Oxford Elementary was vacated in 2020 after a report found it could sustain significant structural damage during an earthquake. File photo: Natalie Orenstein

A longtime Berkeley developer says he wants to build housing at the former site of Oxford Elementary School, after the Berkeley school district accepted his $3 million bid to buy the property last week. 

Patrick Kennedy, owner of the development firm Panoramic Interests, was the only person to bid on the former school site at 1130 Oxford St. during an auction at the school board meeting Wednesday.

Students were moved from the school in 2020 after a study revealed its earthquake vulnerability and began the process of selling it in 2024. Located in North Berkeley, the property is approximately 1.26 acres and features two buildings, including the main three-story school building that spans about 24,000 square feet, according to Norheim & Yost, the real estate company listing the property. 

Kennedy told Berkeleyside in an interview that he plans to demolish the school buildings, which he said are “not reusable,” and build homes in their place. 

While Kennedy is best known for building apartment complexes in downtown Berkeley, such as the Gaia Building at 2116 Allston Way and a 17-story high-rise approved for the shuttered United Artists Theatre, he said the project he envisions at the Oxford site would be a smaller-scale development. Panoramic Interests is still in the early stages of studying what could be built on the property, Kennedy said, but he suggested the project could take the form of single-family homes that would appeal to young families or condos aimed at empty nesters. He declined to say how many total homes the project might include.

“It will be a different thing from what we usually do,” Kennedy said. “We would build something completely in keeping with the scale of the neighborhood, I believe.” 

The property, which is surrounded by single-family homes, is subject to some of Berkeley’s most restrictive zoning regulations. 

It sits within the city’s Hillside Overlay District, which was carved out of zoning changes adopted earlier this year that allowed more apartments to be built in residential neighborhoods throughout the flatlands, amid concerns about adding more housing and residents to parts of the city that are at risk from wildfire. Then again, changes to state housing laws such as 2021’s SB 9 have opened the door for property owners to build more housing in neighborhoods that were long zoned only for single-family houses, like the one where the school sits.

Kennedy was lone bidder at school board auction

There appeared to be low interest in the property since it went for sale. 

Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) gave priority notice, as required by law, to certain public agencies and nonprofits about the site’s availability in June 2024, but did not receive any letters of interest to purchase the land.

BUSD did not receive any sealed bids for the site by its Oct. 10 deadline. The auction during Wednesday’s school board meeting began and ended with Kennedy’s $3 million verbal bid — the amount set beforehand by the district as the minimum sale price. 

“That was not exciting,” Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel said following the auction. Earlier, she had called attention to the bidding for the Oxford property, saying, “We might actually get some live auction action here tonight.”

The property was developed in 1909, and the school was rebuilt in 1965 and remodeled in 1998. But a 2019 report found that a major earthquake could seriously endanger students and staff, moving the school up to 20 feet, igniting utility lines and blocking road access. BUSD is selling the property as is, with no warranties or guarantees.

Oxford Elementary School students received remote learning instruction during the height of the pandemic after the site was closed, then returned to class at a new building on University Avenue in West Berkeley, which remains the site of the school.

According to BUSD, the revenue from the sale will be used for maintenance or acquisition of other long-term assets. 

Kennedy said the site is ripe for housing. 

He predicted families would be drawn to nearby amenities like Live Oak Park and the North Shattuck shopping district, noting a report from the San Francisco Chronicle that declared nearby Thousand Oaks the fastest-aging neighborhood in the Bay Area. The median age in the census tract that includes the school has soared to just over 56, according to the Chronicle, while data tracked by the real estate site Zillow shows the median home sale price in the 94707 ZIP code tops $1.6 million. 

“It’s an attractive area for young families, and I think North Berkeley would benefit” from the housing, Kennedy said.

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