4Terra, SRM plan to swap offices for apartments near UC Berkeley

4Terra Investments and SRM Associates want to replace a three-story office building with a 201-unit apartment building near UC Berkeley.

The San Francisco-based developer and Alameda-based property owner have filed plans to build the eight-story building at 2100 Milvia Street, two blocks west of campus, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The offices would be demolished.

Plans call for a 209,000-square-foot building with 3,750 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Of the project’s 201 apartments, four would be live-work spaces and 11 units would be set aside as affordable.

The developers would employ Senate Bill 330 to streamline approvals. A Berkeley Design Review Committee is slated to review the project on Wednesday.

Berkeley, a city once challenging to build in, has approved dozens of residential towers in Downtown to meet a local housing crunch, while rezoning its Southside to double the development potential.

UC Berkeley provides housing for a quarter of its students, the lowest of all UC campuses.

SRM Associates purchased the office building on Milvia in 1996 for an undisclosed price.

4Terra Investments, founded in 2013 by Amir Massih, has built more than 30,000 apartments and student-oriented units across Northern California, according to its website, LinkedIn page and state business records.

4Terra is behind several other Bay Area projects, including a seven-story, 75-unit project at 2550 Shattuck in Berkeley and a 169-unit project called the Kittredge at an unknown location in Downtown Berkeley, according to the Business Times.

The developer also plans to build a 203-unit apartment building at 400 Divisadero in San Francisco, on the site of a former car wash.

— Dana Bartholomew