Group living housing project in Berkeley could produce 100-plus units
BERKELEY — A group-living housing development could add more than 100 residential units near a busy intersection in western Berkeley, city documents show.
The housing would be built at 2147 San Pablo Avenue at the corner of Cowper Street, according to a preliminary application on file with Berkeley city planners.
The six-story residential development would consist of 128 housing units as well as 1,900 square feet of retail space on the project’s ground floor.
The housing would be created in a group living arrangement, the Berkeley documents show. Studio KDA, an architectural firm, submitted the files that sketched out the proposal.
“Each group-living resident has a private bathroom, bedroom, and kitchenette within their unit and shares common laundry, trash, living, cooking, and dining spaces located on each floor,” Austin Springer, a senior project manager with Studio KDA, stated in a narrative that accompanied the proposal.
People living in the project will also be able to take advantage of an array of amenities.
“All residents will have access to over 5,000 square feet of shared open space between balconies attached to all common areas, a large second-floor courtyard and sky bridge above with views of the East Bay hills, and a sixth-floor roof deck,” Studio KDA said in the preliminary proposal.
The project will include 12 units for people in very low-income households, the planning documents show.
A commercial auto-body shop currently occupies the site and would be bulldozed for the development.
The property at present is owned by an affiliate that is headed up by Kevin Kawei Wang, who is a principal executive with Alameda-based Wang Brothers Investments, a real estate firm.
In January 2022, the Wang Brothers affiliate bought the project site, paying $2.75 million for the property, documents filed with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office show. The affiliate also obtained nearly $1.7 million in financing from Western Alliance Bank at the time of the purchase.
From time to time, property owners will seek approval for a substantial project even though they don’t intend to develop the site themselves. In that sort of scenario, the owner will flip the fully entitled property to the actual developer. In other instances, the property owner also develops the project after securing approval.
It wasn’t immediately clear which scenario Wang Brothers might pursue.
“Our mission is to constantly seek opportunities that would support investors who are readily available to fund sound projects,” Wang Brothers states on one of the pages of its website. “Furthermore, we strive to foster development, drive investments, and revitalize neighborhoods.”
The 128-unit development at San Pablo and Cowper could offer plenty of benefits at a time when state and local government officials have scrambled to find ways to encourage and approve affordable housing, Studio KDA declared in its project narrative.
“The proposed project provides 128 new beds in Berkeley that will help to combat the present housing crisis facing not just Berkeley, but California as a state,” Studio KDA stated in the planning documents. “This project is the exact sort of high-density, transit-oriented development the state needs to build more of to address this crisis.”