Downtown Berkeley Harold Way deal for 18 stories, 300 units is officially over
The city has decided not to grant developer Hill Street Realty more time to secure financing for the 18-story Berkeley Plaza project on Harold Way.
The city has decided not to grant developer Hill Street Realty more time to secure financing for the 18-story Berkeley Plaza project on Harold Way.
Efforts are afoot at City Hall to see if the 18-story, $150 million mixed-use housing complex planned on Harold Way may still, in fact, be viable — even though the developer told the city that he had scrapped the plans.
The developer behind an 18-story, nearly 300-unit project on Harold Way has scrapped those plans, putting an end to one of the biggest development battles Berkeley has seen in recent years.
On Monday, four years after the Berkeley City Council approved plans for a new high-rise on Harold Way, the project team submitted its building permit application to the city of Berkeley.
A 12-story, 156-unit project downtown won praise and nearly unanimous approval Thursday from the city’s zoning board. Speakers called it a home run for union labor and the “gold standard” for development.
A City Council majority affirmed approval Thursday night of an 18-story building with 274 units planned at the site of the downtown Berkeley Walgreens at 2190 Shattuck Ave.
Zoning board members got their first chance to weigh in on plans for a new 12-story building proposed on Shattuck at Berkeley Way. Their advice? Have some fun with the design so it reflects more of Berkeley’s quirkiness.
Thursday night, Berkeley’s zoning board approved an 18-story mixed-use building at the downtown Walgreens site, set to bring 274 new apartments to the city.
City staff has given the Berkeley Plaza complex at Harold Way another year to seek its building permit, according to a planning department letter sent Friday.
The developer behind the tallest apartment building approved downtown has asked the city for one more year to meet the deadline to apply for the permit needed to break ground.
The hotel only went forward after the Council twice agreed to defer fees owed by the developer. That lowered the developers’ upfront costs and increased profit margins.
The developers are targeting people who live and work in Berkeley, families and people who want to downsize, and professionals who want to be able to take public transit.
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