Condoized Oakland Federal Building

[BTinSF]

Holy Metropolis, Batman, I may have to move to Oakland.

This bit of gorgeousness, the 14-story old Oakland Federal Building, is being condoized according to Socketsite (http://www.socketsite.com/), whence come the photos:

http://www.socketsite.com/Cathedral%20Building.jpg

And for "only" $895K you can have a 1476 sq. ft. full-floor 2 bedroom unit on the 11th floor. This 1906 sq. ft. 3-bedroom one on the 8th floor goes for $1.13M:

http://www.socketsite.com/Cathedral%20Building%20FP.gifhttp://www.socketsite.com/Cathedral%20Building%20Interior.jpg

The top floor, at 2016 sg. ft., goes for $1.3M.

[Downtown Dave]

These are a couple of years old:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Oakland/CathedralBuilding-1858.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Oakland/CathedralBuilding-1910.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Oakland/CathedralBuilding-1913.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Oakland/CathedralBuilding-2012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Oakland/CathedralBuilding-2013.jpg

[peanut gallery]

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that Dave may like this building a little bit.

[krudmonk]

Wow, that is a gorgeous building. Where the hell is it? I haven't seen it in person and all I get when I Google it is that other Federal Building.

[Downtown Dave]

Here it is (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.806162,-122.270067&spn=0.001869,0.004227&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=37.806031,-122.270131&cbp=1,300.0923407044261,,0,10.23078680284001). I never realized it had ever been called anything but the 'Cathedral Building', which may be why you can't find it by googling "Federal Building".

[BigKidD]

A very beautiful building. How is the area around it?

[CHapp]

First of all, thanks to BT for opening this thread, and many thanks to Dave for his excellent photos of this knockout of a building! :tup:

I find it disappointing that none of the ornateness of the building's exterior seems to have survived on the inside. :(

A very beautiful building. How is the area around it?

If you really want to know, Big Kid, go to the condo agency's website given by BT above:

http://www.socketsite.com/index.html?page=2

The dateline is March 12, and no doubt over the course of time the article will drop to page 3 and 4 ...

Then go on to the comment section:

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2008/03/holy_architecture_and_full_floor_condos_in_oakland_batm.html#comments

People seem to have vastly varying views on the safety and attractiveness of downtown Oakland, night or day.

[BTinSF]

I find it disappointing that none of the ornateness of the building's exterior seems to have survived on the inside. :(



If it was a Federal office building, there may not have been a lot of interior ornateness (unless you count puke green paint) to save. Having grown up in a family of Federal employees and been in the military for 2.6 decades myself, I've seen the inside of a lot of Federal offices (new and old--many in the heart of the beast in Washington DC where I grew up): not a lot of crown molding and wainscotting except in the offices of Presidential appointees, Cabinet Secretaries and the like. With the Feds, your rank even determines the material of which your desk is constructed and most worker bees get metal (made by prison labor).

[CHapp]

Uhnghhh ... thanks, BT, for bringing me back to reality! :D

[TWAK]

that building is totally awesome, I looked through my collection of Oakland pictures but all I could find is one. this one taken by me
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5709/picture034ade3.jpg
another one taken on a different day, you can see the roof in the middle of this picture, also taken by me
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/636/oak14pr4.jpg

[dimondpark]

the cathedral building is what most folks call it nowadays-either way its aesthetically pleasing to say the least.

The developer is new to the market from NYC and wanted to depart from Oakland's more "industrial" looking condo and loft developements. Looks like he conceded. What a gorgeous building.

[rajaxsonbayboi]

dang how much would the condo cost?

[plinko]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/plinko923/Random/OAK039.jpg

[peanut gallery]

That is the most intense blue I have ever seen in a photo of the sky.

[DubbaG]

Wow what the heck how have I missed that one? I suppose it's cause I only go to Oakland in my cab at night and then it's my mission to find the right on-ramp back to the city.

That building looks like a mix between Woolworth and Flatiron.

[briankendall]

Could someone change the name of the thread. This building has only been called the Cathedral Building for obvious reasons. Someone here mistakenly thought it was the Federal Building. Strange. The condos are pretty nice. I work for the City and helped pay for exterior cleaning, and painting. With the 3,000 seat Fox Theater opening soon the area around this building will boom.

