OAKLAND — Eastmont Town Center, an office complex that once was a major retail mall in East Oakland, has been bought by a veteran Bay Area real estate developer that is active in the East Bay’s largest city.
Tidewater Capital, using an affiliate, has bought the office hub at 7200 Bancroft Ave. in Oakland, according to documents filed with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office on May 9.
The overall deal was valued at $76.2 million, according to Oakland city tax statements that were included in the county deed. The total purchase value included the amount of an existing Wells Fargo mortgage on the property.
San Francisco-based Tidewater Capital, as part of the $76.2 million purchase deal, assumed a Wells Fargo loan issued in 2018 that totaled $56 million, the county documents show.
Walnut Creek-based Vertical Ventures sold the complex to Tidewater Capital. Vertical Ventures bought Eastmont Town Center in 2015.
“We did a lot of renovations while we owned it,” said Hamid Rezapour, founder and principal executive with Vertical Ventures.
The Eastmont Town Center upgrades were wide-ranging improvements, according to information that Tidewater Capital posted on its site.
“We completely replaced the roof and we put solar panels on the roof,” Rezapour said. “We added new LED lights, improved the efficiency of the electrical system and completely updated the mechanical systems.”
Eastmont Town Center totals roughly 538,700 square feet, according to Rezapour.
The occupancy rate in the center is somewhere around 83%, he estimated.
The office tenants include several Alameda County government agencies such as a county’s WIC office; a veteran services office; county social services agency; and county In-Home Supportive Services for elderly, blind, or disabled persons. Social service agencies such as a Center for Independent Living are also located in the office hub. The Oakland Police Department operates a substation in the office complex.
“It’s a kind of one-stop-shop for many kinds of social services,” Rezapour said.
Newmark, a commercial real estate firm, helped to arrange the transaction, according to Rezapour.
The purchase didn’t include the adjacent retail buildings, whose tenants include CVS drug store, Gazalli’s Supermarket, dd’s Discounts clothing store, Taco Bell, Burger King, Autozone auto parts and Octapharma Plasma, a blood donation center.
Rezapour believes that Tidewater Capital now owns a robust asset in the mall-turned-office complex.
“It’s a good location with a lot of strong tenants,” Rezapour said.
