OAKLAND — A Jewish Community Campus that would include a school is being proposed at the long-time site in Oakland of an office and retail complex that had been owned by Nestle Dreyer’s, an iconic ice cream company.
The campus would sprout on an irregularly-shaped property that fronts on three busy streets in Oakland’s Rockridge District, a choice shopping and dining neighborhood, according to documents filed with Oakland city officials.
“The project goal is to create a Jewish Community Campus, a place for the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay to expand their educational and community services,” the planning documents state.
In 2019, Emeryville-based Libitzky Property Cos. paid $41 million for eight parcels in northern Oakland, a deal that included the purchase of an office building for Nestle Dreyer’s, the long-time former site of a Dreyer’s ice cream parlor, several retail buildings, some residences and the Nestle Dreyer’s Cronk Center.
Now, plans are being pitched for the development of a Jewish Community Campus on the three-acre parcel.
These uses would consist of administrative offices, preschool, afterschool, summer camp, community classes and community events such as Jewish holiday celebrations and performances, the proposal shows. Weddings and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs might also occur on the site.
The community campus also would “create a hub for non-profit Jewish organizations to come together in a central East Bay location near BART and Oakland Public Schools, to maximize resources, to further collective impact, and to better serve the community,” the proposal states.
The properties are near the corner of College Avenue and Chabot Road and have some frontage on Claremont Avenue. The development site consists of parcels whose addresses include 5901 College Ave., 5941 Chabot Road, and 6012, 6016, 6028 and 6048 Claremont Ave., the planning documents state.
The primary office building on the site was built for Dreyer’s in 1992. Dreyer’s still occupies 5901 College Ave, 6028 Claremont Ave., and 5941 Chabot Road under a multi-year lease agreement. The planning document didn’t describe the rental provisions or the lease expiration date.
“We are considering removal of some structures on the site and addition of others,” Libitzky Property said in the proposal. “We intend to maintain existing general retail sales commercial activities in the current 5901 College Ave. building.
The retailers in the buildings that Libitzky Propery owns include Crossroads Trading used clothing store, Boba Guys Rockridge, Shoes on Solano and In Full Swing Plus Sizes, a women’s clothing store, according to Google Maps.
Emeryville-based Libitzky Property, a veteran East Bay developer, believes that the retention of the retail would bolster the existing area.
“The project will maintain existing outward-facing retail on College Avenue to contribute to neighborhood vitality,” the planning documents state.
Source: www.mercurynews.com