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Officials Break Ground on Berkley Square
by Michelle Maitre, Staff Writer

OAKLAND -- With shiny silver shovels glinting in the sun, an Oakland developer and county officials broke ground Thursday on a large new development they heralded as a cornerstone of economic revitalization for the uptown area.

"The change in uptown Oakland has been predicted for years and touted for years, and now it's here, " said former Alameda County Supervisor Mary King during a ceremony commemorating the start of construction o n the Thomas L. Berkley Square project. King has been working as a consultant to the project team.

The $70 million project will bring a mix of commercial and retail development to 1.5 acres on San Pablo Avenue between 21st Street and Thomas L. Berkley Way, formerly 20th Street.

Officials on Thursday broke ground on the first phase of the project, which includes a four-story office building that will serve as the new home of the county's welfare offices, a parking structure and 5,000 square feet of retail space. The buildings are expected to be completed in late 2005.

The second phase of construction, expected to begin in mid-2006, will include housing, retail space and a venue to broadcast live music.

Despite objections from preservationists, the 91-year-old Hotel Royal and the old Oakland Post building will be razed to make way for the project.

Standing in the shadow of the already partially torn-down hotel, project developer Alan Dones said the development will bring much-needed services to the uptown area and would make its namesake proud. Thomas Berkley was a community activist and former publisher of the Oakland Post.

"Everything about this building is a community-oriented project," Dones said.

Community officials said they were excited to be a pert of the project, which will provide a new headquarters for the Social Services Agency and the North County Self Sufficiency Center. The center will consolidate welfare pograms and include space for job training and job placement services, care management, community education and child care.

"To have the county come together with a project that really revitalizes the community is a a Social Service Agency director's dream," said Chet Hewitt, director of Alameda County Social Services Agency.

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An Institution Turned to Rubble
OAKLAND -- The Oakland Post Newspaper Building, located on Thomas L. Berkley Way in downtown Oakland, is being torn down and turned into rubble. The landmark is being razed to make way for a new $70 million development by developer, Alan Dones of Strategic Urban Development Alliance. The Post Newspaper Building was made a landmark by the late icon Thomas L. Berkley, the lawyer, newspaper publisher, international business scion, Port Commissioner, and California World Trades Commissioner. The new development, Thomas L. Berkley Square, will be named in his honor. Pictured is Roy Gardner, longtime security guard in the rear of the post building, being demolished on Wednesday, July 21, 2004. 

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Hotel Won't Get Royal Treatment
Historical Oakland sites to be razed for $70 million development
Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- The debate over whether the venerable old Hotel Royal on San Pablo Avenue should be saved is moot. The wrecking ball does not care one way or the other, so the building is coming down.

A one-time symbol of downtown Oakland's innovation and opulence, the Royal was deemed too dilapidated and expensive to save. The adjacent Oakland Post building on Thomas L. Berkley Way stands in the way of progress and will be torn down, too.

Later this month, work will begin on their replacement, a modern $70 million development called Thomas L. Berkley Square, anchored by Alameda County's social services and job training center. The project will be completed in two phases and include a parking garage, retail space and 100 new apartments, said developer Alan Dones of Strategic Urban Development Alliance.

The late Thomas L. Berkley, publisher of the Post and the Spanish-language El Mundo and other newspapers, would be proud to have such a project named after him, Dones said.

Berkley served as Oakland's first black port commissioner, opened the city's first black law practice and operated the country's largest integrated bilingual law firm. He founded Beneficial Savings and Loan Association, served two years on the school board and generously gave his time and knowledge to help others succeed."

If you were to ask him what his legacy should be ... the largest development of this type, done by an African-American development team, doing a lot of the things that Thomas Berkley stood for," Dones said.

"As people come in looking for training for jobs and vital services, they will have the ability to learn about what it takes to be a Tom Berkley.

"The county approved the project in January, and the city issued demolition permits last month. A team of archaeologists from Sonoma State University mapped the site and excavated a few areas to recover artifacts from a Chinese neighborhood that existed there before the hotel and other buildings went up.

The team will also monitor the demolition and excavation to recover any additional artifacts from that era, Dones said.

"The really great thing Alan Dones did was to meet with community members while he was planning the project," said Anna Naruta, a historical archaeologist at University of California, Berkeley who pushed for a historical investigation of the area."

Community members aren't being shut out behind a big fence and left to wonder whether cultural remains of their forebears are being mistreated or thrown away," she said. "I think it's been really positive all the way around."

Naomi Schiff, board member of Oakland Heritage Alliance, fought to save the seven-story hotel, hoping Dones would reuse it in his project. She was out of town when demolition started last week, and the alliance had no comment in her absence

Dones said he tried, but the $6 million to $11 million price tag to rehabilitate the building and bring it up to code proved insurmountable.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to come up with a viable financial plan to save the hotel," he said. "It just proved more costly ... it was not a prudent expenditure of funds to save (it). It's a little bit gut wrenching to work for four years on it, and to think that (maybe) 40 years from now people will regret tearing it down."

