Berkeley highrise hotel, other downtown towers a go as Measure R fails
Annie Sciacca
San Francisco Business Times
Nov 5, 2014
The developer behind a proposed housing and retail project, the Residences at Berkeley Plaza at 2211 Harold Way, has been awaiting the result of the Measure R vote.
Berkeley voters yesterday rejected Measure R, an initiative that would have gutted carefully laid plans for taller, denser buildings in Berkeley's downtown and potentially killed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development projects.
The measure — which lost with 74 percent of the "no" vote — would have killed plans fora proposed $100 million highrise hotel downtown. It would also have hurt the proposed Berkeley Plaza, at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Kittredge Street, where developers are planning 302 apartments and a retail complex in an 180-foot-tall tower.
These projects are among several projects in downtown Berkeley's pipeline, which is ready to add more than 1,000 new housing units. Some of the projects sprang from the city's decision to allow taller and denser buildings downtown, which was what sparked the fight over Measure R.
The hotel project from developer Jim Didion and Center Street Partners LLC would replace the one-story Bank of America building and parking lot at 2129 Shattuck Ave. It would occupy about 288,000-square-feet and shoot up 180 feet — making it one of only three allowed highrise buildings in the area, following the passage in 2012 of Berkeley's Downtown Area Plan.
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