City Council rejects housing plan
Time to figure out compromise to replace aging office building
Rosewood Commons, originally built as the western headquarters of AT&T, has seen a variety of owners and tenants over its 40-plus year history in Pleasanton’s Hacienda Business Park.
Former California governor and senator Pete Wilson attended the dedication ceremony, as did I (I still have a marble-based paper holder in a box somewhere). When AT&T reorganized and started moving employees elsewhere, the six-building complex with its cafeteria, green space in the center of the office buildings and conference center, remained a desirable property for the right tenants.
That will be the key moving forward after the complex owner defaulted on the loan secured by the property as reported by the San Francisco Business Times. The 837,000-square-foot complex is 52% occupied and now is being marketed by a receiver who is seeking to sell it.
One interesting note: the southeastern portion of the parking lot now is under construction with multiple-family housing, years after the city of Pleasanton zoned it for housing. Two other smaller sites — the former Harvest Valley Church site on Hopyard Road and the former motel site on Santa Rita Road both have multi-family complexes under construction as well. Given the housing shortage throughout the area, it’s a welcome trend.
The marketing materials for Rosewood note that there are large floorplates available that would be ideal for companies looking for a campus environment. The cafeteria, for instance, has 600 seats and there are bocce ball and volleyball courts in the central park. Having been in many office complexes in the area, it is one of the most people-friendly.
The commercial real estate firm estimated there’s about 1 million square feet of demand from large users who would like their employees working in a single building — something that Rosewood can accommodate. What that does to demand among potential buyers remains to be determined.
The Pleasanton City Council unanimously disappointed a family that wanted to tear down an old office building on the outskirts of downtown and replace it with a multi-family residence with three ADUs built in plus a 3,500-square-foot main home. The council followed the staff recommendation to deny the proposal, but members indicated that they hoped the staff and the proponent family could work out a compromise that was acceptable to both.
It’s an interesting situation because it truly is on the edge of downtown, across Old Bernal Avenue from the city complex and surrounded by a neighborhood. The other factor is the closeness of the Altamont Corridor Express station at the fairgrounds brings into play all sorts of advantages for a developer trying to build high-density housing. I suspect the neighbors could much prefer a single-family dwelling to a 4- or 5-story high density complex — no comparison on traffic.
Let’s figure this so it’s a win-win.
My bride and I celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary this week by taking our almost 2-year-old grandson to brunch with us. I commented later that it was the more unusual anniversary celebration we ever had. Dining at Polo Corner in the Lucky shopping center off Portola Avenue in Livermore, we enjoyed a fine meal while herding Callum as necessary. Fortunately, he chowed down on the watermelon and took pleasure in loading blueberries from the bowl to the water glass.
My wife engaged with a gentleman taking a break from his job (he was in uniform) and they joked we’d been married longer than he’d been alive (35 years). He blessed our socks off when he quietly paid for our breakfast.
Thanks for making a special day even more so.
