Oakland City Center facts for kids
Oakland City Center is a large area in Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California. It has offices, shopping areas, and hotels. This big project started in the late 1950s. It covers about twelve city blocks. You can find it between Broadway and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Frank H. Ogawa Plaza is to the north, and the Oakland Convention Center is to the south. There is a parking garage under the shopping area. The shopping area also has a gym with sports courts, plus many restaurants and other stores. You can easily get there using the BART train system. The 12th Street/Oakland City Center station is right there.
Contents
A Look at Oakland City Center's History
Oakland City Center is not a neighborhood, but a special area in downtown Oakland. It has an outdoor shopping mall at its heart. This area is a good example of how cities plan to rebuild and improve land. This kind of planning started in the mid-1900s and continues today.
How the Project Started
A long time ago, many beautiful old Victorian and Italian-style apartment buildings stood here. They had shops on the ground floor. The city decided to take over this land. They used a process called eminent domain. This means the government can buy private land for public use, even if the owner doesn't want to sell. The old buildings were torn down.
The original idea was to build a big indoor shopping mall, tall office buildings, a hotel, and a parking garage. At first, the city wanted to clear 70 city blocks! But people living nearby and business owners disagreed. So, the plan was made much smaller, covering only 12 blocks. This new plan won an award in 1966 for its design.
Some businesses, like pawnshops and the Moulin Rouge Theatre, were removed. A very old and popular deli called Ratto's was almost torn down too. But people protested, and it was saved!
Building the City Center
The first office building opened on December 18, 1973. The first tall skyscraper, the Clorox Building, opened in 1976. But then, building stopped for a while. By the 1980s, most of the area was still empty land.
The project was redesigned. They decided to build a smaller outdoor shopping area instead of a big indoor mall. They also added a new federal office building. Some of the original streets were brought back.
In 1990, several new buildings were finished. These included the shopping area, which was named City Square. Also, the building at 1111 Broadway was completed. This became the main office for a big shipping company called American President Lines (APL).
Challenges and Growth
The economic recovery of downtown Oakland faced problems. In 1989, a big earthquake called the Loma Prieta earthquake hit. Then, there was an economic slowdown in the early 1990s. Because of this, private building at City Center stopped for a few years.
However, government offices kept growing. The Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building complex was finished in 1994. This brought more people to the struggling shopping area.
In 1996, a company called Shorenstein Properties bought most of Oakland City Center. They planned to build four more tall office buildings. But only one was built, 555 City Center, which was finished in 2002.
Later, Shorenstein Properties sold some land back to the city. This land was then sold to another company that is building new homes (condominiums). Shorenstein Properties is now planning to build more homes and another office tower on the remaining empty lots. The plan for the office tower was approved in 2007, and construction started in 2008.
In June 2010, most of City Center was sold to another company, CB Richard Ellis Investors, for $360 million.
