Media
February 2019

Advocacy and More: Philanthropy’s Role in Two Big New Initiatives to Tackle the Housing Crisis

From Inside Philanthropy
Housing affordability may be the toughest challenge now facing major metro areas in the U.S., especially in affluent coastal areas. Last month, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, made this issue a top priority, committing significant new resources to housing in his proposed state budget. Other public leaders have been stepping up, too, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Pressure is also growing on both business and philanthropy to do more to ensure housing affordability. And in recent weeks, we’ve seen dramatic movement along these lines. One such effort is focused... View article
Media
January 2019

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has a $500 million plan to ease the Bay Area housing crisis

The housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area has been growing worse, with no end in sight, for over a decade. This year, though, may be the one in which some of the most powerful players in the region step up to do something about it. On January 15, the Oakland-based healthcare nonprofit Kaiser Permanente committed more than $50 million to preserve affordable housing in the city. And nine days after that, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Ford Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) introduced a large fund... Read more
Media
October 2018

Oakland’s Historic California Hotel Will Soon Become a Barbeque Destination

From Eater San Francisco
West Oakland’s historic California Hotel is in the midst of a major revitalization project, and with it will come a new destination for barbecue. The space’s central, 1,800-square-foot restaurant will be Crave BBQ, which got its start in 2017 as a pop-up. Rashad Armstead grew a following for his slowly smoked meats and classic sides out of an old gas station in West Oakland — best known now as a common pop-up location for Horn Barbecue — but stopped after less than a year to start looking for a permanent brick-and-mortar. Prior to Crave, Armstead ran a private... View article
Media
October 2018

Investing in West Oakland

From East Bay Express
Community Foods Market, slated for a December opening (formerly called the People’s Community Market), is making a final push for public investors before the grocery store opens in West Oakland, long considered a food desert, and where there hasn’t been a full-service grocery store for more than 40 years. The project was one of the first in California to offer this counter-model to IPOs. Community shareholders, who are California residents and mostly small-scale investors, can buy in for a minimum of $1,000. West Oakland residents who qualify can receive financial assistance... View article
Media
September 2018

BART to build 519 new homes at Lake Merritt

From Curbed
Last week, the BART Board of Directors voted to advance a plan to develop hundreds of new homes near the Lake Merritt BART station, a proposal that’s been in the works for years and continues the agency’s foray into transit-adjacent housing on potentially choice plots of land it owns throughout the Bay Area. Technically, the motion at the board’s September 13 meeting (which passed unanimously) only authorizes negotiations with potential developers, a process that could take up to two years. A press statement from BART provides some additional details:... View article
Media
September 2018

BART trading parking for housing, offices at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Station

From San Francisco Chronicle
With nary a word of opposition, BART has green-lighted a high-rise housing, office and retail development at its Lake Merritt Station that will probably completely transform the area around Oakland’s Laney College. “I’m on cloud nine,” BART Board President Robert Raburn said after the board voted 8-0 to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. and Strada Investment Group. The goal is a transit-oriented development that includes a plaza and a pair of apartment and office high-rises — one 27 stories and the other 21 stories.... View article
Media
September 2018

BART Board Approves Stronger Surveillance Oversight, Lake Merritt Housing

From CBS SF Bay Area
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – BART’s Board of Directors approved a new ordinance governing oversight of surveillance technology as well as a new transit-oriented residential and commercial real estate development near the Lake Merritt Station during a busy meeting Thursday morning in Oakland. The new surveillance rules, which were proposed as a policy, but passed through a unanimous vote as an ordinance, will require annual reports on the use of each specific surveillance technology the district uses.... View article
Media
September 2018

Bart Board Approves Surveillance Ordinance, Development At Lake Merritt

From SF Gate
OAKLAND (BCN) BART’s Board of Directors approved a new ordinance governing oversight of surveillance technology as well as a new transit-oriented residential and commercial real estate development near the Lake Merritt Station during a busy meeting this morning in Oakland. The new surveillance rules, which were proposed as a policy, but passed through a unanimous vote as an ordinance, will require annual reports on the use of each specific surveillance technology the district uses.... View article
Media
May 2018

CIT Provides $107M to JV for Oakland Mixed-Use Project

From Commercial Observer
CIT Group provided a $107 million construction loan to a joint venture between a Brookfield Property Partners-sponsored private real estate fund and The Martin Group to fund the development of a planned mixed-use residential project in downtown Oakland, Calif., the bank announced yesterday. The senior secured construction loan funds Station on 12th, a planned, seven-story mixed-use and residential project at 301 12th Street that features 333 market-rate apartment units and 23,570 square feet of ground-level retail space. Additional financing details were not disclosed.... View article