Signature Properties purchases 300 Harrison Street development
Jack London News discovered this week that Signature Properties has recently signed a letter of understanding to purchase the land and development entitlements for 300 Harrison Street. The 30,000 square foot site on Third Street between Alice and Harrison Streets has been empty for many years and was purchased by Jeff Hand of Loft Style developments in 2000 for a sum in excess of $4 million dollars. Hand subsequently sought entitlements from the City of Oakland to build an 91 residential unit building on the site. The entitlements were approved in December 2002 but Hand did not follow through with development in the proposed timescale. Hand subsequently placed the land and entitlements on the market in 2003 for over $6 million.

Alert residents in buildings overlooking the 300 Harrison site spotted environmental testing being conducted earlier this month, and inquiries by Jack London News revealed that the testing company was on contract for Signature Properties, a Pleasenton based property developer. Signature Properties develops residential properties ranging from single family homes to large condo developments. Recently it completed the Durant Square housing complex in East Oakland, a new 92-condo Landmark Place next to Preservation Park, and a 100 condo building 255 Berry which is part of the Mission Bay development in San Francisco. Signature is also the master developer for the $500 million Oak to Ninth development which is planned to include 2000 condos along the estuary on the site of the historic Ninth Avenue Terminal.

The entitlements for the 300 Harrison project are for a single building with seven stories above ground and one below ground for parking (see drawing). The building roof line will be 62 feet at the street, much higher than neighboring buildings such as the American Bag Building (40 feet), Tower Lofts (47 feet), Allied Paper (44 feet), and the Greeno Building (44 feet). Furthermore the building will have an additional floor of penthouses set back from the roof line with an elevation of almost 71 feet, plus an additional 15 feet on top of that for elevator and roof access structures. In total the building will contain up to 91 residential units with floor plans ranging from 800 to 2000 square feet, plus 117 parking spaces on the ground and sub-basement floors. The original developer had also expressed an interest in making the units with ground floor entrances available as retail or live work spaces, however there is currently no indication this will hold with the new developer given the current surfeit of retail space available in this area.

When will construction start and how long will it take? Our latest information indicates ground breaking could be as early as this Spring, and based on previous experiences could be complete by summer of 2005 or soon after. However Signature Properties has so far failed to answer calls from Jack London News requesting more information about their plans. Signature's head offices can be reached at (925) 463-1122
Posted 2/28/2004