Berkeley green lights its tallest building yet at Shattuck and University

A 28-story apartment building that’s the tallest ever proposed in Berkeley received the approval of a key city committee Thursday. 

The Zoning and Adjustments Board greenlit the final design for a 599-unit building at the northwest corner of Shattuck and University avenues. 

At 312 feet, plus a 5-foot parapet, it would rise above the Campanile and other downtown high-rises approved in recent years, including a 285-foot-tall tower at 2128 Oxford St., approved in September, and a 268-foot-tall building over the former Walgreens Pharmacy at 2190 Shattuck Ave., approved in March 2023. Rising interest rates and other factors have slowed Berkeley housing construction in recent years and neither project has yet broken ground.

The project at University and Shattuck has been in the works since June 2022, when a team consisting of Rhoades Planning Group, NX Ventures and Berkeley design firm Trachtenberg Architects proposed knocking down the building home to McDonald’s, the Spats dive bar, Vietnam House and Missing Link Bicycle Cooperative (now shuttered). The project will also take up the 2071 and 2079 University Avenue lots, where Tender Greens is currently located. 

With city approval secured, it looks like McDonald’s could pose the largest obstacle to the developer’s plans. 

The fast food chain has told the city it intends to stay in its corner space at Shattuck and University until its lease expires at the end of 2031. And at the ZAB meeting Thursday, an executive for the fast food chain said McDonald’s did not wish to accept a buyout.

Developer Mark Rhoades acknowledged at the meeting that “we have work to do with McDonald’s,” but said he didn’t expect negotiations to prevent the project from breaking ground within two years.

“Whatever has to happen for McDonald’s to get out of the way, I’m not sure that’s going to be much of a problem, but it’s our risk to take,” Rhoades said at the meeting.  

Neither Rhoades nor representatives for McDonald’s have yet responded to Berkeleyside’s requests for an interview as of publication. 

The proposed building would have 599 units — mostly studios and some one-bedroom apartments. To qualify for the state’s density bonus, which allows developers to build denser or taller buildings if they set aside a share of units for affordable housing, 58 units will be reserved for tenants who qualify as very low-income. 

The project includes plans for 16,000 square feet of commercial space, roughly half of which is intended for ground-floor retail. A rooftop bar and restaurant would take up 7,800 square feet. And a 1,000-square-foot parklet is planned on Shattuck Avenue. 

The project would also include second-floor podium gardens, a 14th-floor roof deck and a 700-square-foot ground floor plaza billed as a “privately-owned public open space.” There would be two bike rooms fitting up to 256 bikes and 130 residential and 24 commercial vehicle parking spaces — a change from the initial proposal, which called for an entirely car-free building. The building is two blocks from Downtown Berkeley BART and several bus lines. 

The project falls under 2019’s SB 330, which streamlined approval processes for housing development projects by barring cities from conducting over five hearings for most projects.

The project passed ZAB unanimously and received little pushback from the community. Three Berkeley residents wrote letters expressing concerns about the building’s height, size, scale, and affordability; insufficient parking; and an unappealing design. And one commenter at the ZAB meeting objected to the project, raising concerns about store vacancies and urban blight, fire safety, and the project’s CEQA categorical exemption, noting that it did not undergo a full environmental review.

It was a stark contrast to the heated debates over new housing in downtown Berkeley from a decade ago, when the city held 37 meetings about an 18-story apartment complex that was never built.

If nobody appeals the board’s decision to the City Council within two weeks of the city issuing its “notice of decision,” the applicants will receive a use permit.