{"id":294604,"date":"2026-05-01T07:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/294604\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T07:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:34:38","slug":"owners-of-big-empty-buildings-by-aquatic-park-hope-ai-industry-will-be-their-savior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/294604\/","title":{"rendered":"Owners of big empty buildings by Aquatic Park hope AI industry will be their savior"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AquaticPark_Natera_240801_07.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/>Berkeley Commons, while it was under construction along Aquatic Park in 2024. File photo: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight Local<\/p>\n<p>Heads up: We sometimes limit access to non-subscribers.<\/p>\n<p>After failing to lease out Berkeley Commons \u2014 the two gleaming lab buildings that went up a couple years ago along Aquatic Park, intended as a life sciences campus \u2014 the owners are making a pivot and marketing the buildings to the AI industry. The move comes as the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI is expanding into the East Bay with an office lease in Richmond. (<a href=\"https:\/\/richmondside.org\/2026\/04\/15\/openai-leases-richmond-building-month-before-sam-altman-home-attack\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SF Business Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>UC Berkeley professor Satish Rao \u2014 who teaches mathematics, probability and pedagogy in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department \u2014 is running for governor of California. (<a href=\"http:\/\/mathematics, probability and pedagogy in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department\" rel=\"nofollow\">Daily Cal<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>A driver struck a pedestrian in her 80s in North Berkeley, on Hearst Avenue at Grant Street, and seriously injured her. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.berkeleyscanner.com\/2026\/04\/29\/traffic-safety\/berkeley-crash-pedestrian-injured-hearst-grant\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Berkeley Scanner<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>A \u201csuspicious suitcase\u201d that briefly caused a street to be blocked off in North Berkeley turned out to be a smoke alarm. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.berkeleyscanner.com\/2026\/04\/29\/community\/suspicious-package-closes-north-berkeley-intersection\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Berkeley Scanner<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>UC Regent Jay Sures went on Fox News to denounce a UC Berkeley student group\u2019s decision to host Israa Jaabis, a pro-Palestinian activist previously convicted in an Israeli car bombing, in a virtual livestream. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/news\/campus\/uc-regent-denounces-virtual-pro-palestinian-speaker-at-uc-berkeley-student-event\/article_544b5fad-ab32-496a-a563-ad22d8e88820.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Cal<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Berkeley High students had a 23% acceptance rate at UC Berkeley in 2025-26, compared with the average acceptance rate for in-state applicants of 10%. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/college-admissions\/article\/uc-proximity-acceptance-rates-berkeley-ucla-22213853.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SF Chronicle<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>A Lego Campanile is in the works. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/news\/campus\/student-life\/hundreds-vote-to-get-lego-campanile-onto-store-shelves\/article_a42052de-a6f7-402a-81cd-07a2442c7eb8.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Cal<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"gform_required_legend\">&#8220;*&#8221; indicates required fields<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.berkeleyside.org\/author\/berkeleyside-editors\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bside.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo\" height=\"120\" width=\"120\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBerkeleyside is Berkeley, California\u2019s independently-owned local news site. Learn more about the Berkeleyside team. Questions? Email editors@berkeleyside.org.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.berkeleyside.org\/author\/berkeleyside-editors\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Berkeleyside Staff\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berkeley Commons, while it was under construction along Aquatic Park in 2024. File photo: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight Local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[8754,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-294604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley-wire","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294604","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=294604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}