Construction is starting to go vertical for the five-story affordable housing project at 1666 7th Street in West Oakland, Alameda County. The development, dubbed 7th and Campbell, is now one level closer to having 79 apartments with community space above a new restaurant and grocery store. Oakland & the World Enterprises is the project sponsor, led by the former Black Panther Party chairwoman Elaine Brown.
1666 7th Street corner view looking down Campbell Street seen from BART, image courtesy YIMBY Tipster
1666 7th Street by BART tracks, rendering by MWA Architects
MWA Architects is responsible for the design. The firm writes that “7th and Campbell is the culminated vision of Civil Rights activist and leader of OAW Elaine Brown, who, combined with [McCormack Barron Salazar], has raised $80 million for this development.” The exterior is undulating to deflect noise from the adjacent BART tracks. While metal cladding faces the train passengers, a softened stucco facade will face the adjacent single-family households.
The 58-foot tall building will yield 76,290 square feet, creating 48,420 square feet for residential use, 9,000 square feet of common open space, and 16,750 square feet of commercial area with plans to host a grocery store, restaurant, and incubator business space. Unit sizes will vary, with 23 studios, 24 one-bedrooms, and 32 two-bedrooms. All units will be designated as affordable for households earning at or less than 30% of the Area Median Income. BOSS will provide on-site support services for residents.
1666 7th Street entrance, rendering by MWA Architects
1666 7th Street seen from BART, image courtesy YIMBY Tipster
Parking will be included for 10-18 vehicles with stackers and 90 bicycles. West Oakland Farms is slated to move into the second level of the complex, selling produce inside the proposed ground-floor grocery store and restaurant.
1666 7th Street elevation view, rendering by MWA Architects
BGI Construction and Nibbi are working together as project contractors. 7th and Campbell is expected to have a nearly net-zero energy footprint. The rooftop will include 7,900 square feet of solar panels to generate clean energy. Solar shading along the exterior will help maintain comfortable temperatures inside.
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At a million dollars a unit it’s sure to put a dent in the low-income housing problem.
Housing of all types are good to help with our housing shortage. In this case, they are 0-30% AMI.
“All units will be priced for extremely low-income households, earning between 0-30% of the area’s median income. Of the 79 units, 23 will be studios, 24 will be one-bedrooms, and 32 will be two-bedrooms.”
Yeah, sure that’s true. I read the article. But it’s never been how low income housing historically comes to be. New construction is the most expensive type of construction and forcing it into the mold of “affordable” housing just means that you’re going to end up with a lot less of it than there is need or construction corners are cut and you end up with the crap that’s in the Western Addition. Again, at $1,000,000 a unit they’ve obviously gone the high-end bespoke route but it’s still a tremendous waste of money and I hope there was minimal Oakland taxpayer money involved.
Great that more hosing is being created for low income people in a transit rich area. Can this project justify the added cost to include possibly unnecessary car parking?
10-18 parking spots for 79 apartments isn’t an excessive amount of parking, 3 or 4 of those will most likely be for maintenance vehicles and a few for other needed parking such as for handicapped or guests.
This is against my pro-transit dogma, but some individuals working jobs making below AMI have to drive because their shifts start or end at times with transit either isn’t running or is so infrequent that travel times are 2+ longer than driving. Also those who have children often have to drive around to take them to school or after school activities. It’s not just upper income soccer parents doing that. Obviously we need to improve Transit and affordable car sharing options, but some folks are going to need a vehicle for a while unfortunately.
They can find another apartment besides this one if they need a parking space. We barely provide the option of living in an apartment and not owning a car so this is an exception, not the norm. Also West Oakland has ample street parking.
Not all apartments are for people making 30% of the area’s medium income, and a lot of Jobs that pay minimum wages don’t have housing next to them or are Transit friendly. Parking in that area of West Oakland will have less and less street parking as they continue to build around the Bart Station. DJ, do you own a car? Do you carry your 4 bags of groceries for your family on BART?
Overnight on-street parking in that neighborhood is for people who (1) own a 1976 Pontiac Sunbird or similar vehicle or (2) don’t mind their car being broken into and their cat converter being stolen the first night.
To clarify for the negative comments here, this is the YIMBY website, not the the NIMBY website. For cost/unit, affordable housing developers aren’t trying to make costs high. These are driven by government requirements and labor and supply chain issues. If you want to support lower cost housing, push the government to remove red tape, support construction job training, and talk about solutions to supply chain issues. Complaining about the housing project itself doesn’t help. For the comment about the mold of affordable housing, the term affordable isn’t really that complicated. The government defines affordable as 30% of your income. Affordable housing projects like this one target renters with incomes below 80% of HUD Area Median Income (low income). For parking, it shows how petty people are complaining that this project isn’t transit-oriented when it’s right next to BART and bus lines. Also, I wish BART was safe and clean but it isn’t. People should be more realistic about the fact that many people don’t want to take BART because of this.
Hi sfyimby.com administrator, Thanks for the well-structured and well-presented post!
Love it. How about noise from Bart can’t talk on sidewalk need see thew sound Barrier