The City of Oakland Design Review Committee (DRC) reviewed a proposal for a new hotel on our border last night. “Mandela Hotel” would be built on a 1-acre vacant site near the East Bay Bridge Shopping Center. The Caltrans owned, triangular-shaped lot is adjacent to Target and directly across from the Extended Stay America hotel.

At the proposed 83.5′ height, the hotel would be roughly 4X the height of the adjacent 20′ Target Building. The proposed development would be operated by Ram Hotels whose portfolio includes Hampton, Holiday Inn Express and Courtyard hotels.

The lot is bordered by the Oakland-Emeryville Target to the North, Mandela Parkway to the South and the MacArthur Maze to the South-West. The hotel proposal would include:

• A six-story hotel consisting of 220 rooms
• Two-levels of underground parking garage consisting of 163 parking spaces
• Approximately 143,212 square feet of floor area

Applicable West Oakland Specific Plan’s Design Guidelines:

It is the DRC’s task to review applicable Design Guidelines for development under the Mandela/West Grand Opportunity Area I of the West Oakland Specific Plan (WOSP) and provide feedback and direction to the applicant and Oakland City staff.

These guidelines outline:

Site Planning: The most distinguished public features of a building should be oriented towards and visible from Mandela Parkway.
Massing: Projects are encouraged to have dramatic architectural features visible along the Parkway.
Height: Taller buildings are encouraged along the Parkway .
Fenestration & Materials: Incorporate large openings that create visual connections to Mandela Pkwy.
Landscape: Landscaping should be coordinated with that of the public landscaped areas along Mandela Parkway, and the new planting and paving should be of a similarly high quality.

These design guidelines and criteria will be applied to the project when the Planning Commission makes a final determination on the proposal at a future public meeting. Because the project is completely on the Oakland side of the border, Emeryville will have no influence on the Design or environmental impact review other than commenting. For Further Information, contact City of Oakland Case Planner Mike Rivera at (510) 238-6417 or by email at mrivera@oaklandnet.com.

Read more on the Planning Commission section of the City of Oakland’s Website.

View the Design Review document below via SlideShare:

This story was by broken by SF Business Times reporter Roland Li (Article subject to Paywall).

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