Illustrations for this story are from the RAD Urban application circa 2016
A preliminary zoning worksheet application has been filed for a 39-story residential tower at 2044 Franklin Street in Downtown Oakland, Alameda County. The filing provides little information about the project, including unit count or architect. R2 Building, staffed by many of the same people as the form property owner and now-defunct modular construction firm, RAD Urban, is the project applicant.
When reached for comment, a representative for R2 Building told YIMBY that the “preliminary SB 330 application was recently submitted. We do not have any comment to add at this time….”
2044 Franklin Street 40-story iteration circa 2016, rendering by RAD Build
1433 Webster Street, rendering courtesy Lamphier Greg
Plans for 2044 Franklin Street have been cycling through the city’s planning department since at least 2016, when Roland Li reported for the San Francisco Business Times that RAD Urban proposed a 40-story modular tower at 2044 Franklin Street and a 28-story infill at 1433 Webster Street, both using modular construction.
In 2017 plans for 2044 Franklin was downsized to 29 floors with 184 units, including five townhome-style units in a podium building, 5,000 square feet of retail, and 60,000 square feet of open space. The project was reduced in height again in 2018 to 22 floors, but with 357 small units. Plans for 1433 Webster Street were to rise 29 floors with 179 apartments above 60,000 square feet of commercial office space and 1,130 square feet of retail.
2044 Franklin Street, image by Google Street View
R2 Building filed the application via Village Glen Oakland 2, LLC, the same LLC used by RAD Urban in previous filings. RAD Urban was an offshoot of Nautilus Group. The two firms and R2 Building have all been led by the same man, Randall Miller.
The 0.59-acre parcel is located at the corner of 21st and Franklin Street on a block bound by Webster Street and Thomas L Berkley Way. The 19th Street BART Station is two blocks away, by the rising 1900 Broadway and proposed 415 20th Street.
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