Plans for the adaptive reuse of the former Sherwin-Williams plant warehouse in Emeryville were unanimously approved by the Planning Commission at the December 10th meeting.

The historic Sherwin warehouse along Horton was the only building persevered when the former Sherwin-Williams paint factory was demolished in 2006. The building once supported the iconic “Cover The Earth” neon sign whose history we spotlighted last year.

The 3-story building consisting of 72,000 square feet and is part of a larger 7.9 acre FDP that will include 500 housing units, over two acres of park space, ground floor commercial space, the continuation of the Greenway and the city-funded bike/ped bridge to Bay Street.

DES Architects presented their plans to renovate and modernize the building to attract Life Science startups and office tenants.

The most dramatic update for the building will be the creation of a pass through “Alley” at 45th street allowing bicycle & pedestrian thoroughfare and breaking up the super-block the long structure created. The feature was a concession to neighbors of the 45th Street Artists’ Cooperative giving them more convenient access to the forthcoming park space.

The pass through will also include recessed, linear downlighting and illuminated bollards. Renovations will also include street and landscaping improvements, accessibility updates and roof screens to obscure the unsightly ventilation and mechanical equipment.

Shortly after the plans were approved, a sale of the building was announced between Lennar Multifamily and Chicago-based Walton Street Capital. The deal was facilitated by New York-based Commercial Real Estate broker the The Newmark Group.

“1450 Sherwin represents a rare opportunity for an investor to acquire a fully-entitled, large block vacancy with the ideal foundation for life science repositioning in one of the region’s hottest life science markets,” Newmark’s Head of Northern California Capital Markets Steven Golubchik stated in a press release.

According to Newmark, Walton Street Capital is actively acquiring and seeking acquisition of other Life Science opportunities located within the primary bay area clusters.

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Emeryville appears to be in a strong position to build on its place as a hub for the flourishing Life Sciences sector. In addition to this project, the city has seen the recent completion of the EmeryStation West tower, approved plans for the Public Market’s Parcel B as well as the sale of the nearby Novartis property to BioMed Realty with plans to build another 561K square feet of office space.

When completed, these projects will extend the Berkeley-Emeryville Biotech Corridor that already contains more than 150 life science companies.

According to Newmark research, the Northern East Bay life sciences “footprint” totals over four million square feet and represents 15% of the total Bay Area market. They collectively boast an availability rate of just 5.6% with a current tenant demand of 630,000 square feet.

“The sale and life science repositioning of 1450 Sherwin is perfectly timed to meet the increasing space demands of tenants in the Emeryville life science cluster,” shared Newmark’s Senior Managing Director SethMcKinnon.

Price of the sale was not provided and has yet to be recorded in the county’s database. Read the full staff report and complete plans on Emeryville.org.