BERKELEY | 2425 Durant Avenue | 212 FT | 20 FLOORS

[38 Geary]

Interesting project!

The specs for 2425 Durant Ave:
- 20 floors, 200 ft
- 117 units
- 18 of the units will be affordable
- Parking for 0 cars

The site:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pRJjt1SiBbRAG9M26

Pre-Application Revealed for 20-Story Apartments in Southside, Berkeley



By: Andrew Nelson 5:00 am on August 13, 2024

Preliminary permits have been filed for a 20-story apartment complex at 2425 Durant Avenue in Southside, Berkeley. The potential 200-foot tower is entering a growing list of high-density projects that aims to reshape Berkeley’s skyline with more housing to satiate the city’s outsized demand for housing. The project is being led by local architect Yes Duffy at Yes Duffy Architects.

The pre-application uses Senate Bill 330 to streamline the approval process and increase residential capacity. The decision also comes eight months after the rezoning of the Southside Neighborhood by Berkeley City Council, which increased Telegraph Commercial-zoned lot from a 65 foot to 85 feet with base zoning. With more units allowed by the existing zoning map, and presumably with Assembly Bill 1287 to achieve a 100% density bonus, this latest proposal for 2425 Durant Avenue could become the tallest building in Southside.

...

Three existing residential buildings owned by 2425 Durant Ave., LLC, will need to be demolished. Rhoades Planning Group, a prominent Berkeley-based land use consultancy firm, is responsible for the application.

https://sfyimby.com/2024/08/pre-applicat...ry-apartments-in-southside-berkeley.html

[38 Geary]

And the renderings:





https://sfyimby.com/2024/08/pre-applicat...ry-apartments-in-southside-berkeley.html

[38 Geary]

The specs for 2425 Durant Ave:
- 20 floors, 200 ft
- 117 units
- 18 of the units will be affordable
- Parking for 0 cars and 82 bicycles

The site:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pRJjt1SiBbRAG9M26

Development Permits Filed For 2425 Durant Avenue in Southside, Berkeley

By: Andrew Nelson 5:30 am on November 25, 2024

Development permits have been filed for the 20-story apartment tower at 2425 Durant Avenue in Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood. The application seeks to replace two low-slung residential structures with 117 apartments. Qian Wang of Collabhome is listed as the property owner through 2425 Durant Avenue LLC.

...

The ground-level floor will include a furnished lobby with a mini-bar and cafe seating, a package room, and bike parking. Additional residential amenities will be spread across the structure on the 8th, 13th, 17th, and 20th floors. The latter amenity space will be connected to the rooftop deck, offering views south towards Downtown Oakland and San Francisco.

The project is being led by local architect Yes Duffy at Yes Duffy Architects. The exterior will be articulated with a mix of two distinct facade styles differentiated by dark grey or light white fiber-cement panels sitting on top of the one-story podium. The ground floor will be spotlighted as the tower’s foundation with a projecting concrete awning overlooking the main sidewalk.

https://sfyimby.com/2024/11/development-...durant-avenue-in-southside-berkeley.html

[38 Geary]

The updated specs for 2425 Durant Ave:
- 20 floors, 208 ft
- 169 units (105 studios, 1 1BR, 46 2BR, 17 3BR)
- 32 of the units will be affordable
- Parking for 0 cars and 82 bicycles

The site:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pRJjt1SiBbRAG9M26

Berkeley Approved 20-Story Apartment Tower at 2425 Durant Avenue



By: Andrew Nelson 5:30 am on October 27, 2025

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board has approved plans for a 20-story apartment tower at 2425 Durant Avenue in the Southside neighborhood. The development is poised to create 169 student-oriented units close to the UC Berkeley campus. Collabhome is the project developer.

Yes Community Architects is responsible for drafting the project. In a public statement published by the firm’s principal, Yes Duffy describes that the plan “organizes the tower into a series of ‘neighborhoods’—smaller social networks with community kitchens, study areas, and lounges—to support connection, wellness, and belonging in dense urban living. You can even see the community areas in the form and facade of the building.”

...

The 0.22-acre parcel is located between Dana Street and the busy Telegraph Avenue. The UC Berkeley campus’s primary southern entrance is just a block away, once on Telegraph Avenue. Rhoades Planning Group is the development consultant.

https://sfyimby.com/2025/10/berkeley-approved-20-story-apartment-tower-at-2425-durant-avenue.html

[38 Geary]

And the renderings:











https://sfyimby.com/2025/10/berkeley-approved-20-story-apartment-tower-at-2425-durant-avenue.html

[Urbannizer]

Berkeley City Council approves housing developments that sidestep labor standards

The Berkeley City Council reluctantly signed off Monday night on two proposed high-rise developments that use a state housing law to sidestep local labor standards.

Two labor groups had called for Berkeley leaders to approve the projects but reject their developers’ attempts to use California’s “density bonus” law to dodge a union-backed ordinance Berkeley adopted in 2023 mandating that builders of large projects provide health care coverage for workers and apprenticeship programs. The state law requires cities to give builders exemptions from certain local regulations if their projects include affordable housing.

Developers Collab Home and Laconia Development say abiding by the ordinance would cost millions of dollars and mean they might never actually build the projects, a 20-story complex on Durant Avenue in the Southside neighborhood and a 23-story building on University Avenue in downtown Berkeley. Attorneys for the developers told the City Council that the state law grants them broad authority to bypass Berkeley’s mandates, and the city doesn’t have the power to block their use of it.

The debate Monday night centered on a 169-unit project at 2425 Durant Ave. from Berkeley-based Collab Home, and a project at 2029 University Ave. from Laconia, a Walnut Creek firm that proposed two versions of the project. One would include 240 units and have more studio and one-bedroom apartments; the other, with larger apartments, would have 160 total units.

Each project was approved by Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board, but those decisions were appealed by the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County and the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council. The groups argued Laconia and Collab Home were abusing the density bonus law, which they said was meant to apply to physical limitations on development, not labor standards.