{"id":251743,"date":"2026-04-04T15:19:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251743\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:19:25","slug":"oakland-landlord-looks-to-sell-after-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251743\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland landlord looks to sell after fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fire tore through a downtown apartment building<\/a> the morning of Jan. 19, displacing dozens of tenants and prompting the fire department to red-tag the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next couple of days were chaotic around 1770 Broadway. Some residents moved into an impromptu shelter, while others looked for couches to crash on. Information came out about an illegal chop shop in the building that likely caused the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And controversy soon erupted over a letter distributed by the landlord<\/a> the same day as the blaze, announcing leases were terminated \u2014 a letter the city attorney demanded he withdraw.<\/p>\n

A day later, amid this tumult, the landlord, Ted Dang, sent an email to an affordable housing developer.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the building is damaged and vacant,\u201d Dang wrote, \u201cWould it be a better candidate for that housing program?\u201d<\/p>\n

He attached a photograph of flames and smoke billowing out of the building 30 hours prior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The developer, Ali Kashani, quickly forwarded Dang\u2019s email to a city housing staffer, explaining that he\u2019d toured the property the month before, considering submitting it for a city program that funds the purchase and conversion of existing buildings into affordable housing. He \u201cdeclined\u201d to pursue buying it at the time, Kashani wrote, \u201cchiefly due to the extensive Health and Safety issues with it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But \u201cnow that it is vacant, it could be a candidate for some kind of city funding. Any suggestions, ideas?\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing director Emily Weinstein responded curtly:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently working to identify potential vacancies for displaced tenants. Ted Dang must comply with all of the City\u2019s tenant rights and relocation requirements and processes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Dang\u2019s email to Kashani the day after the fire, obtained by The Oaklandside via a public records request.<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cAs you know we have the following funding programs,\u201d and linked to the city\u2019s webpage for developers.<\/p>\n

Asked about his email this week, Dang said the context is important \u2014 he and Kashani have a history of collaborating on creating affordable housing in Oakland. Dang is the co-founder of the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, or EBALDC<\/a>, a prolific affordable housing developer in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to keep it affordable,\u201d Dang said of 1770 Broadway. While not currently a subsidized building, the older rent-controlled property housed many low-income tenants, including many with Section 8 vouchers.<\/p>\n

Dang told The Oaklandside that an unoccupied building is better suited for the city\u2019s Acquisition and Conversion to Affordable Housing<\/a> funding program.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccost would be less\u201d to renovate a vacant property, so the building was a stronger candidate for the city program after the fire, he explained.<\/p>\n

Kashani told The Oaklandside he\u2019d reached out to the city to \u201ctake the temperature\u201d on opportunities for the property post-fire but didn\u2019t end up pursuing anything.<\/p>\n

Dang insisted that neither the letter claiming leases were terminated, nor his email to Kashani meant that current tenants couldn\u2019t eventually return to the building.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Dang is embroiled in a dispute with the city over whether he owes tenants relocation payments while repairs are occurring.<\/p>\n

During a city hearing for that matter last month, Dang and his lawyer said the letters weren\u2019t meant to be eviction notices. Instead, they wanted to quickly let tenants know the building was damaged and uninhabitable and to explain next steps, like how to return their keys and get their deposits back.<\/p>\n

Soon after the fire, the city of Oakland determined<\/a> that Dang is responsible for covering relocation payments for the displaced renters \u2014 about $8,600 per unit, or $11,000 if there are low-income, senior, or minor tenants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dang and his property manager were well aware in advance of the conditions that likely led to the fire, the city argued, and of problems caused by trespassers they allowed into the building, not by tenants.<\/p>\n

Dang, who\u2019s owned the building through his company 19th & Broadway Associates since the 1980s, has appealed this ruling<\/a>. He argues that he did everything in his power to remedy dangerous conditions but was repeatedly stonewalled by police and the courts. He also hired a tenant, who was a licensed security guard, to patrol the property. He notes, too, that no code compliance issues had been identified in the building prior to the fire.<\/p>\n

