Another large industrial parcel in West Berkeley is up for sale. The Jones family, which has owned eight.7 acres with the aid of Aquatic Park when you consider that 1979, is promoting three addresses: the antique American Soil & Stone assets at 600 Addison St.; 91 Bolivar Dr., currently the house of Plexxikon, a drug discovery corporation; and 2222 Third St., which homes OpenROV, an underwater drone maker. The Jones circle of relatives, operating as Aquatic Park Science Center II, have employed JLL, an actual industrial estate employer, to promote the land. It is being advertised because of the Berkeley Innovation & Technology Park, a “singular piece of assets close to Interstate 80 with perspectives of San Francisco, the Bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge.” “With the shortage of developable land within the location, this web site represents a once in a technology opportunity for a developer or proprietor-person to gather extraordinary assets for the creation of a fantastic office or R&D life technology campus within the San Francisco Bay Area,” reads the marketing materials. Bids at the property are due soon, in step with a person with the expertise of the method who did no longer want to be named. The sales price is not public. However, current rents generate $1.Three million a year, in step with the brochure.
While the assets are on the market, that does not imply the circle of relatives will truly sell it, said Jason Jones, son of Charles Jones who offered the belongings in 1979. The provision has to be appropriately sufficient, he stated. He did not want to difficult on why the family has put it up for sale. “I don’t want to say too much due to the fact we have attempted to keep ourselves out of the news and out of the limelight,” said Jones. “Life is less complicated if you are invisible.” Three principal West Berkeley houses are now available on the market. This is the second big industrial belongings in West Berkeley that has gone in the marketplace currently. The eight.6-acre website at 1333 Second St. That housed Pacific Steel Casting for eighty-four years is being advertised because of the “Gilman Gateway.” Bids for that asset, which encompass around ten buildings, are because of Cushman and Wakefield, the economic real property brokers, on March 29. Dozens of folks that came to the latest community meeting approximately the web site expressed a choice to see it grow to be a progressive commercial hub. Wareham Development is also selling the Fantasy Building at 2600 Tenth St. The shape as soon as housed Fantasy Studios and the Saul Zaentz employer. Land for business makes use of is in high demand in the Bay Area, and both of the industrial residences are being marketed as uncommon opportunities to find or create space for industry.
The Jones circle of relatives assets is zoned MU-LI, or “blended-use light business.” The land can be used for business places of work, R&D, and existence science, mild industrial and pharmacological makes use of. The Pacific Steel Casting property is zoned M, for production, which affords less flexibility, even though a zoning overlay allows an automobile dealership to be positioned there. The land also can hold cannabis grow websites. Berkeley officials have indicated they are open to converting the zoning on the Pacific Steel Casting web site to MU-LI, too. The Jones own family belongings are bounded using Bolivar Drive and Aquatic Park to the west, the Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the east, Addison Street to the north, and Bancroft Way to the south. The land is imperative to Berkeley’s records.
The parcel that is on the market is an integral part of Berkeley’s history, even though an architectural consultant determined in 2017 that no traditional systems stay. In 1875, Richard Parks Thomas constructed the Standard Soap Company on a full block of Third Street, in keeping with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. The manufacturing unit manufactured many unique styles of laundry and hand soaps. The organisation additionally ran a ferry to San Francisco, in step with BAHA. Peet Brothers of Kansas City received the cleaning soap agency in 1916, and it became ultimately absorbed into the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet “empire,” Charles Wollenberg wrote in his book, Berkeley: A City in History. Many decades later, in 1997, Charles Jones purchased the property from Dymo, in step with records organised using his own family. Jones leased out homes, warehouse area, and land to many exceptional entities over the years, such as Berkeley Lab, an employer called Consilient, Audubon Cellars & Winery, Takara Sake, Fathom Engineering, Triangle Paints and American Soils.
In 2011, the Jones family teamed up with Steven and Michael Goldin, who had assets round the corner, to offer a 12.Five-acre parcel alongside Aquatic Park for a 2nd web page for Lawrence Berkeley Lab. After UC Berkeley selected another site in Richmond (plans for which it eventually suspended), the Jones circle of relatives, in 2015, applied to the city of Berkeley for a grasp-use allow. Charles and Jason Jones proposed to build a new lifestyles sciences engineering campus at the belongings. The Joneses dropped their quest for a master lease in February 2018 after the Zoning Adjustments Board requested for an extra designed plan than what had been supplied. “The Jones circle of relatives, now not being developers, refused to go down that path,” said Joe DeCredico, whose Joe DeCredico Studio instructed the assignment through the making plans technique. “So Jason [Jones] has put it on the market.”
The actual estate agency advertising the land points out that it sits amid some of the life sciences agencies, and is most effective 1.2 miles from UC Berkeley. “Berkeley and Emeryville remain the East Bay’s number one existence sciences hub, anchored by way of groups like Bayer Healthcare, Novartis, Siemens, Amyris Biotechnologies, Zymergen and Aduro Biotech,” in line with the brochure. But any plan to erect large R&D or office homes at the web site may meet opposition if the network’s response to the concept of making that location a second campus for Berkeley Lab is any indication. While many civic leaders and business humans championed what became being called Aquatic Park West, others expressed difficulty that large building might not be appropriate for the region. It abuts Aquatic Park, which serves as a recreational location and is home to many birds.
