SF New Developments

San Francisco Business Times - December 23, 2005

by Ryan Tate

Up on Oakland’s Auto Row, Olson Co. would like to build a few hundred units of mid-rise housing.The company is in contract to acquire Ted Dang’s site near 30th Street and Broadway. It remains to be seen whether the deal will close — Dang said Olson cut its offering price as it scaled back density. He said he is continuing plans to entitle his site for 560 units and indicated the contract will not close without changes from Olson.

The families that control the neighboring Oakland Auto Center are also trying to sell their land for highrise residential development.

No holds bar

Near Dang’s parcel, Jason Gildea’s forthcoming bar is notable for what it will lack: It is to have no nighttime neighbors (and thus no noise complaints), no defining musical genre and, perhaps most importantly, no apparel guidelines.

“You don’t have to worry about how you dress, about ‘No tennis shoes’ or whatever,” Gildea said.

Gildea’s bar, Requiem, is at 29th Street and Broadway and riffs off the looser, funkier vibe of upper Broadway. Its neighbors include auto dealers, a Grocery Outlet market, medical offices and a hospital.

That backdrop is what one might expect for a Motor City transplant with a business degree and an admittedly refined taste for punk music. Requiem’s 3,600 square feet will feature three or four nights per week of live music, ranging from rock to hip-hop to, yes, punk. Other nights will include disk jockeys, and there is even talk of staging burlesque shows.

A horseshoe-shaped bar will divide the performance space from a set of pool tables. As if that’s not enough to set Requiem apart from Oakland’s more chi-chi establishments, Requiem will be lit internally by arched street lamps normally seen outdoors, and by candles, with all that light illuminating graffiti hung by canvas.

Potential noise complaints aside, Gildea is encouraged that area auto dealers are in negotiations to sell to housing developers, noting that the spate of new residents in the Uptown area should help goose business.

Gildea and co-owner Doug Reilly hope to open Requiem in late February or early March.

Ryan Tate can be reached at (415) 288-4968 or rtate@bizjournals.com.