Everywhere you look these days, major apartment projects and millions of dollars in new business developments, along with new construction in downtown Pleasanton, are bringing back memories of the peak building booms we saw in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s. Only this time, few of these projects involve single-family homes.
Two of the largest apartment projects under construction and highly visible are at Bernal Avenue and Stanley Boulevard, one of the city’s busiest intersections, and at Owens, Gibraltar and Hacienda drives and Willow Road in the Hacienda residential and business park near the eastern Dublin-Pleasanton BART station. These two developments alone will be home to several thousand new residents by this time next year.
Vintage Village, a 345-unit upscale all-rental development just now coming out of the ground across from McDonald’s, is the largest multifamily project in that part of Pleasanton. Being built by Carmel Properties on a 16-acre site the city long ago nixed for a new Home Depot, it will include a 39,000-square-foot retail center and possibly a small grocery store.
The Hacienda project is larger, with 498 units in three- and four-story buildings being built by Essex Property Trust. That development on two building sites includes mixed-use, high-density residential and commercial units with “live/work” apartments and ground-level retail space.
Carmel Partners paid $4.5 million into the city’s affordable housing fund when it took out its building permits so that it can offer all 345 units at upscale rents. At the Essex site, however, the developer will make more than 70 units available in perpetuity to lower income households.
In between these two projects, St. Anton Partners is now leasing its 168 apartments in a three- and four-story complex nearing completion at West Las Positas Boulevard near Stoneridge Drive.
More apartments are coming. Expected to start this winter is development of part of the turf area of California Center, now re-named Rosewood Commons. This project will include two-, three- and four-story buildings and a two-building retail center at West Las Positas Boulevard and Rosewood Drive.
Another apartment complex with 177 units is planned for West Las Positas Boulevard across from Hart Middle School with buildings as high as four stories. That project has been delayed by developers apparently concerned about the rising cost of the project. Plans also call for eventually using the BART parking lot across Owens Drive for another high-density apartment complex.
Major commercial development is also underway in Staples Ranch, across from the San Francisco Premium Outlets at El Charro Road and I-580. Stoneridge Chrysler-Jeep, a dealership that moved from Dublin, is completing its new 32,000-square-foot showroom and service building, with a temporary operating permit issued by the city so that it could open for business. Work is starting on a CarMax superstore at the same location. CarMax is the country’s largest retailer of used cars.
Also on Staples, Pacific Pearl will start construction early next year on a 120,000-square-foot, Asian-focused community shopping center on a 11.5-acres site on the southwest corner of El Charro and Stoneridge Drive. The center will be anchored by Marina Food Grocery Store and will include a variety of 20-30 restaurants, retail and service businesses. Developers plan to open the center in 2017.
On the city’s west side, Workday is expected to start construction of its new six-story headquarters building on Stoneridge Mall Road. The company has all the approvals it needs to start the work at anytime.
And let’s not forget downtown Pleasanton, where one of Main Street’s unique new buildings just opened on the old Pastime pool hall site. Keeping the name, the Pastime Plaza building at 511 Main St. houses the new Starbucks Evening coffee shop, Sabio on Main “Tapas” and full bar, and Venture Sotheby International Realty, which opened yesterday on the second floor. The outdoor public plaza is city-owned.
Also now open is McKay’s, a taphouse and beer garden in a completely renovated 1938 home at 252 Main St. Farther north at what is now a deep hole in the ground behind a board fence at 725 Main St., where the Union Jack pub was torn down eight years ago, Robert Dondero is finalizing construction plans for a new two-story restaurant and commercial building that will also feature a top-floor entertainment center.
