Developers encircle Fremont's new BART station

Silicon Valley Business Journal

From the article:

Three developers are homing in on one of Silicon Valley’s most important development zones – the region around the under-construction Warm Springs BART station in Fremont. Their projects could add thousands of new residents, plus office and R&D space, to the largely industrial area.

In the biggest deal, Lennar Corp. is in escrow to buy more than 100 acres just north of the Tesla Motors Inc. factory from Union Pacific Railroad, according to real estate sources, where it is contemplating a huge housing and commercial project.

Nearby, Toll Bros., another large national homebuilder, is in the early stages of developing a major project on 34 acres adjacent to the new BART station that would bring roughly 1,000 new housing units.

And locally based developer Valley Oak Partners is eyeing a 20-acre site north of Lennar's project for a residential project.

The fates of each site — rare instances of bare land in Silicon Valley — are being closely watched because they are spitting distance from the new BART station, which is slated to open in fall 2015. They are also part of the Warm Springs Community Plan, an 880-acre zone the city is targeting for urban-style commercial and residential growth to best capitalize on the new transit infrastructure. Land use experts believe that dense development near the BART station is necessary for strong ridership numbers to materialize.

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