1900 Broadway Rendering

Plans for a 33-story building with 345 apartments to rise up to 330 feet in height at 1900 Broadway, adjacent to the historic Tapscott Building in Uptown Oakland, which is to be remodeled and incorporated into the project, were approved back in 2015.

An increase to allow for 36 stories and 368 feet in height, with an interior reconfiguration to yield 451 units and podium parking for 338 cars, was administratively approved in 2016.

And having since been redesigned by SCB and slated to be approved this week, the now 38-story building to rise at 1900 Broadway would reach a height of 395 feet, with a total of 452 apartments; 79,000 square feet of office space (27,000 square feet of which would be within the Tapscott building); 23,400 square feet of retail (17,500 square feet within the Tapscott); and a (mostly underground) parking garage for 153 cars.

And according to marketing materials prepared for potential (EB-5) investors, the project team is planning to start construction this year.

18 thoughts on “More Height, Less Parking, New Design for Approved Oakland Tower”
  1. The article is correct …as far as it goes; but in the interest of SS living up to its usual standards of completeness, perhaps the long history (of even taller proposals) of the site should be mentioned.

  2. I had to look at the map to realize it is just across Broadway from Uptown Station. It will be interesting to see how they handle the Bart entrance right in front during construction. Doesn’t seem like enough office space to justify its own entrance into Bart.

  3. Not the most interesting of designs, but its more housing, and a great location, so hopefully this moves along quickly and yet another crane pops up in DTO.

    1. The huge balconies on one side of the building look a bit odd. Having said that, this is still a great addition to DTO. We currently have a 40 storie, 33 storie, 25 storie, and 24 storie residential buildings under construction in DTO. This 37 storie addition is a plus. Unfortunately many of these residential highrises in DTO are topping out at around 400ft. We need to break the 400ft table top.

      1. It seems like it would be very easy to build THE iconic DTO building, given the lack of competition. Anything more than 500 feet tall would become instantly recognizable (think the Tribune tower) as the most prestigious address in Oakland. Instant landmark. Does nothing that height pencil at all?

        1. it’s a good question, especially given oakland has the rather unusual (at least in cali) “no height limits” zoning in parts of downtown.

          1. No height limit per se, but max [Floor Area Ratio] of 20 and similar max residential densities make it difficult to go past 400′.

  4. They don’t have the financing to build this yet and are looking to pitch to EB 5 investors now?

    And the biggest source of EB 5 investors have been the mainland Chinese. Good luck with that.

  5. If I am not mistaken, this site is across the street from one of the new Opportunity Zones, which under the Trump Tax law offer 0% capital gains for investments held 10 years or more. Most of West Oakland is now an Opportunity Zone. 1031 like deferred tax benefits on cap gains for any asset sold to roll into a self-declared “Opportunity Fund.” Get it while you can.

    Here is the map for all the areas that qualified.

    1. Thanks much for pointing this out.

      I wonder at what threshold would something like this make sense for an accidental landlord?

      1. My understanding is that to qualify as an opportunity zone investment, it has to be ‘new money’ coming into the zone. I believe the IRS are still working out the nuances, but they want to prevent self-dealing. If your property is in an Oppportunity Zone, the easiest way to take advantage is to sell it on to a qualified ‘Opportunity Fund.’

        The new money has to come in and spend enough for ‘substantial change’ or something like that – you can’t just buy a building. You have to build a new one or renovate to the point it is in effect a new building. But many of the designated areas are already ripe with tear-downs.

        Here is a Price Waterhouse overview.

    2. How about no capital gains instead of deferred? That might be an easier sell. Most investors look for returns on investment, not just payment of capital gains tax.

      Recall just before the housing recession, Obama offered a tax break to first time home buyers to put a stop to the housing slide. Many took up the offer and only to see their down payment evaporated at the bottom. The smart buyers waited until the bottom a couple of years later , bought at a market discount, forgoing the measly tax break.

      Why wouldn’t the smart buyers do the same here?

      1. I don’t follow what you are saying.

        Is your point that the whole market is going to crash, so it’s better not to invest until later?

        Obviously there is no capital gains tax savings if an investment doesn’t produce capital gains. What do you mean?

        1. I don’t think the property will produce any capital gains in ten years so the deferred capital gains tax, the entire premise of the economic zone is flawed.

          A reliance on EB5 financing already raises red flags because it means there is no domestic developer interest. In that case, make a pitch to the middle east sovereign wealth funds and tailor incentives accordingly.

          If that fails, let the market forces dictate how much the property is worth and at what price it will get built.

          There are better opportunities investment opportunities elsewhere.

          1. I didn’t see investment metrics (prices) anywhere. What information are you using to conclude this is a bad investment? How do you know what the basis is?

          2. Fun tho this discussion is, as ‘beo’ (correctly) pointed out, the boundary of the OZ is Broadway, this project doesn’t lie within it.

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