the retail facilities to be viable while not allowing them to overwhelmingly dominate any important facade by incorporating a glass bi-fold door that will blend in with the other retail facilities along 27th Street.

With regard to the exterior design, the proposal will incorporate a large percentage of glass at most of the retail locations but use a heavier approach at the corner which helps to create an strong corner component to the intersection somewhat similar to what exists today with the Acura dealership, but more pronounced. The dual levels of most of the facades will include a use of glass and metal panel. Staff is open to this approach but will want to see more detail of the materials as well as samples prior to moving forward with any final approvals.”

We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.

33 thoughts on “Designs for Proposed 448-Unit Auto Row Development in Oakland”
  1. Awesome! Now, all we need is 499 more developments just like this in the region (totaling 224,000 units) and we’ll all be OK.

  2. “With regard to the exterior design, the proposal will incorporate a large percentage of glass at most of the retail locations”

    Be sure to include steel curtain doors to protect the glass from BLM and anti-globalism protesters.

      1. um, probably – seems to be a glass-smashing riot in Oakland about ever 3 years or so, based on my 20+ years of living in the Bay Area.

          1. I don’t remember there ever being a protest in Oakland against the Bureau of Land Management…I think you’re confusing it with somewhere else.

            As for the mayhem that did occur, it’s primarily been a post Oscar Grant thing; before that it was mostly a Berkeley or somewhere else (SF, Seattle, LA) phenom…that’s what my 50 years of living here tells me.

  3. This is a great spot for a development of this size. Is it within the Broadway/Valdez planning such that it could gain approvals without an EIR?

          1. Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by a grassroots participant(s). It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source’s financial connection.”

    1. Noticed that too recently. I think Oakland is finally becoming A Thing.

      Amazing to watch SFR prices down in the *core of the ghetto* in DEO (deep east Oakland) double over the past 2 to 3 years..

      1. Or just “San Francisco Bay Area,” since they cover other east bay cities, Marin, peninsula, etc.

  4. i feel the design evokes “super star destroyer” … but whatever, hurry up and build it.

    1. or perhaps more innocuously evoking a cruise ship – it’s Royal Carribean’s “Quantum of Valdez”, everybody

  5. How much parking is proposed? This is a very transit-rich location, and the last thing Oakland wants is to drive congestion rates high like San Francisco has. If you provide parking, you are promoting car trips. If you tell the developer to sponsor transit passes, and promote non-motorized transportation options, they will take transit or ride their bikes!

    1. Access to the freeway via 27th St is convenient and utterly un-congested.

      Let’s mess it up with lots of gnat lanes and driver infuriating (traffic “calming”) devices! 😉

  6. It looks more like something that should grace the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica in Los Angeles than on Broadway in Oakland. I don’t mind the tower, but the lower floors, and especially the sidewalk frontage, could well be re-massed down to a more neighborhood-and-pedestrian-friendly scale.

    I wonder if Oakland has considered a road diet for 27th? It’s so overbuilt. Sort of a reminder of 60s planning, when they really slathered on the pavement.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *