Riaz Capital plans six-story residential development near Oakland’s Jack London Square

The developer is branching out from its current trademark three-story townhouses

Riaz Capital plans six-story residential development near Oakland’s Jack London Square
Renderings of 200-220 Alice Street and Riaz Taplin (LinkedIn, Natoma Architects)

Oakland developer Riaz Capital, known for its three-story townhouses, is growing up. Or at least its projects are.

Riaz submitted a pre-application for a six-story 205-unit apartment building at 220 Alice Street near Jack London square, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The project will include 2,600 square feet of retail space.

The 0.4-acre lot consists of three separate parcels. The parcels included are the former Prime Smoked Meats building at 220 Alice Street, the Yia-Yia’s Sandwiches building at 200 Alice Street and a small office building at 236 Second Street.

The new project is set to have 189 335-square-foot studios and 16 445-square-foot one-bedroom units. The floorplan fits with Riaz’s current residential portfolio as it emphasizes apartments that are affordable-by-design that rent for between $1,000 and $2,000. Rents at the Alice Street project are expected to fall within that same range.

The project will include 62 affordable units that will be marketed to individuals making between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income.

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Riaz, which is financing the project via an opportunity zone fund, plans to build the complex without parking and will use the state’s density bonus law to do that.

One of the parcels — the site of the former Prime Smoked Meats — was previously going to be redeveloped by Lafayette developer Branagh Development, but the purchase fell through.

Riaz has another development that was approved earlier this year. The five-story development at 685 Ninth Street has about 1,500 units currently in operation with an additional 1,700 planned.

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[SFBT] — Victoria Pruitt