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| (oaklandnorth.net) |
The real estate impact is tangible. In theory, the lack of late-night transit means apartment rents rise faster in San Francisco while rents in Oakland stay at lower levels that don't justify as much new construction.
Todd Vitzthum, executive director at the brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, said the lack of late-night BART means that technology workers moving to the Bay Area aren't considering Oakland as frequently.
Late-night BART "would attract an entirely different residential tenant base to the East Bay," he said. "It's mostly workforce housing now, people being priced out of the city moving out here and making the East Bay their lifestyle."
Eric Tao, a developer who runs AGI Capital Group, said the lack of late-night transit has affected his building choices.
The company is in talks to build a 114-unit building in Oakland's Uptown neighborhood, but he said rents aren't high enough to justify construction. Meanwhile, Tao's most recent project in San Francisco — the Vara apartments on 15th and Mission Streets, where I live — recently sold out. He said he surveyed Vara residents, who said they would pay 20 percent more than current rents in Uptown Oakland to live in the East Bay neighborhood if BART ran late-night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
"That alone would jumpstart residential development," Tao said. "If BART starts doing a late-night transit, I think rents will go up in Oakland and it'll be a major factor in helping Oakland overall generate more residential development."
(SF Business Times)
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