New 16-story hotel proposed for downtown Berkeley

Center Street Partners wants to construct a 16-story, 293-room hotel complex at Shattuck and Center streets in downtown Berkeley. Photo: Center Street Partners

A Carmel-based developer and UC Berkeley graduate will submit plans to Berkeley tomorrow to construct a 16-story, 180-foot tall hotel with office space, meeting rooms, and retail space at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street.

The new complex, proposed by Jim Didion and Center Street Partners LLC, will replace the 1970s-era one-story Bank of America building and parking lot, and, if approved, transform one of the most visible corners in downtown Berkeley.

The view from Shattuck Avenue. Photo: Center Street Partners

Once constructed, the new hotel will be kitty corner from a revamped BART plaza and next door to the new Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, which is currently under construction.

The arrival of the new hotel would coincide with the scheduled reconfiguration of traffic patterns on Shattuck Avenue that would see routing both north and south traffic on the streets western artery. It also joins a number of plans under way for about 1,300 new apartments for the area. Numerous new restaurants have also recently opened in downtown, adding up to a noticeable transformation of the neighborhood.

Downtown is going to become much more animated, said Michael Caplan, the director of the citys economic development program. A lot is happening. The downtown infrastructure, like the BART plaza, is very dated. This project (along with the others) will be a huge refreshment of a sense of place, an opportunity to define what the experience of downtown Berkeley is in the 21st century.

The hotel, with 293 rooms, also has the potential to generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for the city, according to Matthew Taecker, a former city planner whose firm, Taecker Planning and Design, has been hired to oversee the entitlement process. The hotel rooms will likely rent for about $200 a night, and will be taxed at 12%.

Its the highest tax rate we get on almost anything, said Caplan. A hotel room a good tax generator.

While the 284,000 square foot hotel tower will be 180-feet tall, the architect of the project, Edward McFarlan, principal of JRDV Architects of Oakland, has designed smaller structures abutting the streets in order to retain and enhance a pedestrian-friendly environment. The faades on Shattuck Avenue and Center Street will be four stories high, essentially the same height as neighboring buildings. A one-story building will stand between the hotel and art museum, providing a visual break. The smaller sections will be clad in reclaimed wood or metal shingles to provide texture and visual interest.

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New 16-story hotel proposed for downtown Berkeley