Landsea’s Alameda Marina project meets luxe market at waterfront

Landsea Homes recently launched its Alameda Marina development on a housing market that has transformed unexpectedly during the construction phase of the project.

Pricing for the 182 townhomes on the island’s estuary is about a quarter off from where Landsea had hoped to sell the units two years ago, according to Josh Santos, division president for Northern California. But the company plans to make up for that by increasing prices as the two neighborhoods — Island View and Waterside — near completion a few years from now. 

“We very much want to reward those buyers that choose to jump in with us super early,” Santos said. 

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Landsea, the 2013 spin off of a Chinese builder that went public in 2021 and moved its headquarters from Southern California to Dallas this year, started pre-sales at the Alameda Marina in the spring. It is offering early adopter pricing that ranges from the high $800,000s for the most economical Island View model to nearly double that for the Waterside units, Santos said, adding that 15 percent of the units will be offered under the city’s affordable housing program. LandSea is also offering about $70,000 in incentives that could range from buying down rates to paying HOA fees or adding design upgrades, Marc Rico, Landsea vice president of sales and marketing, told TRD.

Townhomes range from about 1,500 square feet for the smallest Island View unit to nearly 2,800 square feet for the biggest Waterside, which has four bedrooms with 3.5 bathrooms. All Waterside homes also have private rooftop deck space with a waterfront view and two-car side-by-side garages. 

Prospective buyers range from young families and single professionals to empty nesters unbothered by the two flights of stairs — three to the roof decks — in the townhomes, Rico said. Universally, the estuary location and relative affordability are the leading factors bringing buyers to check out the units.

“Getting waterfront or near the water is very rare,” Rico said, particularly at this price point.

In addition to the townhomes, Landsea will also build out public amenities over the course of the next year, such as a connection to the Bay Trail, a Water Life Park where an old dock will be turned into estuary access for kayakers and paddleboarders, and a dog park. 

It’s not just the Marina development that’s under construction. Buyers will have to take a leap of faith that Alameda’s northern waterfront, long home to warehouses and auto repair shops, will soon be bustling with more residents, shops and restaurants as part of a larger push to reimagine the area. 

“The onus does fall on us to help explain to folks what is coming. It’s just one of many, many, future developments,” Santos said, citing other residential projects along the estuary. Improvements include a major structural upgrade to the docks that abut the property, an overhaul of the Alameda Marina building nearby to make it a food and beverage destination, and a pilot program for a water taxi to Jack London Square set to begin next year. 

“While it might feel a little industrial, in some areas, as you enter into the island and on the island to get to our community, a lot of that’s going to change within this decade,” he added.

To jumpstart sales, LandSea held a grand opening with about 100 people in late August, and about 40 agents from across the Bay Area turned up for a separate brokers tour around the same time. (See TRD’s tour of one of the model units in the video below.) Models of the premium Waterside design highlighted the events, while models of the more affordable Island View townhomes should be ready to tour soon. 

“We’ve been busy,” Rico said. “When they first underwrote this deal, we would have loved to see a little more traction early on, but given where we’re at today [with interest rates], it’s very positive.” 

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