As the mortgage market crashes through the floor and the nation sings a dirge about housing, ex-mayor Jerry Brown’s outlandish fantasy of luring 10,000 new residents downtown is well under way, with 4,170 residential units completed or in construction since 1999, and almost 6,000 more in the pipeline. That’s roughly the equivalent of dropping the Marina district into a neighborhood that’s the same size and already has at least 11,000 people living there. The units aren’t all filled yet (though some buildings sold out before construction was even finished), and the approved ones can’t all be counted on to break ground. But with the Bay Area’s projected growth—up to two million people from 2000 to 2020—warm bodies will eventually show up to occupy the new digs. Oakland’s entire downtown, formerly moribund after dark, is destined to become a lively, maybe even defiantly hip, place to live.

Since early in the decade, developers haven’t been able to resist the combination of available bargains and the Brown administration’s streamlined procedures for getting things built. First, lofts mushroomed near the estuary, and then the Essex condo conversion shimmered over Lake Merritt. Big-bucks Signature’s Broadway Grand condos, their scaffolding unveiled this August, look pleasantly retro for a brand-new building. Eight Orchids, a “postmodern European” condo development, recently popped up on the edge of low-rent Chinatown. And the housing is by no means just for the rich. Working people—those who never caught the tail end of the real estate market in San Francisco—can actually afford to buy condos and townhouses here. With prices starting in the $200,000s and topping out above $1 million, Oakland suddenly has a tremendous mix of new urban housing in the works, with some of the biggest projects yet to come.

Developers are even staking out parts of West and East Oakland previously considered far too risky a financial venture. But unlike the midcentury “renewal” of San Francisco’s Fillmore district, no one is being displaced—the new development is happening on land that had long lain fallow. While any new urban growth generates protest against gentrification, many developers in Oakland have spent enough time getting to know the surrounding communities that the outcry is less fervent than usual.

When visionary developer Rick Holliday came up with the idea of renovating a cannery in West Oakland, now part of the Central Station project —a whole new village in one of the Bay Area’s poorest communities—he began by visiting the barbershop and chatting with locals about the neighborhood. Over the years, he has engaged residents and community leaders in countless discussions, so he enjoyed support for the project before he ever broke ground.

“We wanted to make sure the black population wouldn’t be excluded,” says Marcel Diallo, a resident of a nearby pocket neighborhood, the Bottoms, who is creating a cultural district close to Central Station with a social club, a health-food store, and a gallery. He and others brainstormed with Holliday about creative financing strategies for neighborhood people who want to move in. “We’re all down here together,” Diallo says. “Local people plan to be some of the first buyers at Central Station.”

Much of the city’s revitalization is actually rehabilitation. “Oak­­-land has benefited in that way from being the hole in the economic doughnut,” says Deborah Acosta, from the city’s business development department, meaning it’s been far enough behind the curve that no one rushed in during the tech boom to tear down the drop-dead-gorgeous old buildings now being renovated. So now you have high-quality office space in the magnificently restored Rotunda Building across Frank Ogawa Plaza from city hall, as well as condos under way in downtown’s most beautiful Gothic Revival building (see “Survivors!”).

Of course, it’s a dicey thing to base a city revival on a housing boom. Booms can crash, go obnoxiously upscale if they succeed too well, or fall prey to politics. (Mayor Ron Dellums, for instance, reportedly thinks jobs, not housing, are the key at this point.) But with its juggernaut of new housing, Oakland is practicing the “smart growth” that makes sense to planners worldwide. Don’t force people out to the burbs; put the “doorknobs”—as some developers call them—where they don’t need a car. As a result, much of the new development is close to public transportation and commercial centers, with open space being planned to mitigate the density.

It’s already paying off. “I see a lot of people walking their dogs and riding their bikes downtown these days,” says John Dolby of Shorenstein, a major San Francisco–based office space developer, which several years ago put up the first privately financed office building Oakland had seen in 20 years. “That means they live near here. You didn’t used to see that much.” As those residents draw more business and amenities, Oakland will incrementally reap more property, business, and sales tax to fund city services.

Attracting retail, after all, was one of Brown’s original motivations. Oakland has a leakage problem: the city’s retail specialist, Keira Williams, estimates the city loses $1 billion every year in potential sales to malls and big-box stores in Emeryville and beyond, mostly for the kind of goods you can’t buy in quaint boutiques. The theory ran that after the doorknobs arrived, big business would follow.

This hasn’t quite panned out yet, for reasons ranging from old buildings not being suitable for big retail to the image problem the city has been slow to shake. Still, the mood in Oakland is remarkably upbeat, as downtown starts to blossom without losing its history or soul.

New kids on the blocks
Except for Uptown, which is subsidized by the city, these important development projects represent the first major unsubsidized private investment in Central Oakland’s housing stock. Some of them, including Oak Knoll and Oak to Ninth, are still in the planning stages. Most are near BART stations, bus lines, or both—key components of smart growth.

Oak Knoll Little city on the hill
East of 580 in the hills and several miles from downtown, SunCal’s project includes 960 market-rate units ranging from entry-level to estate homes, plus 82,000 square feet of retail. The stores matter to neighboring communities, whose residents currently have to hit the freeway to visit retail, but 50 acres of open space and the largest creek restoration in Oakland also make the development more appealing. Construction is set to begin next year.

Oak to Ninth Life on the waterfront
This enormous project, by Signature Properties and Reynolds & Brown, will create a whole new community in a forlorn area along the long underused Oakland-Alameda estuary. It will include 3,100 flats, townhouses, and lofts priced at $400,000 and up, plus 200,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 30 acres of public open space. It’s scheduled for completion by 2025.

Uptown Development Project Anchor of the entertainment district
Near the city center, this project is divided into two phases. The first will take up four full city blocks with about 600 units of new housing—much of it designated “affordable”—framing a park. And it will bring 9,000 square feet of retail to the area by 2009. If phase two pans out (and there’s some question about that), it will mean another 300 housing units and 20,000 square feet of retail.

Temescal Cool condos in North Oakland
Developer Roy Alper has been quietly planning and building Mediterranean, Craftsman-style, and modern condos on the Temescal district’s main drag—Telegraph Avenue—priced from the high $200,000s to the high $600,000s. While Temescal might seem an unlikely spot for condos, it makes sense by smart-growth standards: the district is served by buses and two BART stations, and its commercial strip grows more vibrant every year.

Central Station The city within a city
This pioneering project sits next to 880, eight blocks from West Oakland’s BART station. It will include a mix of market-rate housing (lofts now start at $350,000, townhouses at $451,000) and affordable rentals ($400–1,000 a month). Also in the works are parks, retail space, and a potential rehab of the historic train station as a commercial center. