Oakland housing proposal revised after Trader Joe’s backlash

After months of outrage in one Oakland neighborhood over the prospect of losing its popular Trader Joe’s store to a pair of housing towers, Align Real Estate Partners has revised its redevelopment proposal to include approximately 13,000 square feet of grocery space — though whether that store will be a Trader Joe’s remains unresolved.

Align’s original plans for 5727 College Ave., in the Rockridge neighborhood largely characterized by single-family homes, did not include a grocery store when first filed in April. The proposal called for replacing the one-story Trader Joe’s that’s operated on the site for two decades with two towers rising 31 and 25 stories. Align said at the time that replacing the store would be difficult because the development would house a senior living campus and be operated by a nonprofit.

The proposal uses a combination of state housing laws to surpass local height and density restrictions, and its unveiling drew immediate backlash. Residents and local officials said they were blindsided by plans to eliminate a popular neighborhood grocery store and replace it with towers far larger than the surrounding buildings. More than 200 people attended a recent community meeting about the project.

The project site is owned by Safeway’s parent company, Albertsons, which leases its building to Trader Joe’s. Align filed its revised application with the city of Oakland on Wednesday, and also confirmed that Sequoia Living, a veteran Bay Area nonprofit senior living provider, would own and operate the proposed senior living towers. 

Align’s tweaked application reduces the towers’ height by seven stories and cuts the planned number of residences from 415 to 372. The new proposal includes 340 independent-living apartments, 12 assisted-living units and 20 memory-care residences, to be built in two phases. 

Jana Good, chair of the Rockridge Community Planning Council, said the group pressed Align on four priorities in meetings with the developer: keeping Trader Joe’s or another grocery store, reducing the towers’ height, avoiding a “dead zone” along College Avenue by adding public facing retail or a cafe, and improving the narrow sidewalks around the project. The council first met with Align after the original plans were unveiled in April and met again Tuesday. 

“Trader Joe’s is the most affordable grocery store we have in our neighborhood,” Good said. “We heard from a lot of neighbors about wanting to keep it.” 

The newly added grocery space would be located on Miles Avenue. Align said it is in negotiations with Trader Joe’s about keeping the store at the site. The redesign moves grocery loading away from the residential frontage and adds some 5,900 square feet of public-facing retail along College Avenue.

Dave Balducci, of Align, confirmed the redesign came in response to requests from the community and its elected representatives. “We are in talks with Trader Joe’s and hope they will choose to stay and continue to serve the Rockridge community,” he said in a statement.

A Trader Joe’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Good said the changes suggest Align is listening to at least some of the neighborhood’s concerns, though she cautioned that keeping Trader Joe’s adds significant costs to the larger redevelopment effort and is far from guaranteed. The council is also working to create a community consultation committee, modeled on one that helped shape another nearby senior-housing project, so residents and local groups can continue weighing in as the plan advances. 

Align’s project would be one of Oakland’s largest senior-living communities. Sequoia Living President and CEO Sara McVey said the project would give older adults a way to remain connected to the East Bay as their housing and care needs change. 

“It’s about giving people more choices to remain engaged, rooted in the lives they’ve built, and part of the communities they love, while reimagining what healthy and joyful aging can look like for all of us,” she said. 

Align…