|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BACK Condos destined for Laundry site By Cecily Burt, Oakland Tribune (07-26-05) EMERYVILLE — The neglected, old Ambassador Laundry building, largely hidden beneath a freeway dissecting the border of Emeryville and Oakland, is coming down brick by brick, to be replaced by condominiums. Resources for Community Development, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, plans to build 55 one-, two- and three-bedroom condos on the Ambassador site at 36th and Peralta streets, which is owned by Emeryville's Redevelopment Agency. The current plans are quite different from Emeryville's initial goal, which was to rehabilitate the building to create all affordable rental apartments. In the end, the costs to keep it were too high and the desire to add more for-sale residences to Emeryville's housing stock was too great. About 20 percent of the units will be priced for buyers earning moderate incomes, and the rest will be sold for whatever the market bears. In this case, moderate income is defined as 120 percent of the area median income, which for a family of three is $74,000. A would-be buyer of an affordable unit cannot earn more than $88,000 a year, said Patrick O'Keeffe, Emeryville's Redevelopment Agency director. Lisa Motoyama, Resources for Community Development's director of housing development, admitted the project as it now stands is very different from the agency's typical profile. But she hopes more of the units can be priced for first-time homebuyers, who will receive financing assistance through the California Housing Finance Agency. "We really have struggled with it, it's so very different from our usual mission," Motoyama said. "We have been working on this project a really long time, so we're not ready to give it up." The property location presented some special challenges, especially as it relates to Interstate 580, a Clear Channel billboard that must remain there and nearby under-freeway lots used for truck and bus parking. The property sits at the confluence of 36th, Peralta, Magnolia and Adeline streets and San Pablo Avenue. Like several other recent residential and commercial developments in the area, it straddles the Emeryville-Oakland border but is more closely aligned to the Clawson neighborhood of West Oakland. That neighborhood is experiencing major change and growing pains as new loft residents grapple with noisy industrial businesses, homeless people and illegal dumping. O'Keeffe said the pricing strategy will likely reflect that, with the starting prices running between $275,000 and $375,000. The modern building will be designed by Kava Massih Architects. The condos will surround a central courtyard created by bricks recycled from the old laundry building, with a new entrance on Peralta Street. The frontage on Adeline Street will have a gabled roof to match residential housing on that side of the property. In a concession to sculptor Vickie Sowell, who lives and works next door, the bedrooms will face away from her studio, toward the freeway, said Charlie Bryant, Emeryville's planning director. Corrugated metal will be used to screen light and noise from the freeway. Sowell has been like an island out there, pretty much free to do what she wants. There were occasional squatters and raves in the old building, whose walls represent her property line, but the new condos will bring many changes to the neighborhood, and she's looking forward to it. " I will have 50 new neighbors," she said. "It will be all parked up ... but there will be less homeless, I'm hoping."
|