{"id":282356,"date":"2026-04-23T18:01:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282356\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:01:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:01:50","slug":"housing-towers-might-replace-oakland-trader-joes-cutting-food-choices-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282356\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing towers might replace Oakland Trader Joe&#8217;s, cutting food choices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OAKLAND \u2014 Two housing towers could replace an existing Trader Joe\u2019s in North Oakland, a project that would produce hundreds of apartments for seniors and bulldoze the grocery store, plans on file with the city show.<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/align-real-estate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Align Real Estate<\/a> has proposed to build <a href=\"https:\/\/aca-prod.accela.com\/OAKLAND\/Cap\/CapDetail.aspx?Module=Planning&amp;TabName=Planning&amp;capID1=26CAP&amp;capID2=00000&amp;capID3=19924&amp;agencyCode=OAKLAND&amp;IsToShowInspection=\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">415 residences<\/a> at 5727 College Ave. in the Rockridge district, city files show. An alliance of General Electric Pension Trust and Lucky Stores Inc. owns the property.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Street-level view of two housing towers at 5727 College Avenue in the Rockridge district of north Oakland, concept.(SCB)\" width=\"892\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776967310_428_SJM-L-OAKNHOMESPLAN-03.jpg\" \/>Street-level view of two housing towers at 5727 College Avenue in the Rockridge district of north Oakland, concept.\u00a0(SCB)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Evening view of two housing towers at 5727 College Avenue in the Rockridge district of north Oakland, concept.(SCB)\" width=\"969\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776967310_154_SJM-L-OAKNHOMESPLAN-02.jpg\" \/>Evening view of two housing towers at 5727 College Avenue in the Rockridge district of north Oakland, concept.\u00a0(SCB)<\/p>\n<p>The proposed senior living and retirement care community project includes 371 independent living units for seniors, 18 assisted-living units and 26 memory care units, Align Real Estate disclosed in the filing.<\/p>\n<p>Align has also proposed multiple housing projects in San Francisco that involve replacement or redevelopment of a Safeway store.<\/p>\n<p>The real estate developer aims to streamline the Oakland city review process by using provisions of Senate Bill 330.<\/p>\n<p>Because the proposed development is a senior citizens\u2019 residential hub, Align intends to use the state density bonus law to obtain a waiver of the 95-foot height limit for that section of Oakland.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal also indicates that the units might be condominiums.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys with law firm Holland &amp; Knight filed a letter with Oakland planners on behalf of the project\u2019s developer that urged the city to smooth the pathway for approval.<\/p>\n<p>The state Legislature \u201chas made increasingly clear\u201d that mandates included in the state\u2019s Housing Accountability Act \u201care to be taken seriously\u201d and that local agencies should interpret the mandates in a way that gives \u201cthe fullest possible weight\u201d to approval of a housing development, the Holland &amp; Knight attorneys wrote in the letter to the city.<\/p>\n<p>The timing for the demolition of the Trader Joe\u2019s store and the construction of the two residential towers wasn\u2019t immediately known.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Two housing towers could replace an existing Trader Joe\u2019s in North Oakland, a project that would&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,387,7,3010,1335,332,383,1337,181,100,3271,143,145,144,388,1970],"class_list":{"0":"post-282356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-commercial-real-estate","13":"tag-development","14":"tag-east-bay","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-housing-development","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-north-oakland","20":"tag-oakland","21":"tag-oakland-headlines","22":"tag-oakland-news","23":"tag-real-estate","24":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}