A. The Residences at Berkeley Plaza, 2211 Harold Way
An 18-story, 180 foot tall (actually it’s much taller — 194 feet — given the way the City measures building heights) proposed building on Harold Way, between Allston Way and Kittredge Street, across the street from the Berkeley Main Library. The construction cost was first estimated to be $75M, lately it’s been said to be $130M.
The Zoning application for this building was filed February 27, 2013 by Mark Rhoades of the Rhoades Planning Group in Oakland on behalf of HSR Berkeley Investments, LLC, 11100 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles. Mark Rhoades is well-known having been Berkeley’s Land Use Planner at the time the Downtown Area Plan was developed and from his activities on behalf of several proposed development proposals currently being considered by the City. He has been hired by almost all developers, city wide, to “assist” in getting projects approved through the City’s processes.
This project proposes 355 dwelling units, the average size of which is 665 square feet, per the application. (Note: Some of these numbers might have changed slightly as the project has undergone multiple design changes since having been submitted.) There is about 10,500 square feet of retail space, plus about a 3,500 sq foot full-service restaurant with alcohol and live entertainment on the first floor and a privately owned, publicly accessible open space plaza on the corner of Harold Way and Kittredge. Open space for the residents is provided by a roof garden and some units have balconies. The units facing west will have unobstructed views of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate. The building is targeted to provide luxury units for households at market rate and above levels. No affordable units will be provided on-site, with the developer paying a fee into the Housing Trust Fund to build such units elsewhere. It should be noted that the current Housing Trust Fund fee has been significantly discounted from the fee established by independent consultants. (See Part IV.)
The proposed building requires demolition of the existing, extremely popular 10-screen Shattuck Cinemas (Note: the Shattuck Cinemas might or might not get replaced with a much smaller space within the proposed new building). Also to be demolished is a northerly portion of the Berkeley Landmark designated Hotel Shattuck. The Habitot Children’s Museum will be displaced.
The entrance to the 355 space parking garage, built 4 stories underground, is on Kittredge across from the Main Library. 118 of those spaces are designated for the 355 residential units, 5 for the restaurant, and 13 for the other retail with no indication what the remaining parking spaces would be used for. The City requires a total of 115, and the developer proposes 308 total. The building will be built to a LEED — Green standard (the lowest rung of Environmental Sustainability Building Standards, meaning among other things, it will meet only a small amount of its energy use.)
At the current time, the City is debating: 1) The impact fees that would be applicable to all Downtown Development projects; and 2) The additional “significant community benefits” that would either be applicable to all or to specific Downtown Development Projects. These fees and benefits have not yet been determined.
B. The Un-Named Retail/Hotel/Conference Center/Residential Condo Building, 2129 Shattuck
An 180 foot tall (again much higher) proposed building, on the northeast corner of Shattuck and Center currently the site of the Downtown Bank of America building. The application proclaims that Center Street, from Downtown BART to the campus is the busiest sidewalk in the East Bay. The project site is on the north side of this busy sidewalk, just west of the new UC Berkeley Art Museum currently under construction.
The Zoning Application is not date stamped, but the signature line gives a date of March 31, 2015. The applicant in Matthew Taecker of Berkeley on behalf of Center Street Partners, LLC and the Pyramid Hotel Group, One Post Office Square, Boston, MA. (NOTE: The Pyramid Hotel Group currently manages the DoubleTree at the Berkeley Marina.) The application trumpets the background of its applicant by stating that Matthew Taecker was the City’s Principal Planner for the Downtown from 2005-2011 when “he led the development of the Downtown Area Plan, the Downtown Street and Open Space Improvement Plan and the updated Downtown Design Guidelines” and he was “also responsible for overseeing the development of the Downtown Transportation Demand Management and Parking Program (by Nilson/Nygyard); the Downtown Berkeley Development Study (by Strategic Economics) and the Downtown Berkeley Development Feasibility Study to inform decisions regarding fees (by AECOM).
The lead architect for the project is Ed McFarlan, AIA, JRDV Urban International in Oakland. The application describes the design as reflecting Berkeley’s spirit and culture. (BNC will leave agreement or disagreement with that statement to our readers.) This project is also built to LEED Gold standards.
There will be a total of 280 hotel rooms and 43 residential market rate condominium units. No affordable, below market rate units will be on-site. The developer will pay an in-lieu fee to the Housing Trust Fund to develop such housing elsewhere. The application specifically mentions that the city-owned Berkeley Way Parking Lot could be such a site. The City Council has previously discussed designating this location as a site for housing the homeless.
Earlier rumors regarding this application had been that the building would seek reserved spaces in the City’s new Center Street Garage, across Shattuck and down Center Street from this project. However, the application does not mention this. It states that 92 parking spaces are proposed, including car sharing spaces. The numbers of these spaces to be used for ”customers“ (presumably this means residences and retail customers) and the number for employees is marked TBD (to be determined) on the application.
The developer plans to preserve the Bank of America space on the site. A small building will be constructed to the western portion, the Bank will move to that site, the current building will be demolished, then the proposed building will be constructed with new space for the Bank on its ground floor.
In the Applicant’s Statement, under the paragraph, Fiscal Dividends, are listed
- 12% Hotel Tax
- Affordable Housing Impact Fee: $4 per sq ft for most commercial uses and to be determined for condos
- Childcare Impact Fee: $1 per sq ft for most commercial uses
- Street and Open Space Improvement Plan (SOSIP) Fee: $1.68 per sq ft for commercial, $2.23 per sq ft residential uses
- Local property taxes and property-based assessments
However, the developer is requesting special consideration of how commercial floor area is determined for purposes of calculating fees and open space requirements. They state that they are asking specifically that the hotel floor areas — its suites rooms, lobby, dining, meeting rooms and back-of-house functions — be tallied separate from typical commercial uses.
And — (quoted exactly from the Applicant’s Statement, pg 13)
In addition, hotel uses might qualify as an exception under Berkeley Municipal Code (BMC) 22.20.070.A.2, which says:
”The amount and/or level of any mitigation and/or fee…shall not exceed the reasonable cost of…eliminating and/or reducing to an acceptable level any…impact which reasonably may be anticipated to be generated by or attributed to any individual development project.“
Finally, the financial feasibility of this policy priority could rest, in part, on the question of how commercial floor area is calculated and resulting requirements. BMC 22.20.080 allows the City to grant exceptions for hardship (emphasis added by BNC), if the Applicant can demonstrate that:
The imposition of the mitigation and/or fees otherwise required by the City make the development of the particular project infeasible;
and
The benefits to the City from the particular development project out-weigh its burdens in terms of increased demand for affordable housing, child care and/or public facilities, adequate employment training and placement services and/or amenities and/or impacts which reasonably may be anticipated to be generated by and/or attributable to the development project.
End of quote from the Applicant’s Statement.