East Bay apartment complex is nearly full and starts adding retailers

ALAMEDA — Once the site of a longtime cannery operation, an Alameda apartment complex landed its first retailers and has nearly filled its residential spaces.

Star Harbor Apartments, a 372-unit residential hub along the Alameda shoreline at 1501 Buena Vista Ave. and 1518 Clement Ave., is now 96% occupied, according to real estate firm Maven Commercial.

LuxFit, an indoor and outdoor fitness experience, and Highwire, a coffee roasting and tea merchant, are the first retailers to lease ground-floor spaces at the complex, said Nadine Whisnant, a principal executive with Maven Commercial.

“It’s exciting to get these retailers in here,” Whisnant said. “Interest in the retail really started to take off once people moved into the apartments and the retail spaces were completed.”

The retail spaces total 10,000 square feet. LuxFit leased 5,000 square feet and Highwire rented 1,500 square feet, according to Maven Commercial.

The LuxFit deal represents its first expansion beyond San Francisco.

“Alameda is home to families, athletes, professionals, and an active community that deserve more than a traditional gym or single-format studio,” said Yotam Israeli, LuxFit’s founder and chief executive officer.

The fitness center’s executives say the new Alameda location won’t simply duplicate the existing LuxFit sites.

“We designed this space around how this community actually lives, trains, and spends time together,” said Amber Woolcock, a LuxFit vice president.

Highwire has eight locations, all in the East Bay: five in Oakland, one in Walnut Creek, one in Albany, and another in Alameda.

Opened in 2022, Wood Partners teamed up with Principal Real Estate Investors to buy and develop Star Harbor Apartments at a former 10.2-acre cannery site. In February 2025, they sold the complex to Strada Investment for $153.7 million.

“This waterfront community is a combination of new construction and the adaptive reuse of a 100-year-old Del Monte warehouse with all residences located within the six-acre historic brick facade,” Wood Partners stated at the time the project opened.

California Packing Corp., which later became Del Monte Foods, built the massive brick warehouse. The heavy timber frame building totaled 240,000 square feet.

The historic look and feel of the site is catching the eye of retailers as well as residents of the apartments.

“It’s a stunning historic building,” Whisnant said. “It has high ceilings, outside seating, a brick facade, and great interiors.”