Trammell Crow Plans to Replace Offices Near Walnut Creek

High Street Development wants to raze a 260,000-square-foot office building near Walnut Creek to make room for a 400-unit apartment complex.

The unit of Dallas-based Trammell Crow filed plans to build the six-story complex at 1340 Treat Boulevard and a parking lot at 1328 Treat Boulevard in an unincorporated pocket north of Walnut Creek, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The six-story office building known as Pacific Plaza, built in 1988 and renovated in 2017, has been owned for 23 years by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS.

High Street wants to bulldoze the offices but keep its 518-stall parking garage for the proposed apartments.

Plans call for 400 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments between I-680 and the Renaissance Walnut Creek Hotel.

The developer would employ a state density bonus for a larger building than zoning rules allow in exchange for 60 affordable units. The gray and white project, designed by Sacramento-based LPAS Architecture + Design, would be fast-tracked by Senate Bill 330.

It’s the first major office-to-residential swap in Contra Costa County, Joseph Lawlor, senior planner with the county, told the Business Times.

Other developers across the East Bay have decided to replace vacant offices with homes.

Last year, Oakland-based Signature Development Group proposed tearing down the 450,000-square-foot Walnut Creek Executive Park for 422 townhomes. The developer is working with landlord California Capital Investment Group, which bought the park in 2022 for nearly $50 million.

Sunset Development just sold an office building in San Ramon to KB Homes, which plans to demolish the 276,000-square-foot property to build 190 homes in Bishop Ranch. The Martin Group also filed plans to replace office buildings in Alameda with a 350-unit apartment building, according to the Business Times.

Office vacancy in downtown Walnut Creek, just south of Pacific Plaza, was 24.5 percent in the first quarter ending in March, according to CBRE. Vacancy in Ygnacio Valley in Walnut Creek, east of Pacific Plaza, was 14.8 percent.

— Dana Bartholomew