The hotel was built with reinforced concrete and featured all the latest conveniences when it opened in 1913. It was designed by William Lee Woollett, best known for his work on the Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Bowl in Southern California for Idora Park and the Municipal Rose Garden in Oakland.

The hotel had deteriorated over the years, and the last tenants were removed in the late 1990s.

Once vacant, the hotel became a magnet for squatters and vandals, and more recently for graffiti painters who broke in and somehow suspended themselves from the seven-story structure to paint the word "NESTA" in large block letters on the upper facade.

"It's just a tremendous liability and it became a tremendous attractive nuisance," Dones said. "Once people are successful at that, it doesn't stop. On top of everything else (with the project), I just got increasingly anxious about somebody getting hurt, so it's good to bring it to a dignified rest."

The development team has prepared documentation -- both written and photographic -- about the hotel that will be included in a history of the site.

Berkley will be honored with a commemorative plaque highlighting his achievements.

A groundbreaking for the new project will take place on July 28, at 10:30 a.m.

(c) 2004 The Oakland Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.  

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The Thomas L. Berkley Square development team was elated after receiving an historic unanimous vote for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson's motion to approve a $70 million mixed commercial-retail-housing development planned at the junction of San Pablo Avenue, Thomas L. Berkley Way (20th St.), and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.

When completed, the project will be the largest development by blacks in Oakland's history and the first local-led small enterpriser contribution to the development of Uptown. Development team members at Tuesday's meeting are pictured here: (from left) John Guillory, Ray Dones, Mary King and Alan Dones.

More than 50 members of the Oakland Black Caucus (OBC) attended the meeting. Some suggested the OBC meet with members of the preservationist community to find $6 million dollars in 60 days from the city or the private sector to fix the seismically-challenged ten-story Royal Hotel into affordable housing and prevent its demolition. Lead developer Dones said he would remain open to any possibility to save the historic structure within the 60-day period.

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OAKLAND - Now that a 30-year lease with Alameda County has been signed, and Oakland developer is proceeding with plans to build a new welfare office in the uptown area of Oakland, combined with a mix of office space, housing, storefronts and parking.

But at least one aspect to the plan is putting preservationists on edge: demolition of the historic Hotel Royal, as well as the potentially historic Oakland Post building.

Developer Alan Dones owns both buildings. When he bought hte hotel at San Pablo Avenue and 20th Street -- now renamed Thomas L. Berkley Way -- for $1.3 million, he planned to renovate it for housing based on and engineer's report that said work could be done for $100,000.

But once he got in there, Dones said another engineer found it would cost about $1.5 million just to bring the building up to current earthquake standards and comply with building codes. And that doesn't include any cosmetic or restoration work, he said.

"I don not see a way to save it," he said. "It's not financially viable without a major subsidy from somewhere."

With the buildings gone, Dones' plans for Thomas L. Berkley Square include a four-story office building facing San Pablo Avenue. It will house 111,000 square feet of office space, a child care center and ground-floor commercial space that Dones hopes will include a venue for recording jazz sessions for broadcast on cable or other markets. A public plaza will be situated at San Pablo and 21st Street.

The new building will allow the county to consolidate its Social Services Agency in one place. IN addition, it can replace the outdated self-sufficiency center on upper Broadway with a new model that has space for job training and job placement services. It will include a 150-car parking garage for the county, on top of which Dones wants to incorporate anywhere from 54 to102 condo-style housing units.

Some of the housing will be affordable, he said, although just how much is not clear because after Forest City development is subsidized, the city will have no money left to help finance affordable housing units in the area, said Dan Vanderpriem, the city's Redevelopment Agency Manager.

Alameda county will lease back the space for at least $3.3 million a year. The county will also serve as the lead agency for the county portion of the project, with the city of Oakland shepherding the housing end of the deal.

Dones is coordinating the project with Forest City, and a joint county/city environmental impact report should be ready by December, with mitigation measures included for the Hotel Royal.

Six-story wonder

The hotel was built in 1912 with the latest in structural technology. The well-known architect, William Lee Woolett, also designed Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Oakland's municipal rose garden, The Hollywood Bowl, among others. According to brochures of the day, the downtown hotel was a six-story wonder with eh latest conveniences and a view in every room.

But the hotel deteriorated until it was finally closed and its tenants were removed in the late 1990s.

That doesn't change the fact that the building is still of major importance, said Naomi Schiff, vice president of the the Oakland Architectural Heritage Alliance. It is highly rated as a historical resource by the city of Oakland, and could well be a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places, she said.

