UC Berkeley campus draws developer with 74-unit apartment project

The owners of an auto body shop property in Berkeley want to replace it with a 74-unit apartment complex near the UC campus.

Locally based design firm Studio KDA filed plans on behalf of Janice Yi Lee and Jonathon Yi to build the eight-story building at 2037 Durant Avenue, a block from the southwest corner of the campus, the San Francisco Business Times reported. 

It would replace a 13,000-square-foot commercial building on a third of an acre occupied by Hustead’s Auto Body, built in 1949 just west of Shattuck Avenue.

Plans call for a building with 74 two- and three-bedroom apartments, with 1,500 square feet of ground-floor shops. The developer would employ a density bonus to build a larger building than zoning rules allow in exchange for setting aside four affordable units for low-income households.

A construction timeline was not disclosed.

The developers applied for the project under SB 330, which streamlines development by limiting public meetings and suspending or eliminating restrictions on development.

To respond to a student housing crunch around UC Berkeley, the city approved a slew of changes to allow for taller buildings and a denser Downtown, according to the Business Times. 

The city then saw an influx of applications for apartment projects in December, including 13 buildings with 1,660 apartments — nearly the same number of units built over the past five years.

The Durant Avenue project joins others pitched near the university, including another eight-story apartment building from Vindium Real Estate at 2036 Bancroft Way, directly behind the proposed apartment project. 

Vindium Real Estate also filed applications to build an 18-story, 83-unit apartment at 2276 Shattuck Avenue, a block away from the Durant project. If all three are built, it would add nearly 250 units to the neighborhood.

— Dana Bartholomew

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