2302-2342 Valdez Street Site

A block from the proposed 24-story tower to rise at 2270 Broadway Street in Oakland, Wood Partners has submitted plans for a 196-unit building to rise six stories along Valdez, between 23rd and 24th Streets, with parking for 209 cars, including 62 parking spaces for five new retail spaces fronting Valdez.

2302-2342 Valdez Street Design

From the City’s cursory review of the project:

The ground floor of the building would include approximately 31,500 sf of retail spaces fronting onto Valdez Street and the corner of Valdez Street/23rd Street, along with a parking garage for the retail uses. The retail areas would be designed to allow subdivision into up to five separate store fronts with multiple entries off of Valdez Street and one off of 23rd Street. Mezzanines would be included in each retail space.

This variety of retail uses would be open to the public and not restricted to onsite users. In addition, a residential lobby with a stairwell and elevators, plus the leasing office, would be located on the ground floor, fronting onto Valdez Street. A stairwell and exit corridor for the residential area would be located in the northern portion of the building and would connect to Valdez Street. The retail parking garage would be located behind the retail and lobby areas. This 62-space garage, accessible from 23rd Street, would be reserved for retail customers and employees.

Above the ground floor would be approximately 38 residential units, usable private open space along Valdez Street, several podium courtyards, a lobby with elevators, stairwells, interior circulation, and two amenities spaces, including a fitness center. The third floor would include approximately 38 units and associated private balconies. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors would also include 40 units with associated private balconies, and have the same floor plan. The roof level would include mechanical equipment and potential features such as a roof deck, dog run zone, and area reserved for solar panels.

In total, the proposed 2302-2342 Valdez Street project would include up to 196 housing units, a mix of 20 studios, 103 one-bedrooms and 73 two-bedrooms with an overall average size of just over 800 square feet.

As is the case with the 2270 Broadway tower site, the Valdez project site falls within the boundaries of Oakland’s Broadway Valdez District Specific Plan (BVDSP) area, which means the approval process for the project is positioned to be streamlined and forego a lengthy environmental review process.

And in fact, Wood Partners hopes to break ground by the end of the year and have the 2302 Valdez Street building ready for occupancy by the end of 2017.

43 thoughts on “Plans and Timing for 200 More Units near Lake Merritt”
  1. Ran the Oakland half marathon yesterday, through uptown, downtown, lake merritt, jack london, west Oakland, etc. Best running event in the bay area, and good to see the transformation of many neighborhoods in Oakland. Good stuff!

  2. Go Oakland. Hella nice size for the location (lol). Glad to see they are paying attention to street activation. Does anyone know if Oakland has a Form Based code overlay in the Broadway Valdez District Specific Plan (BVDSP) area?

  3. Oakland loves new construction and there is not much resistance. This could lead to over supply when the next recession comes.

    1. Um, what? What in the world are you basing this on? Oakland might be the only city (aside from Berkeley) where there is more resistance to new development than SF.

      1. Yup, read the San Francisco Business Journal about the same development and how activist groups want all units to be subsidized housing. Except developers can more easily walk away — Oakland is ground zero for whatever street protests come along. Doesn’t take much to chill any prospective renters/buyers when watching businesses board up on Broadway and employees advised to go home early to avoid problems.

        1. Amewsed, opposition is not the norm. There are about a dozen approved housing developments across Downtown Oakland representing thousands of units waiting to pencil out, which are not being hamstrung by public opposition.

          Ground zero for street protests? Did you miss the one at the Mission PD station the other morning? These things seem to be pretty common in SF, Berkeley, and Richmond, too. Even Stanford students recently shutdown the San Mateo Bridge. People take the news of Oakland protests literally, like there’s no journalistic narrative going on. SF Giants destruction is “rowdy”, while civil rights protests in Oakland are “violent”. Give me a break. I live “ground zero” adjacent and rarely do protests actually impact my movement.

    2. Oakland mayor is competing for developer’s attention to bring new housing to Oakland. Maybe the city leaders will make sure that it is easy to put new housing up. Neighborhood noise may not go far.

  4. bayviewSF. There is TONS of community resistance and significant undersupply in the metro for housing. Your statement leads me to believe you know very little about Oakland.

  5. Great location. LM is my favorite spot in the entire Bay Area. Great transit, weather, the lake, bars, restaurants, extremely diverse and relatively clean.

  6. That area is a sea of parking lots that are close to two BART stations and ripe for this sort of development. Bring it!

  7. Hopefully, development of the area will put a stop to the muggings that happen around the lake in broad daylight.

    1. Pfffttt, haven’t you gotten the memo? It is poor form to remind Oaklanders of the daylight armed robberies.

      The official party line is that violent crime only happens in the “bad” parts of town.

        1. You guys are scarring me. I’ve been living in Oakland for over 15 years (Adams Point, Rockridge, Temescal, and Montclair) without being witness to or experiencing a single mugging, robbery, rape, or carjacking. I guess the clock is running out and it’s only a matter of time. You’ve convinced me to move to Frisco where I’ll be safe.