Viable alternative

Schiff said Dones had not met with the Alliance to discuss the fate of the building, but she said the preservationist group would send comments to the county insisting something be done to try and save the building. And if that can't be done, the group want to make sure the replacement design is equal to or better than the original.

"The (developer) needs to provide a viable, reasonable alternative scheme, which reuses the building without alteration, Schiff said.

Schiff also said the preliminary plans she has seen do not enhance the other historic buildings nearby, nor the large Forest City development that will rise on the adjacent blocks.

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San Francisco Business Times - January 20, 2003
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/01/20/story1.html

In one of Oakland's largest-ever real estate deals, the Alameda County General Services Agency has signed a 30-year lease for 101,000 square feet at a pending downtown development.

At $46.32 per square foot, the lifetime value of the lease is roughly $140 million.

"I don't know who else has ever signed a 30-year lease, so in terms of value for an office building lease, this is the biggest I could think of," said Larry Westland, longtime Oakland broker and vice president with BT Commercial Real Estate. "I don't know of anything that's close."

Dubbed Thomas L. Berkley Square and planned by Oakland construction company ADCo, the 20th Street and San Pablo Avenue project will serve as the Social Services Agency's administrative headquarters and house the North Alameda County Self Sufficiency Center, a welfare job training program.

"It is a good central location for the Social Services Agency and the North County Self Sufficiency Center, because it serves residents in that vicinity and there's transportation along the San Pablo corridor and the nearby BART center," said Aki Nakao, director of the General Services Agency.

The deal also allows the agency to consolidate its divisions, which are currently spread throughout Oakland at 401 Broadway, 4501 Broadway, 1401 Lakeside Drive and elsewhere.

Much of the money for the new lease will come from savings on current leases elsewhere, with the remainder derived from the State Subvention Fund, a California reimbursement program for counties, said Nakao.

The new facility, which will be built on a 1.6-acre lot with 150 parking spaces, will include 101,000 square feet of office space and 5,700 square feet of reserve commercial or retail space.

A planned second phase will include 30 to 50 residential units, targeted at low- to moderate-income tenants, and approximately 5,000 square feet of street-level commercial office or retail space.

The site was purchased by Bank of America's Community Development Banking department in early 2002 through a joint venture with ADCo, which now has an option to buy the lot.

The current financing plan for the project, which will include demolition of the old Oakland Post building on the site, will utilize tax-exempt bond financing through a team that includes the Los Angeles Local Development Corp., First Albany Corp. and Kutac Rock.

ADCo principal Alan Dones said the company is exploring other options as well, however.

Dones expects groundbreaking within the next 12 months and completion by May 20, 2004.

ADCo, founded by Dones' father, Ray Dones, has primarily focused on residential developments such as the 1,000-unit Morh Housing Complex in West Oakland. Now the company must navigate the city entitlement process and complete an environmental impact review for the new commercial project.

"What we've focused on is what will front Forest City, which Dones has indicated is going to be housing," said Cappio, referring to the project's second phase. "It will be a residentially-oriented street."

Forest City has expressed its support for the project.

"The project is being built by a local developer and will provide local benefits. And we support that," said Susan Smartt, regional vice president of Forest City Residential West.

Dones said the project did generate some initial concern for locating welfare services in an area that the city is working to revitalize through the Forest City project. But, he said, because of welfare reform, the old notion of undesirables loitering around the welfare office isn't accurate.

"People are no longer allowed to languish on welfare. They are pushed off," said Dones. "The main function of the center is job training."

The other important difference, he said, is that Alameda County delivers welfare funds via debit card, so money is electronically placed into recipients' accounts rather than passed out in person.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc. All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

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Some signs of life could emerge soon at Oakland's Uptown district ­ despite the perennially stalled Uptown project ­ as local government and Bank of America launch a $120 million redevelopment project.

Under the Strategic Urban Development Alliance, Bank of America's Community Development Banking department is working with development firm ADCo to redevelop the Oakland Post property at 20th Street and San Pablo Avenue. ADCo President Alan Dones and his partners are still figuring out what to do with the site but hope to attract the Alameda County Self-Sufficiency Project offices during the development's first phase, according to city officials.

"We're very excited about the project, and we're working with them to get the ball rolling and get the county in there," said City Manager Robert Bobb.

The project's initial phase will cost about $20 million to $25 million and may or may not use the old Oakland Post building. The alliance hasn't determined whether to destroy the 27,000-square-foot building, Dones said, since it takes up a large portion of the 67,000-square-foot property.

"It may be that the building takes up too much of the footprint for parking; we just don't know yet," Dones said.

What is clear, however, is that the alliance wants to add a minimum of 80,000 square feet of office space to the neighborhood, as well as more than 100 units of affordable and market-rate housing. Dones said the alliance recently put in the office component to "bump up the economics" of the project.

