Homes, retail space proposed for historic Del Monte warehouse
Homes, retail space proposed for historic Del Monte warehouse
Before and after shots offered during a presentation on plans for the former Del Monte warehouse at 1501 Buena Vista Avenue.
A Sacramento-area homebuilder has unveiled plans to build up to 414 lofts, townhomes and flats and 25,000 square feet of shops and restaurants in and around the old Del Monte warehouse at the corner of Buena Vista Avenue and Sherman Street.
City Planner Andrew Thomas told the Planning Board on Monday that he’s hoping to have development approvals completed in four months, with final approvals to be considered by the City Council in June. The Planning Board did not take any action on the development proposal at Monday’s meeting.
“We think we have the right development team, and the economy is right now. Whether it’s thumbs up or thumbs down on this project, we’d like to know,” Thomas said Monday.
Planning Board members expressed excitement about Tim Lewis Communities’ proposal to redevelop the 11.5-acre property, something the city has sought since 2001.
“This is incredible,” Planning Board member Mike Henneberry said, adding that he’s glad the developer has put the historic nature of the building front and center in its plans.
The developer wants to build 309 housing units and 10,000 square feet of retail space in the 5.4-acre Del Monte warehouse space, representatives told the Planning Board, and additional homes and shops could be constructed on the site. Parking would be tucked under the housing and shops.
“We don’t want to surround the building with a sea of parking. We would rather carefully hide it inside,” said Paula Krugmeier, a principal with BAR Architects in San Francisco.
Krugmeier said the development team would like to “carefully excise” interior sections of the building in order to provide the proper dimensions, light and air for housing, leaving open spaces in between. The team is also proposing to open a public paseo through the center of the 1,000-foot-long warehouse that would connect residents and visitors to a waterfront that would be lined with trails, shops and restaurants.
The building’s original brick façade and windows would be maintained under the proposal, Krugmeier said; its old railroad platform would be repurposed as private patios for residents.
Plans for the site don’t offer park space, though Krugmeier noted that the development would be across the street from Littlejohn Park.
The Del Monte site is listed in a proposed general plan housing element as being able to realistically accommodate up to 200 homes and zoned to permit up to 30 homes per acre, though Thomas said the capacities listed for sites where homes could be built are flexible. The site is zoned to allow a mix of uses, including housing that isn’t compatible with Measure A, which restricts the development of multifamily housing.
Fifteen percent of the homes that would be built on the Del Monte property would be required to be affordable to people with low and moderate incomes under a city ordinance.
Another site where the developer has sought to build homes, a former federal government property now called Neptune Pointe, has been embroiled in a dispute between the city, the federal government and the East Bay Regional Park District, which has sought to obtain the property to expand Crab Cove. Representatives for the city, the park district and Tim Lewis Communities are in talks to resolve a lawsuit over the city’s decision to rezone the property to permit housing, while a group of parks supporters are working to put a measure to restrict its use to parkland on the ballot.
Built in 1927 and used by Del Monte until the 1960s, the warehouse has been designated a city landmark – one of 30 in Alameda, Thomas said. It has seen industrial uses since 1994 but is now largely vacant.
The property’s prior owner, Peter Wang, offered redevelopment proposals that included a marketplace, a hotel, assisted living for seniors and housing. But none of those proposals ever came to fruition, and Wang eventually filed for bankruptcy, selling the Del Monte property to Tim Lewis in 2013.
A consulting firm the city hired in 2009 proposed a mix of homes, flexible live-work space and other uses for the Del Monte property and adjacent Chipman warehouse and Encinal Terminals sites. Lennar bought the Chipman warehouse site from Trident Partners in October, which had planned to build 89 homes there.
Thomas said the city has been working to remove “regulatory barriers” in order to speed reuse of the building.
“This community is looking for a project that adaptively reuses the monument,” he said.
Comments