Development Company Applies to Redevelop Harbor Bay Club Site
Development Company Applies to Redevelop Harbor Bay Club Site
On May 2, the City Planning, Building and Transportation Department received an application to amend the General Plan and Zoning Code to allow for redevelopment of the Harbor Bay Club site.
Jackson Square Properties, LLC, a San Francisco development company, and CHDG Investments, LLC, a Los Angeles-based company, submitted the application with the City of Alameda Planning Department to facilitate the redevelopment of the Harbor Bay Club site at 200 Packet Landing Road. The redevelopment project would include a new health and fitness club, a new pool and two tennis courts. The plan also includes 400 apartments and 600 parking spaces.
The property, on Bay Farm Island, is currently owned by Harbor Bay Isle Associates, which operates the 20,000-square-foot Harbor Bay Club as well as a pool and 19 tennis courts. It was not determined whether Jackson Square and CHDG Investments entered into an agreement to buy the property from Harbor Bay Isle.
CHDG Investments, LLC is affiliated with Los Angeles luxury fitness operator IconFit, according to reports. IconFit would operate the new fitness center. The community and lap pool will be available for use via a club membership program.
“We are very pleased to introduce this proposed project for the redevelopment of the Harbor Bay Club,” wrote Matt Wiley, VP, Development Russell Square; Chuck Grieve, IconFit CEO; and Chad Bungcayao VP, Development at Jackson Square Properties in a joint letter to Andrew Thomas, City of Alameda Planning, Building and Transportation Director. “This is an incredible opportunity to produce a world-class mixed-income community that will set the standard for creating a vibrant mix of uses in a truly innovative manner.”
Fifty-nine of the proposed 400 apartments — a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedrooms — will be reserved for residents making between 60% and 120% of area median income, per Jackson Square’s application. Units will range in size from 600 to 1,350 square feet.
The developer noted in its application that the proposed 400 homes could play a crucial role in helping Alameda meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation mandate.
Comments
The arguments in favor of this development proposal are pitching it as "Snooty Bay Farm millionaires who got theirs pulling up the ladder behind them, versus affordable housing." But the people who live in the community and share a fence with the Harbor Bay Club live in a complex of modest duplex homes built in the 80s.
Let's be honest, dude. We're not talking about single-family homes with massive yards. We're talking about one- and two-story duplex condos on Bay Farm under the Oakland Airport North Field flight path. This neighborhood is a mixture of families with school-aged kids and retirees. My immediate neighbors are a retired Alameda Unified School District teacher and a family living in the United States on an H1-B Visa. None of us here are rich. Thirty percent of us rent.
This five-story facility would dwarf all existing structures in the area. Anyone who's had to drop off or pick up kids at Earhart Elementary School in the morning can tell you what 675 additional vehicles will do to the situation. And as a city, we don't need it! Alameda has already hit its housing goals without this facility.
This proposal is a bad idea that puts an extra burden on residents already living in higher-density housing. It should not move forward.