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Feature Story

Patient Developer Presents Latest Version of Proposed Transit Center

Bil Paul
The Emeryville Connection Staff
May 2007

It all began when Wareham Development’s owner, Rich Robbins, saw an opportunity and ran with it. The old Oakland Amtrak train station was closed and rendered unusable after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and Amtrak was compelled to search for a new passenger terminal.

Robbins forged a partnership with Emeryville and, on spec and at no taxpayer expense, built a new train station in approximately a year. He leased the attractive station to the City, who leased it to Amtrak, planting the seeds for a revitalization of that part of the City.

Since then, Robbins, working with a progressive and innovative city government, has expanded his vision of change in the Amtrak station area. He surrounded it with new Wareham buildings: EmeryStation I; EmeryStation North, and EmeryStation East (now under construction), all devoted to office and laboratory space with some retail, and The Terraces at EmeryStation.

Wareham’s next project: a 12-story Transit Center to help people maximize use of public transportation.

Building a transit center would be coming back full circle for Robbins, because in some ways the new center would be an extension of his original Amtrak station. As planned, the proposed Transit Center would be built just to the north of and connect to the existing station, and would help serve those passengers boarding or leaving the far ends of trains.

This Transit Center, to be located in what is now an open-air parking lot, has had a long gestation. Its site was once part of a large the Westinghouse manufacturing complex which was eventually vacated. Coincidentally, Emeryville had for a long time eyed the site as a potential transit-oriented center and public parking facility.

Robbins and Wareham Development entered the picture in September, 2005, when the City and the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency’s asked them to develop a center with transit features along with commercial uses such as retail stores and offices. The agency had expressed interest in funding part of a large toxic cleanup of the site (estimated to cost between 10 and 12 million dollars) and has been working to secure state and federal funds to help pay for the public parking and transit features of the center. Wareham would fund the remainder.

So far, Robbin’s plans have been shown to the Planning Commission and to the relevant city departments, and after feedback, the plans have evolved considerably.

The current iteration of the transit center includes:

• Transit accommodations at the street level to serve trains, buses and shuttles, taxis, limos, bikes, carpools/car-share, and private cars.

• Retail stores and “street vibrancy” in the form of a plaza would also be offered.

• A physical connection between the transit center and the existing train station.

• Six levels of parking, including one underground, providing approximately 600 public and private parking spaces (compared to the 215 spaces provided in the current one-level lot). The above-ground parking areas would be screened from outside view by the use a “green screen.”

• Seven floors of the building devoted to laboratory and office space. Because this portion of the building has a smaller footprint than the lower parking area, space is available to create an open “sky garden” atop the fifth floor of parking.

The potential roadblock that Robbins and Wareham Development must overcome to obtain a final go-ahead from the City Council is the building’s projected height. While considerably shorter than the original 235-foot tower initially proposed, at 169 feet it is still only half as tall as Pacific Park Plaza and more on the scale of the Watergate office buildings.

The area is zoned to a height limit of only 55 feet, which can be extended to 80 feet with a conditional use permit, so the City Council would have to grant a special exemption from zoning restrictions for this project to proceed.

Robbins needs the height for the project to be financially viable, and he can point to precedents: the City Council has previously granted height variances to buildings such as the 30-story, 318-foot-high Pacific Park Plaza.

The Planning Commission held a study session on the Transit Center on March 22nd and the City Council is expected to hold a study session for the Transit Center project soon to which the public would be invited.

Rich Robbins has come a long way since he inaugurated Wareham Development 30 years ago. Besides its properties in Emeryville, Wareham also has properties in Berkeley, Richmond, Marin County (where Wareham is headquartered), and Sun Valley, Idaho.

Wareham has a reputation for working cooperatively with local governments, particularly in Emeryville, where environmental cleanups and public/private partnerships were needed.

Robbins says that, “It’s a privilege to be one part of a phenomenal public/private partnership … Wareham and Emeryville have worked together not only on Wareham projects but on (other) Emeryville projects to … leave a great legacy and quality of life in the city.”

One of the things he loves about Emeryville is “the continuity of leadership … Emeryville had John Flores as city manager for almost 19 years. Patrick O’Keefe is the City Manager now, who previously worked with John Flores as the City’s Director of Economic Development and Housing. Several City Council members have been in place for many years, and those who preceded them had been in place for many years. So there’s a terrific thread of continuity … and it’s been benefiting the City because their dreams were big.”

Robbins is allied with the green movement, and actively promotes the use of public transit. “The future of this area is going to be reliable, alternative transit, whether it’s bicycles, shuttles, the Emery Go Round, or the Capitol Corridor trains,” he says. He knows that increasing numbers of people will need to park their cars at the proposed transit center to take advantage of the various forms of transportation.

He’s been very successful in catering to and attracting bio- and other tech companies to his commercial buildings in Emeryville.

Robbins is steeling himself for the slings and arrows usually cast in the direction of big new development. “At this point we need (a) thick skin,” he said, adding, “We believe in the vision (and are going to) push it forth.”

If Robbins and Wareham Development get the approvals they need in a timely fashion, as they have in the past, he expects Emeryville could have a sparkling new Transit Center by 2009. It would beat San Francisco’s planned rebuilding of its Trans-Bay Terminal by years.

Bil Paul is a writer for The Emeryville Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com.