San Francisco Business Times
From the article:
Holliday Development is working on a proposal for a 100-unit, mixed-use apartment project in Emeryville — the firm’s first East Bay project in about four years.
The proposal signals that new housing activity is gaining traction in the East Bay, which has not experienced the massive building boom San Francisco has.
Developers Rick Holliday and Greg Pasquali presented a preliminary plan to Emeryville’s planning commission to replace an existing 25,000-square-foot commercial building with a five-story apartment building at 3800 San Pablo Ave.
“The market’s improving so that people that do what I do are back to developing,” Holliday said. “It’s time to come up with new projects.”
Holliday’s last East Bay development was Pacific Cannery Lofts, a 162-unit condo project in West Oakland that debuted in 2008 just as the housing market crashed. The firm previously developed two projects in Emeryville: 142-unit Emeryville Warehouse building and 20-unit Blue Star Corner. Timing is key, Holliday said, and with San Francisco apartment rents skyrocketing and demand rising, housing development makes sense in the East Bay.
The 1.1-acre site at 3800 San Pablo straddles the Emeryville/Oakland border, but Emeryville is taking the reins on the project’s entitlement process.
The developers have been meeting with city officials and residents to finalize their proposal for the project, which could be done in the next few weeks.
“It’s a good area to build high-quality housing,” Holliday said, citing its proximity to BART and freeways, and central location in the Bay Area.