SF New Developments

San Francisco Business Times -

by Ryan Tate

After helping Bay Area homebuyers move out, Meritage Homes Corp. is moving in.

The Scottsdale, Ariz. company has a long track record of single-family homebuilding in places like Brentwood, Livermore and Tracy, distant suburbs that have pulled many workers far from job centers in Oakland and San Francisco.

Now Meritage is embarking on its first Bay Area infill development, a 78-unit condominium project at Jefferson and 15th streets in downtown Oakland. That puts it in at the heart of Oakland’s residential development, one block from Olson Co.’s 252-unit City Walk condominium project, now under construction, two blocks from a proposed condominium project from Shorenstein Co. and four blocks from Forest City Enterprises’ Uptown mixed-use project.

The move also follows a path laid down by Signature Properties of Pleasanton and, more recently, Pulte Homes of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., both of which started in suburban detached-home development before pursuing the infill urban housing market.

Meritage is planning a roughly even split of one- and two-bedroom units, with a handful of studios. The condos would start at 750 square feet and range up to 1,500 square feet. The company estimates pricing from the high $300,000s up into the $600,000s — the high end being nosebleed territory for downtown Oakland — but will adjust that range for market conditions when the project is completed.

Meritage hopes to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year and complete construction in January 2007.

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