          1. Great news that you haven’t been the victim of a violent crime in Oakland. Seriously. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s happening. I know three people who were separately robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight in Oakland: one in Adams Point and two near Telegraph and 40th Street. When I tally the friends of friends to whom this has happened, all in the “safer” parts of Oakland, it’s around a dozen.

            Your takeaway from the discussion is that we’re saying this makes SF better than Oakland. Forget the urban sibling rivalry for a minute. What matters most is that people acknowledge this is happening and take steps to do something about it. The denial I see in Oakland about this situation is disturbing.

          2. anecdotal evidence means squat anyway. the crime data by zip code is available for everyone. rate of violent crime in oakland is high by any standard. and SF not even close. although of course it does happen in SF, chances are much lower

        1. you’re a ridiculous poster, Matt in Uptown. every single time someone mentions crime in Oakland you totally freaking lose it.

          1. And you’re being “totally freaking” hyperbolic. Matt doesn’t “totally freaking lose it”, he’s defending his hometown.

          2. no, Emanon, linking to a singular anecdote of a news story about a near decapitation, as if that’s some sort of argument anyone would ever rate, is pretty much freaking losing it

      1. I prefer to keep outsiders scared of Oakland, then you won’t come here and stop driving up the rental/real estate market here. I worked on Lake Merritt for 12 years, jogging and walking around the lake at all hours and never had any issues whatsoever. Does crime happen in this area, of course. I see car windows bashed every once in a while. But, in what city does that not happen? I had two different cars broken into when I lived in Sacramento. It happens.

        1. This flippant attitude would be entertaining if it didn’t belie the fact that real crimes are happening to real people in high numbers in the “safer” parts of town like Uptown, Lake Merritt, Adams Point and Temescal.

          I just went on one of those crimespotter maps and looked up the armed robberies during a 5-day period. While some are happening late at night, many are happening during the day or when people are going out to dinner, including:

          (1) 3/17/2015, 2:15 PM, strong-arm robbery at Grand and Staten
          (2) 3/17/2015, 8:46 PM, strong-arm robbery near Santa Clara Ave. and Jean Street
          (3) 3/18/2015, 7:15 PM, strong-arm robbery at 20th and Martin Luther King
          (4) 3/18/2015, 8:30 PM, strong-arm robbery at 54th and Shattuck
          (5) 3/20/2015, 9:00 PM, robbery with firearm near 23rd and Harrison
          (6) 3/20/2015, 9:15 PM, strong-arm robbery at 40th and Telegraph
          (7) 3/21/2015, 8:00 PM, robbery with firearm at Lakeshore and Athol

    2. I’m not trying to scare or keep anyone out of Oakland. My aunt is a victim of the daylight mugging. Kicked her in the back, snatched her purse and how her back is all messed up and she’s in constant pain. Does that make me “scared” of Oakland? No. But is it something to beware of? Absolutely. So congratulations to you for having made it all these years without being a statistic. Continue to live in your bubble, if you so choose.

  8. Hey folks, unlike the Lake Merritt Apts this development is on private land and in an area that has already seen plenty of unchallenged development. There was no resistance to The Grand, The Broadway Grand, or The Hive. So you might want to find another unwarranted concern to champion.

    1. None of those were “unchallenged”. Again, what in the world are you talking about? They were built, yes, but they had numerous (sometimes heated) community meetings prior to that to smooth the water.

      1. They went through the normal public vetting process but never faced organized community opposition. There were no protests, no petitions.

        1. Ah, so as long as there were no protests or petitions this qualifies as “unchallenged”? lol

          If that’s the measure of unchallenged, almost all development in SF is unchallenged.

          1. LOL anon -you’re a challenge. A public, bureaucratic process and public opposition are not the same thing. Again, all three projects were proposed, put through a standard public process, approved and built.

          2. By that measure, Trinity Place in SF was never “challenged”. It was put through a public bureaucratic process, approved and built. I went to several of the tens of “approval” meetings for The Grand. There were ALL SORTS of challenges to the buildings, and adjustments made by the developers to placate special interests. The end result looks almost nothing like the first renderings.

          3. anon, are you reading any of the comments above? Readers believe that Oakland is difficult to build in due to fervent public opposition. I cited several projects in the immediate area of the subject property that successfully went through the planning process. None of those processes saw resistance like the Lake Merritt Apts are seeing. Recently, the Hub’s 100+ apartment moved forward without any delays related to public input.

          4. Um, you claimed that there was “no resistance” to The Grand – your exact words, which are just hilariously untrue.

          5. anon, and you’re hilariously hyperbolic. The Grand was debated, but never saw organized opposition like some readers believe is normal for Oakland development proposals. The Hive, which is the most relevant to this development, went from approval to approval without delay

          6. I’m hyperbolic? You’re the one who claimed that there was “no resistance”. That’s much more hyperbolic than anything I said.

            I certainly hope that Oakland is moving in the direction of easier approval for projects, but that was not at all the case with at least one of the projects that you specifically brought up.

  9. I’m very happy for this! I was just walking down that very street the other day thinking that the half empty lots there would make for great housing opportunity, especially with all the retail and restaurants on Broadway and Grand. I hope this goes through quickly.

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