Trammell Crow Residential Breaks Ground on its First Residential Ground-Up Development Project in San Francisco Bay Area
The Registry SF
July 17, 2017
MILL VALLEY, CALIF. — Trammell Crow Residential (TCR), the multi-family division of Dallas, TX-based Crow Holdings, announced today that the firm will be celebrating the groundbreaking of its first residential/mixed-use project in Northern California since re-establishing an office in the Bay Area. The Alexan Webster, located in Oakland’s Lake Merritt neighborhood between Webster Street and Valdez Street at 23rd Street, involves redeveloping a public surface parking lot in a public/private venture with the City of Oakland. The $135 million project will include a replacement parking structure owned by the City and a luxury apartment community with retail space and a dramatic public art installation.
“Trammell Crow Residential is excited to play an important role in transforming this downtown Lake Merritt neighborhood into a new, re-energized retail district and entertainment area,” said Bruce Dorfman, TCR’s Senior Managing Director of the Northern California division. “The addition of this new $135 million mixed-use development will also help meet the rising demand for both market rate and affordable housing and neighborhood-serving amenities in Oakland.”
Designed by international award-winning KTGY Architecture + Planning, the Alexan Webster will feature a 234-unit mixed-use mixed-income apartment community with 15,000 square feet of retail. The design also includes a parking garage with 242 public city stalls as well as 110 exclusive use parking spaces for the apartment community’s residents. Financing for the Alexan Webster is being provided by UBS. TCR has entered into an agreement with the City to support local workers and has formed a venture with a union contractor, Suffolk Construction, to serve as the general contractor.
Dorfman reports that TCR has more than $1 billion in its development pipeline in the San Francisco Bay Area and is continuing to look for additional opportunities in the region, particularly in Silicon Valley. “We are pursuing larger-scale infill sites in which we can offer pedestrian- friendly environments,” said Dorfman. “Frequently, we get involved with complex mixed-use developments such as the Alexan Webster and the Alameda Naval Air Station, where we work with cities and public agencies to create communities that revitalize neighborhoods. In other developments, the surrounding neighborhood is often the top amenity that attracts residents.”
“We are focused on quality locations such as the Webster site, which have high barriers to entry. While they have challenges that must be addressed, our reputation has been created by resolving difficult issues,” Dorfman explained. “We have good relationships with the municipalities in which we develop and we proactively work with the neighborhoods and interested community groups, which is critical in the Bay Area.”
Dorfman continues, “Our objective is to deliver high-quality multi-family buildings that are contextual and seamlessly fit into the community. Our properties typically include a percentage of below market rate housing and desirable amenities that enhance our residents’ quality of life.”
Trammell Crow Residential acquired Thompson | Dorfman Partners, LLC (TDP), a Mill Valley, Calif.-based developer of multi-family real estate in 2015. “TCR has given us not only the critical financial backing, but also the relationships and staffing required to execute the development of mixed-use projects like Alexan Webster,” said Will Thompson, Co-founder of TDP and Senior Managing Director of Trammell Crow Residential. “We are thrilled and honored to be operating under the TCR company banner and are excited to expand their portfolio.”
Dorfman reports that TCR is presently developing and has capitalized a total of 700 residential units spanning three new San Francisco projects as well as an additional 1,500 units in the East Bay.
“Although multi-family development activity has certainly increased in the last several years in the Bay Area, if you look at the overall supply/demand dynamic, there is still a significant undersupply of housing at all levels,” Dorfman said.
Trammell Crow Residential
Trammell Crow Residential was founded in 1977 to develop, construct and asset manage multi-family rental communities. Since inception, TCR has developed over 240,000 multi-family units in most major markets across the country. Currently, the company owns over 19,000 apartment units nationwide with an additional 3,700 new units planned for construction later this year. For more information, please visit TCR.com.