Tenants were displaced by a fire, not the property owner\u2019s actions, his appeal says.<\/p>\n

The Oakland Fire Department has not officially determined the cause of the Jan. 19 fire. But the renters, owner, manager, and city staff generally all believe it was caused by someone charging a lithium-ion battery at an electric scooter \u201cchop shop\u201d run out of a unit in the building. The enterprise was reportedly run by someone who\u2019d been a guest of a tenant on a different floor, but later moved themselves into the unit where the fire occurred, displacing the tenant there, who had mental health challenges and was often forced to sleep in the laundry room.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3721\"\/Mistah F.A.B.\u2019s Dope Era shop was one of four businesses on the ground floor of the building. They suffered water damage and had to close after the fire. Credit: Darwin BondGraham\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Oakland\u2019s housing department \u201chas the attitude that if you own a building that is destroyed by fire, you must pay displaced tenants as if the owner was an insurance company,\u201d wrote lawyer Clifford E. Fried of the firm Fried, Williams & Grice Conner<\/a>, in the appeal.<\/p>\n

He goes further to say \u201cit could be argued\u201d that the city\u2019s housing department and the Eviction Defense Center<\/a>, which receives funding from the city of Oakland, \u201ccaused the fire by allowing the problem tenants and their lithium-ion chop shop guests to remain in possession of their units.\u201d Fried writes that the Eviction Defense Center represented the tenant in the unit where the chop shop was originally located, whom the landlord was trying to evict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a response<\/a>, Deputy City Attorney Braz Shabrell wrote that the relocation program is completely distinct from the city\u2019s various contracts with service providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy all accounts, this was a foreseeable fire that should not have happened,\u201d Shabrell wrote, noting that Dang\u2019s property manager admitted during the appeal hearing that he was \u201cbluffing\u201d when he told the chop shop operator that he\u2019d remove his belongings if he didn\u2019t leave the property. Dang never pursued an eviction in the unit he\u2019d moved into, where the fire started, Shabrell said.<\/p>\n

Property owners who appeal a relocation payment determination are still required to deposit the full amount with the city ahead of the hearing. In this case, Dang received a waiver allowing him to proceed without posting the $400,000 for the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any money to pay it \u2014 we\u2019re not collecting any rent,\u201d Dang told The Oaklandside. \u201cI can\u2019t ask my partners for any money at this time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also disputed the city\u2019s calculation of the number of tenants in the building, given that there are several vacancies \u2014 though city staff said Dang didn\u2019t provide them a list, so they had to estimate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dang and his family own at least 16 other properties in the Bay Area, many around downtown Oakland, Chinatown, and Adam\u2019s Point, according to public records. He said he\u2019s not pursuing the city\u2019s Acquisition and Conversion to Affordable Housing funds for any others.<\/p>\n

He said the city and police should focus on finding and penalizing the chop shop operator, who he said is responsible for the fire and disappeared afterward.<\/p>\n

At the appeal hearing on March 23, the hearing officer heard arguments from the city and the landlord, and gave each about a week longer to provide additional information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No decision has been released yet.<\/p>\n

After the hearing, some tenants and the advocacy group Tenant and Neighborhood Councils<\/a> held a press conference. They described ongoing safety issues at the property and argued the landlord could have taken more action to resolve them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople came in and out of the building, slept in the hallways, tried to intimidate me, and stole belongings from other tenants,\u201d said Rachael Thornton, who lived there for 10 years and is now staying with her boyfriend\u2019s parents in El Sobrante.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel Ted Dang was aware of these issues for years and did not take correct measures to ensure tenants\u2019 safety,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fire was extremely traumatizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keisha Bigbie, another tenant who lived at 1770 Broadway with her three children, said she\u2019s \u201cjust appealing to the City Council\u2026to just go ahead and grant us the relocation fees we need through Ted Dang.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019d heard of the security guard Dang had hired but \u201cnever really saw him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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