Community and Economic Development Agency Executive Director William Claggett said the city hopes the project will include renovating the residential Hotel Royal on the corner of 20th Street and San Pablo Avenue. City officials are also working to convince the county that it should expand its plan to establish an office on the property by considering building offices or housing units above its own proposed space, Claggett added.

"We're trying to follow a precedent set in the downtown area to get some more development happening," Dones said.

The idea to transform the Oakland Post property began in the 1990s when BofA's "Team Oakland" initiative came under Jim Mather. He took a master developer approach by buying the land from former Post owner Tom Berkley, along with several adjoining parcels, for about $3.5 million. Dones' corner of the project in 2000 included building between 400 and 600 affordable and market rate apartments in a 16- to 18-story tower. The project is expected to be dedicated to Berkley, who recently passed away, Dones said.

"What we're hoping for in the next several weeks is to have an option agreement with the bank," Dones said. "It's taken so long because people at the bank have changed around and either moved to a different department or even to a different state, as far away as Charlotte. Once we get the agreement signed, we can move forward."

The other major Uptown project, spearheaded by development firm Forest City West, still remains in negotiations behind closed City Hall doors 20 months after it began. That project is expected to transform the neighborhood bound by San Pablo and Telegraph avenues and 17th to 21st streets into a massive mixed-use project, including 2,000 residential units and 79,000 square feet of commercial space.

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Bank of America's Community Development Bank has targeted Oakland for 2 million square feet of new residential and commercial buildings, spanning three separate projects that could be worth more than $300 million.

Its most ambitious plan is a proposal to redevelop the Fox Theatre into a regional entertainment center, including three high-rise towers above a reinvigorated theater. BofA's plan is the lone Fox redevelopment concept before the city, according to Jim Lyons, Oakland's chief negotiator and director of downtown projects. However, the city is doing its own Fox study and won't consider proposals from developers until next year, he said.

BofA's "Team Oakland" is headed by Jim Mather, who managed Alameda County's affordable housing program from 1990-98. He is taking a master developer approach by buying land and also gaining title of redevelopment agency land in concert with local partners Alan Dones and John Guillory, whose senior project manager is Verna Mae Causby.

"Oakland is very important to us and that is where the development activity is. We think the potential is unlimited," Mather said.

The most progress has been made on a residential project at 20th and San Pablo where the bank has acquired property to build between 400 and 600 affordable and market-rate apartments in a project valued at $80 million. The 16- to 18-story tower might also contain the operations of the Oakland Post, an African-American newspaper group. The bank bought the Post's building from owner Tom Berkley and has acquired other adjoining parcels, spending $3.5 million.

Lyons said the project looks "very promising" but would have to work in conjunction with Forest City's adjacent Uptown project. The city is in late stage negotiations with Forest City West for a planned 2,000-unit development.

Mather has also acquired three acres around the West Oakland BART station for a possible mixed-use project. Its partner there, Alliance for West Oakland Development, is devising a development plan that the bank will finance. Mather foresees a mixed-use project that includes housing in a 120,000-square-foot first phase. Mather hopes to break ground next summer after getting necessary approvals.

But its most ambitious plan is at the long-darkened Fox Theatre. Architect Marc Hinshaw has conceived three towers of residential and commercial space that would rise on the theater's sides and back. A new grand ballroom would connect the two front towers and would sit above the current theater.

The $200 million project would try to become a West Coast version of Radio City Music Hall, vying for major stage productions and national events such as the Grammies. The bank would likely form a non-profit entity who would then find an entertainment company to run the venue. Los Angeles music impresario Quincy Jones has been pitched on the idea of moving his operation there should the project get the greenlight. Oakland musician Nathan East who plays bass guitar in FourPlay is part of that effort. Cisco Systems has been approached to provide the "Smart Fox" technology broadband backbone enabling web casts of live performances.

The city of Oakland poured $20 million into renovating the Paramount Theater on Broadway, but it is used infrequently. To develop a plan for the Fox, the city has commissioned a $350,000 study of the Fox by Hardy Holtzman & Pfeiffer that will determine how much renovation the building needs and what uses are possible.

The city owns the Fox site and will consider refashioning the 2,700-seat theater into smaller venues to be used by local groups or bringing in a master developer who could foot the bill for the seismic brace and massive overhaul, Lyons said.

Hinshaw estimates the building alone needs between $35 million and $50 million in upgrades, but if the bank's plan were implemented the towers would significantly lower the costs and help pay for the full restoration.

Bank of America's Community Development Bank was set up to develop housing and commericial projects in urban centers and has 10,000 units in its national portfolio. Its biggest projects are in Baltimore, St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami and in its hometown, Charlotte.

The Oakland projects are its biggest West Coast initiatives.

Steve Ginsberg is a general assignment reporter for the San Francisco Business Times.

© 2000 American City Business Journals Inc.  All rights reserved.

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