First Residential Units Open In Alameda Point Waterfront District
Author: Kelsi Maree Borland
This post was written for and originally published on 6/16/2021 on GlobeSt
Aero Apartments is the first opportunity for residents to live in the newly revitalized waterfront district.
The first residential development has opened its doors in the Alameda Point Waterfront District. The 30-acre site was once home to a Naval Air Station but has been revitalized for the community. Aero Apartments, a joint venture project between Cypress Equity Investments and Equity Residential, is a major milestone in that revitalization.
“This is part of stage one of the greater Alameda Point Waterfront District, and really Aero Apartments is the first opportunity for residential units in this new district,” Alla Sorochinsky, Cypress Equity Investments’ managing director and CFO, tells GlobeSt.com. “We really focused on high design and cosmopolitan living so that people could really enjoy the waterfront setting. This is the first construction of lease-up apartments in the last two decades in Alameda Point, and we really envisioned providing a very tranquil community just minutes from San Francisco. We are providing something new and different in the Bay Area.”
This property took collaboration between the development team and the city to get off of the ground and a strong vision. “The City of Alameda has really wanted to redevelop this waterfront for a long time,” says Sorochinsky. “It really took bringing the developer to build both the horizontal infrastructure and then build the units in the building. Alameda Point is a place that typically has large single-family homes and a lot of older apartments as well as really nice retail. This project was the next step in bringing new residential living to the area.”
The property is the first new class-A apartment property to come to the market in two decades, and has already been a success. Sorochinsky says that, considering the pandemic, leasing is going “surprisingly well” with 10% of the property leased during construction and now leasing sits just below 20%. “We delivered the project at a good time because we are coming out of the pandemic and people are ready to come back into the residential market. We delivered the first of our buildings, and we have had good demand. People are really interested in the product,” she adds.
Even better, the developer is meeting its proforma rents and keeping concessions in step with the market. “We are following the concessions trends in the market. We have concessions in place, but we set our market rates in January and we have held steady,” says Sorochinsky.
This is only the first phase of the revitalization project, and the development team has more projects in the pipeline. They are currently in negotiations with the city for lots in phase one and phase two. Sorochinsky says, “Our goal it to bring more residential product to the waterfront district because the demand is there.”
Aero Apartments is a 200-unit property with a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom units. Built with sustainability in mind, it is LEED Gold certified. The property is a short 18-minute ride into San Francisco through the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal, which was also completed as part of the revitalization.