Martin Group eyes 351 apartments along inner harbor of Alameda

Martin Group wants to replace an office campus on the waterfront in Alameda with a 351-unit apartment building.

The Oakland-based developer has filed preliminary plans to build the eight-story building at 2363, 2381, 2317 and 2433 Mariner Square Drive, the San Francisco Business Times and SFYimby reported. Four two-story office buildings would be demolished.

The owner of the roughly 35-year-old Mariner Square Park property is Mash Petroleum, which bought the office campus in 2013 for $2.8 million.

Plans for the project, known as Mariner Square, call for a 488,700-square-foot apartment building with 351 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. The number of affordable units, if any, was not disclosed.

The building would include a three-story concrete podium — presumably to include a parking garage — topped by five floors of wood-framed apartments. It would have an inner courtyard.

The white and beige complex includes large windows, exterior balconies and a rooftop deck and community room, according to a Martin Group rendering.

An estimated cost and timeline for construction were not disclosed.

The triangular site, whose tip lies next to a small parking lot next to the marina, sits above the Webster Street tube connecting the Alameda Landing shopping center and Oakland. 

If approved, residents on the upper stories of the apartment building would look across the water to Jack London Square and Downtown Oakland.

Mash Petroleum, owner of the property, is tied to Mo Mashhoon and the firm’s Mash Gas Station in Orinda, according to SFYimby. The application to replace the offices with homes comes as the Oakland office market, which includes Alameda, had a 20.6 percent vacancy in the fourth quarter, according to the Business Times.

Since 2020, more than 1,000 apartments have come onto the market in Alameda, but currently none are under construction, according to Kate Zeller, a senior research analyst for JLL.

“From what we’re seeing, the hangar distillery and brewery area is a draw for younger renters, but Alameda still caters more to more established renters,” Zeller told the Business Times. “Total occupancy is around 84 percent, while stabilized is 93.5 percent.”

In comparison, the multifamily market across the inner harbor in Oakland is less competitive after the recent construction of 15 apartment buildings, pushing landlords to offer incentive deals to attract tenants.Martin Group owns more than 900 apartments in Oakland. Since its founding in 1984, the firm has developed more than 24 million square feet of commercial space, and more than 20,000 residential units, according to its website.

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