Tuyen's Blog

Posts for Tag: jack london market

Jack London Market is now fully rented!

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The Jack London Market building is now fully occupied after Navis LLC agreed to take space on the top two floors.

The Jack London Market building is now fully occupied after Navis LLC agreed to take space on the top two floors.  Great to see the it finally fully occupied. We've been in the area now for close to 5 years and the dream of this beautiful building as the anchor of a revitalized Jack London Square was starting to fade away. Hopefully with the increased foot traffic, many of the local restaurants and businesses can thrive.

On another note, the courtyard in front of the old Barnes and Noble is currently being renovated to become a new open area and outdoor dining spot. Should be great during the summer months. Not sure what the building itself will become but rumors are that the powers that be are trying to woo either Trader Joes or Whole Foods there. Not sure how the parking logistics would work but more people flowing into JLS is never a bad thing.

Jack London Market changes plans

The developers originally planned to open a public market in the building’s interior similar to the ones in San Francisco’s Ferry Building and Seattle’s Pike Place Market, but are now leaning toward attracting food manufacturing tenants to fill the space.
via bizjournals.com

The news of the Jack London Market seems to be the secondary story in this piece (though Haven is quite good and deserves much kudos). Sad to see that the dream of having a Ferry Building style market place in Jack London is going away. However, looking at the abandoned first floor of the building for the past 3 years has been a bit of a downer so I'd be glad to see anybody occupy that spot. If they plan to bring folks like Miette in with their baking operations and small store front, it could actually work out to be something similar to the original idea.

It was a pretty ambitious plan to begin with. Without the necessary foot traffic, it would have been pretty difficult for any market style business to thrive. Had they been able to rent out all of the office space above the market, it could have worked. Hopefully once/if that space is taken, they can revisit the idea of a market style section.

Jack London Square heats up with expansion by Sungevity and fine dining from Daniel Patterson

Double dose of good news for Jack London Square today. First was that hot solar start-up Sungevity is leasing an additional 36,500 square feet in the mostly empty Jack London Market building. Sungevity is hoping to reach 400 employees by the end of the year which will give a great shot in the arm to the local economy. Even better was Sungevity CEO, Andrew Birch's commitment to growing in Jack London Square for the foreseeable future. The second piece of good news is that Daniel Patterson of COI fame has begun construction on his new restaurant Haven (also in the Jack London Market building). It's set to open in November of this year and will provide another great fine dining option alongside Bocanova and Ecuentro. Hopefully more businesses build/relocate/expand in the area and begin to realize that it's a great place to work and play.

Jack London Square quick visit

Took a walk down to Barnes and Noble in Jack London. Decided to snap a few pics along the way.

Here's a few shots of the area right outside of B&N.

Next took a walk down to check out the new Jack London Market. Last shot is of Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon near the base of the Jack London Market; an old school bar - 126 years old to be exact!

Here are some shots of the new Jack London Market itself. Still not yet open for business as the economy has derailed some of the tenants that were hoping to move in this summer. As such, final interior work has been greatly delayed as the landlords figure out who is going to occupy the lower market floors, as well as the upper office space. When we first were looking at office space a year ago, word was that office space would top $4 per square foot. Fast forward a year later, that number is down to about $3 but still no takers. One of the reasons is that they want to rent large blocks of space (25K minimum) instead of opening it up to smaller tenants. I give them another 3 months before that attitude and the price changes.

Exterior shots of the Northern side including shots from the top of the stairs.

Eastern side with the roll up doors for food vendors to bring in their goods.

The interior of the ground floor where all the small market vendors will be situated.

Shots of the Amtrak station and walking bridge across from the Eastern side.

Southern side of the building. Third shot is of an art piece done by Roger Stoller, a Silicon Valley product designer turned sculptor.

Western side of the building with a similar set of stairs to the Northern side.

Interior shots of the second floor. This is where the many restaurants and coffee shops will be. As you can see, very unfinished.

Cafe afternoon and Oakland office buildings

It's been a while since I've been able to get away from the office for an afternoon at the cafe. Today was perfect cafe weather if not for the sun being blocked out by the APL building. Centrro's first offices were at 22nd and Broadway at the BroadLake Plaza Building, a standard eight story office building in what is now called the Uptown District. BTW, what's up with the naming of Oakland's districts? Guess it's just another phase of the gentrification of the city (not 100% bad, but not 100% good either). More on that another time. At any rate, one of the consistent things we noticed was that even on sunny days, it always seemed dark outside of the downtown buildings except for the hours right around high noon. Contrast that with the Old Warehouse District where there are very few buildings over five stories and you can get decent sunlight on the sidewalk for most of the day. Can't wait for Jack London Market to open up so I can get my cafe fix within closer walking distance.