[BTinSF]

^^^Not someone here--someone at Socketsite from which the initial information came. And they are rarely that wrong so I'm betting there's a reason they called it that: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2008/03/holy_architecture_and_full_floor_condos_in_oakland_batm.html

However, since the developer of the condo now seems to be calling the Cathedral Building ( http://www.cathedral-building.com/ ), I'll try to change the title.

...........

Hmm. Seems like I can't do it. Mods, HELP!

[krudmonk]

And they are rarely that wrong so I'm betting there's a reason they called it that
because it is situated outside the bubble

[BTinSF]

Friday, August 1, 2008
Hope soars for Oakland's Cathedral Building units
Developer brings $1.3M condos to market
San Francisco Business Times - by Blanca Torres

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_image/125317-300-0-2.jpg

If vintage Gothic architecture doesn't grab buyers' attention, maybe the roomy white Carrera-marbled bathrooms or the expansive view of Oakland and the Bay will help seal a deal or two.

While many Oakland developers worry about unloading hundreds of available condos, Andrew Brog believes his newest project to hit the market, the Cathedral Building, could sell out within a few weeks.

"I have seven units to sell," Brog said. "You either want this kind of unit and can afford it or you don't."

The project, a former federal building turned mixed-used development, offers potential owners high-end finishes in unusual triangle-shaped flats. Floors are divided between retail on the ground level, commercial condos from floors two to six and residential condos from the seventh to 14th floor. The residential units are priced from the high $800,000s to $1.3 million while the commercial condos are priced between $940,000 and $1.2 million.

The floor plans vary between 1,500 and 2,100 square feet and are two or three bedrooms with two baths. Some floors feature loft or outdoor deck space.

"A lot of the marketing we're doing is going after creative types, artists and people from San Francisco," said Andy Read, the building's broker and co-owner of Caldecott Properties based in Oakland. "This is the type of product that exists in San Francisco, but this building is for half the price."

More than 1,400 condos sit on the Oakland market, according to a report from Mark Co., a real estate marketing firm based in San Francisco. The report also states that since the beginning of the year, 35 condos had sold in Oakland for an average price of $434,801, a 9 percent drop compared with 2007's average selling price of $475,614.

"People told us we were crazy to build units so big because most of the Oakland condo market is for first-time buyers," Brog said. "We're going after a more affluent person."

The condo market is saturated, but luxury units, especially in the Uptown neighborhood, are hard to find, said Scott Harrison, an East Bay realtor with Prudential California Realty.

"(Brog) picked a building with style and picked a location that's unique," he said.

The Cathedral Building's units feature sleek white walls, numerous windows, high ceilings, natural hardwood floors, cherry wood kitchen cabinets and Bosch appliances.

The building, located at 1615 Broadway in Oakland, was built in 1913 as the Oakland Federal Building and was later renamed the Cathedral Building because of its Gothic exterior marked by pointed towers, steep gables and arched windows. Its odd shape comes from the angle formed where Telegraph Avenue splits from Broadway.

Since most of Oakland's other Gothic-style buildings have been torn down, the Cathedral Building has a spot on the National Registry of Historic Places.

"We try to take an old building and mix modern elements in it," Brog said. "The idea was to make something that doesn't exist."

Brog said he modeled the units after luxury apartments typical of Park and Fifth avenues in New York, where people can step off an elevator to their own floor and do not share walls with any neighbors. The other characteristic he wanted to emphasize was open space with lots of natural light.

After years of developing luxury lofts in New York City, Brog decided to come West and is now based out of Los Angeles, but does all of his work in Oakland. He bought the Cathedral Building for $3 million in 2005 and has spent $7 million on the renovations. He also bought two other properties around the same time, which he turned into the Marquee Lofts and Golden Bridge Lofts. All three projects are redevelopments in up-and-coming areas close to BART such as the Uptown neighborhood near the city's downtown.

"I get Oakland," Brog said. "Oakland is gritty, no question about it, but it's getting softer."

btorres@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4960
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/08/04/story7.html?t=printable

[CHapp]

Thanks for bringing us up to date on this most excellent project, BT. :)

With the 3,000 seat Fox Theater opening soon the area around this building will boom.

Oh, and I hope many of the other architecturally outstanding buildings in the area (many of them commercial and some sadly run down) will experience a similarly fine interior remake and facade cleanup!