After seven years in the pipeline, Oakland’s City Council has approved plans for a residential redevelopment of the former California College of Arts campus at 5200 Broadway in Rockridge. The proposal reimagines the now-empty school grounds as a mid-density complex with retail and open space. However, in early October, the project developer Emerald Fund announced that the project was on hold.
5200 Broadway looking along Clifton Street, rendering by Mithun
5200 Broadway Macky Lawn looking towards Macky Hall historic building, rendering by Mithun
Emerald Fund and Equity Community Builders are jointly sponsoring the development. Emerald Fund was selected to lead development in March 2017 and submitted an application in 2019. The project was delayed after the city failed to publish a Draft EIR until January of this year. Before that, speaking to J.K. Dineen of the San Francisco Chronicle in April last year, Emerald Fund’s principal, Marc Babsin, said, “We are in year seven of engaging with the community. Unfortunately, we have missed the development window.”
The city approved the Final EIR in late September of this year, but by October 1st, the Real Deal reported that Babsin had put the project on hold. Speaking with Sarah Ravani for the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this week, Babsin said the group would pursue construction once “the whole region’s economics change… Probably when we have job growth and population growth and back to the office.”
5200 Broadway landscaping map, illustration by CMG
5200 Broadway inner block view of Building A, rendering by Mithun
If built, the development will yield 578,410 square feet across four structures, with 479,750 square feet of residential floor area and 14,390 square feet of commercial space. Parking will be included for 237 cars and 476 bicycles. Of the 448 apartments, there will be 62 studios, 12 junior one-bedrooms, 199 one-bedrooms, 163 two-bedrooms, a loft unit, and 11 townhome-style units.
Mithun is responsible for the architectural design, with SiteLab Urban Studio consulting on the urban design masterplan and CMG responsible for the landscape architecture. The apartments will be spread across the two podium-style structures, with half the retail on the ground level of the Broadway-facing complex.
The remaining retail will be added to the preserved 1875-built Macky Hall at the top of the large public park. A grand stairwell off Broadway will connect the general public to the green lungs of the new development, the oval-shaped Macky Lawn. Overlooking the lawn, the Carriage House will be adapted into a community space. The remaining open space will connect the lawn with Clifton Street with a wide footpath paseo.
5200 Broadway redevelopment pedestrian view, rendering by Mithun
5200 Broadway site map, image by Sitelab Urban Studios
The development is estimated to cost over $400 million, according to ECB. Construction is expected to last around 28 months from groundbreaking to completion.
The roughly four-acre property is positioned along Broadway, across from the southern end of College Avenue, and near the Ridge shopping center. Future residents would be just 15 minutes away from the Rockridge BART Station on foot.
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Seven years of community engagement…the process is clearly broken. Oakland and California in general will never produce enough housing to effect the shortage of units until the regulatory stranglehold is removed.
Perhaps we need a California DOGE!
It’s not entirely the process at fault, although that is part of it. It’s the fact that we have a for-profit housing market and if the project doesn’t pencil it doesn’t get built.
We are a capitalist country and a for-profit society for the most part. I would question where all the in-lieu fees collected from market-rate projects are, and how are they being used to develop “affordable housing”. The “affordable housing” cartel virtually guarantees that enough units are never built and those that are rival market-rate development costs.
For profit is just how our capitalistic system works right now, and we don’t have a realistic better way to build housing for the scale and amount in the USA with the current systems in place. We need to change the system where developers can build affordable, dense, housing, and still make a profit. That means changing zoning, removing red tape, removing community invovement, and encouraging positive urbanization
So sad to see so many delays! This is a good project. I live and work very nearby. Oakland is essentially broken, especially Planning and building! Not even fun to work with them anymore.
Really sad to hear that from you TD considering all the great work you’ve done in Oakland
I graduated from here when it was known as the California college of arts and crafts. I like what I see, but I’m a bit disappointed that the carriage house doesn’t seem to be included in the plan. I hope they do preserve the carriage house as it is just as important as the mansion itself.
Well, there are a bunch of homeless encampments being dismantled, there are a bunch of empty buildings with living space and kitchens a plenty. The homeless can move on in, services the homeless and fills the abandoned buildings. YIMBY
Its also the very high local and state fees. The average impact fee on a multifamily unit in California is $21,703, nearly triple the national average of $8,034. Similarly, California’s average single-family unit fee of $37,471 is triple the national average of $13,627.