Undeveloped Parcel in Oakland Hits the MarketU

An empty lot in downtown Oakland is hitting the market with a possible future as hundreds of units of housing.

The undeveloped 63,446-square-foot vacant parcel at 600 Castro Street is for sale, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing a sales brochure from Newmark. The property is located at 7th Street and Castro Street between Interstate 880 and 960 and is owned by real estate investors Frank and Daphne Yang. A list price has not been disclosed.

The 7th and Castro site is zoned for commercial and residential uses with a maximum of 278 units and eight stories. A developer could buy the location and take advantage of the state’s affordable housing density bonus to increase the unit and height limitations significantly depending on how many affordable units are built.

In 2021, developer Wise Investments Enterprise submitted a pre-application to build a 24-story residential tower with 400 to 500 units at the site, San Francisco YIMBY reported at the time. In order to qualify for the state density bonus, the project designated 15 percent of the apartments units as affordable housing, which also allowed the height maximum to increase 190 feet higher than what zoning rules would normally allow. Previous renderings from Walnut Creek-based LCA Architects showed a four-story parking garage in the building, but the proposal appears to be inactive, according to the Business Times.

The 600 Castro site is subject to an S-14 housing overlay zone because it is listed in the city’s housing element, thus guaranteeing the parcel will be used for housing. It also ensures ministerial design review for the project. The site is in a federal opportunity zone, which offers investors tax benefits to promote investment in certain communities as a way of increasing economic growth and job creation.

The area around 600 Castro has seen various proposals for housing arise in recent years. At the 55-acre Howard Terminal site, the Oakland Athletics previously floated building a new baseball stadium as well as housing and commercial space before the team left town in 2024. An empty lot at 500 Kirkham Street in West Oakland was once entitled for 1,032 housing units, but was seized by its lender in 2023 and put on the market at a $5 million bargain-basement price last fall, the Business Times reported.

— Chris Malone Méndez