City hosts ULI Technical Assistance Panel focused on Clay St. Garage
Published on August 12, 2026
Who is ULI?
The panel was convened through the Urban Land Institute San Francisco (ULI SF), a nonprofit research and education organization that connects land use and real estate professionals to advance responsible development.
What is a TAP?
ULI SF's Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) program pairs cities with independent, cross-disciplinary professionals to provide objective guidance on complex public real estate questions.
What was the TAP's focus?
The TAP was asked to study redevelopment options for 1414 Clay Street, the City-owned former parking garage adjacent to City Hall and Frank Ogawa Plaza, which has sat vacant and unused since December 2016 when it was declared seismically unfit. For two days in July 2026, a volunteer panel of real estate, planning, design, historic preservation, housing development, and economics professionals toured the site, reviewed City data, and worked through development scenarios before presenting findings to City staff, City leadership, and community stakeholders.
The ULI Panel was asked to identify the most viable path forward for the Clay Street site given its physical constraints (seismic risk, four-story structure, limited footprint), its regulatory context (D-DT-C zoning with the S-13 and S-14 Housing Sites Combining Zone overlays), and the City's broader goals for Oakland's Civic Center. Panelists considered three scenarios: affordable housing development, catalytic civic and/or institutional use, and restoration of the site for parking. The Panel was also asked to recommend funding tools and a disposition approach that would not require ongoing City subsidy.
The panel evaluated three development scenarios for the site:
- 100% affordable housing, built to the site's 128-unit affordable density floor.
- A phased civic or institutional use, beginning with interim open space activation and moving toward a partnership with an educational, cultural, health, or civic institution, potentially with housing above.
- Garage retrofit and restoration, returning the site to roughly 335 parking stalls, perhaps as a longer-term interim use while working towards a more catalytic civic or institutional use.
What's Next
The panel recommended several near-term next steps: refresh seismic retrofit cost estimates, complete an historic assessment, and issue a Notice of Availability to test interest in the site for affordable housing. Following those steps, the City will consider reaching out to potential institutional and civic partners and/or garage reactivation, potentially as an interim use and preserving flexibility for the site's future.
City staff are now working through the panel's recommendations, including how to sequence outreach, resolve open regulatory questions, and bring a recommendation forward for further City review.
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