Oakland City Center facts for kids
Oakland City Center is a big area in Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California. It has offices, shopping places, and hotels. Think of it like a modern downtown hub! This area was created as part of a special project that started way back in the 1950s.
Oakland City Center covers about twelve city blocks. It's located between Broadway on one side and Martin Luther King Jr. Way on the other. To the north, you'll find Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. The Oakland Convention Center and a Marriott Hotel are also part of this complex. There's even a large parking garage under the shopping area. The mall has a fancy fitness club, lots of take-out restaurants, and other cool stores. Getting here is easy because the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART station is right there.
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How Oakland City Center Grew
Oakland City Center isn't really a neighborhood. It's more like a planned area with a shopping mall at its heart. This mall is a great example of how cities sometimes plan to rebuild and improve their downtown areas. This kind of planning started in the middle of the 1900s.
Early Plans and Changes
Years ago, a big part of Downtown Oakland had beautiful old Victorian and Italian-style apartment buildings. These buildings often had shops on the ground floor. The city decided to buy these properties, even if the owners didn't want to sell, using a process called eminent domain. This means the government can buy private land for public use. The old buildings were taken down to make way for a new vision.
The first idea was to build a huge indoor shopping mall, tall office buildings, a hotel, and a big parking garage. The original plan was very ambitious, wanting to clear 70 city blocks! But people who lived and owned businesses in the area didn't like that idea. So, the plan was made much smaller, focusing on just 12 blocks. The new design for this area even won an award in 1966!
Some older businesses, like pawnshops, and a theater called Moulin Rouge, were removed. However, a much-loved deli called Ratto's, which had been around for a long time, was almost torn down. But people protested, and Ratto's was saved!
Building Up the City Center
The first new office building in City Center opened on December 18, 1973. Then, the tall Clorox Building opened next door in 1976. But after that, construction slowed down. By the 1980s, the mall still wasn't built, and much of the area was empty.
So, the project was redesigned. Instead of a huge indoor mall, they planned a smaller outdoor shopping area. They also added a new federal office building. Some of the original street layout was brought back too.
In 1990, several new buildings were finished. This included the shopping area, which was named City Square. Also, 1111 Broadway was completed, becoming the main office for a big shipping company called American President Lines (APL).
Challenges and New Growth
Downtown Oakland faced some tough times after these new buildings opened. A big 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit the area, and then there was an recession (a time when the economy slows down) in the early 1990s. Because of this, private building projects at City Center stopped for a few years.
However, government jobs were not affected. The Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building complex was finished in 1994. This brought more people to the area, which helped the struggling mall.
Modern Developments
In December 1996, a company called Shorenstein Properties bought most of Oakland City Center. They also bought the rights to build on the empty lots. They planned to build four more tall office buildings.
Only one of these was built, called 555 City Center, which was finished in 2002. Later, Shorenstein Properties sold some of the land back to the city. The city then sold it to another company that built condominiums, which are apartments that people own.
Shorenstein Properties then planned to build more condominiums on one empty lot and another office tower on a different lot. The office tower was approved in late 2007, and construction officially started on October 1, 2008.
In June 2010, most of the City Center was sold again to a company called CB Richard Ellis Investors for a large sum of money. This shows how much the area has grown and changed over the years!
See also
- Chinatown
- Downtown Oakland
- Jack London Square
- Lakeside Apartments District
- List of tallest buildings in Oakland, California
- Old Oakland
- Oaksterdam
- Uptown Oakland
