BART Board approves hundreds of homes for Lake Merritt Station
On September 8, the BART Board gave final approvals to the first phase of the housing development at the Lake Merritt BART Station, consisting of 457 housing units with nearly 30% affordable to low and middle-income households. The development will be built by the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), a community-based organization based in Oakland’s Chinatown, and a joint venture of the Strada Investment Group with the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) known as LMTOD, LLC. This first phase will be built on the Lake Merritt BART parking lot at 51 9th Street in Oakland.
"This is a watershed day in what has been a long process,” said BART Board Director Robert Raburn. “I’m so proud that we are moving forward with what will be a transformative project for the Oakland Chinatown community. Phase I will create much-needed affordable housing within steps from public transportation.”
This development was envisioned years ago in the 2014 City-adopted Lake Merritt Station Area Plan, and the process to get to this point included dozens of community meetings with stakeholders in Chinatown and the Lake Merritt neighborhoods of Oakland.
Ultimately, this development is envisioned to be an important step in connecting the Lake Merritt Station closer to Chinatown. The development includes a publicly accessible paseo connecting BART’s entrances to Laney College, which will be activated with retail and community space on the ground floors of two buildings. The Lake Merritt Plaza and the City of Oakland’s Madison Park are contiguous with this paseo, offering the long-term potential for a three-block linear community space. The second phase of development at 101 8th Street will include a 500,000 square foot office building and 100 units of affordable multifamily housing. The second phase will offer 25,000 square feet of below market space to help address the displacement of community serving nonprofits and businesses in Chinatown. The BART Board also extended the agreement for this phase with the developer.
The City of Oakland provided preliminary approvals for this development in 2021, and final approvals for the first phase affordable housing in June 2022.
