2150 Telegraph Avenue Site

With approved plans for a nine-story building to rise on the corner, the former Giant Burgers site, which has recently been remodeled and re-opened as “Space Burger,” at Telegraph Avenue and 22nd Street in Oakland’s Uptown is back on the market and seeking a buyer interested in redeveloping the site.

The plans for the 2150 Telegraph/495 22nd Street parcel include 81 residential units over 5,500 square feet of retail space and parking for 82 cars.  An 8,200-square-foot rooftop deck would serve as open space for the residents below.

2150 Telegraph Avenue Rendering

And while the operators of Space Burger were reportedly granted an option to re-open in the base of the new building, no word on whether or not their option was written to survive a sale.

23 thoughts on “Uptown Giant Burgers Site For Sale With Approved Plans”
  1. Its kinds sad to see that place go and be replaced by a bland yuppie box. All sorts of crazy interesting people would gather there and have car and motorcycle shows. Old cars, new cars, classic cars, harleys, east bay rats, all sorts of interesting stuff. I dont even like that kinds stuff (dont even own a car!), but I still always saw it as one of the “charms” of oakland. Character. Non white yuppy hipster character (I am not bashing them at all)

    Sad to see this place go for some Mission bay type box.

    Commence comments about oakland riffraff blah blah blah

    1. It’s called Stockholm Syndrome. A large apartment building stood on this lot for longer than this suburban drive-in. Replacing the drive-in with housing will help pay for schools and other municipal infrastructure. Let’s be less self focused and more on the big picture.

      1. Agree with both Oakland lover and Matt. Yes we need housing and density in Oakland, but yes there is a certain raffish charm about the burger joint that I will certainly miss. I remember seeing all the classic cars/ low riders there on my first First Friday and thinking “wow, I really love the crazy jumble of character in downtown Oakland right now.” With more development will come a certain amount of blandification, if we’re not careful. (It doesn’t help that Oakland housing are all being proposed with garages in podiums…NOT good for urban design).

      2. Agree completely. At the same time, that proposed building is the epitome of Mission Bay-boring. Huge waste.

        1. It’s really not a zero sum world. Perhaps the old street car right of way on 22nd can be turned into a sort of parklette w/ walk-up burger stand? Perhaps we can get permission to close one lane of Telegraph on First Friday and park the classic cars at 45-deg on Telegraph? Polemics SUCK!

          1. Not sure if you meant to reply to me. It was you with whom I was “agree[ing] completely.” Obviously, a big housing development is a much better use of this space than a burger shack and blacktop. I just wish they were proposing a less bland big housing development.

    2. face it. The old school will be pushed out here too to places like Antioch and Fairfield. I have some relatives out there and the young kids are all real working class full of tattoos riding motorcycles and all that stuff

    1. Oh GOD yes Sassy. The good news is that the City parking garages are being quite well managed right now, after years of neglect. And there is definitely the understanding that some of the municipal parking is way past its sell by date. I expect this one will go at some point. But Oakland is still miles behind SF on understanding the dynamics of parking. Thank god Redevelopment is gone, because those folks really believed that parking was economic development….but it is going to be a struggle as downtown develops to NOT have folks freak out about the lost of surface and even obsolete structured parking.

      1. Parking driven “redevelopment” has destroyed the cores of many American cities. Even SF was hollowed out quite a bit too though fortunately the good economy has allowed it to heal. Not so for cities in the center of the country.

      2. Oakland RDA staff were just completely behind the times. And completely oblivious to the fallacy of the sunk cost. The RDA has been hell-bent for DECADES on making that part of town into destination retail – the part that stretches from City Center and extends through Uptown. They basically envisioned a giant mall with national chain retail, because some consultant 20 years ago did a report on Oakland’s retail leakage.

        Meanwhile, Emeryville, which is much better suited for it given its location literally next to a freeway off-ramp, has developed into the primary Big Box / chain store destination retail area for that part of the East Bay. There’s no way downtown Oakland is going to ever compete with that. Esp when on the other side of the Bay, Union Square is super easy to access via BART and has way more offerings than downtown Oakland ever will.

        City staff needs to stop that obsession of theirs and get with the 21st century. Old downtown cores like Oakland that have a nice mix of old and new buildings demands granular level street-front, walk-to (or bicycle to) retail. Small or even micro-sized retail bays with a good mix of local, unique shops. Probably one of the most successful non-foodd/beverage based retail stores in that area of recent vintage is the Oaklandish shop – which is the farthest thing from big box retail. Oakland needs to emulate Brooklyn, not northern Jersey.

        And its even more pathetic that the City insists on this kind of development plan (destination retail that you drive to) given that downtown Oakland has TWO major BART stations (12th Street and 19th Street) that have multiple BART lines that run through them.

        But that’s RDA staff for you – like 90% of staff at the RDAs around the state were – arrogant, insular, and completely self-defensive when it comes to criticism from private sector development professionals.

      1. yeah, it’s doubtful that that 1:1 replacement is necessary. But a lot of folks are hell bent on the idea of destination retail in this part of town, which would require lotsa parking. I predict we’ll end up with primarily housing along Broadway, and an ever stronger retail presence downtown where it should be anyway (although never of the scale the dreamers hope for). We’ll see.

  2. A fine example of “Googie” architecture from a bygone era when car culture, jets, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age were markers of optimism and progress. Heck maybe the “Giant Burgers” sign can be kept in the lobby of the new building or better yet rotating on its roof because right now the current rendering is pretty depressing.

  3. the giant burger burger stand and wasteland of a surrounding parking lot is total blight. with the exception of a once a month gather of sweet low riders, that space is a tragic waste of urban land. the yuppie box condos are pretty banal, but just look at the current photo. it is a sad dilapidated burger stand and a gross, unlevel parking lot.

  4. Granted, it’s a bland building but that can be fixed. This location is probably the number one opportunity in the area. And while they’re at it they can fill in the IHOP across the street, and the awful Taco Bell and the gas station. Putting BART in really did a number on the neighborhood.

    And then, next stop – the Biff’s disaster up the street on Broadway – please!

  5. The burger building is small and could be retained, moved out to the corner where it won’t be in the way. Keep it, incorporate it, and improve the design of that big structure! (Or consider moving it over to the gas station?) We are losing all our googie buildings.

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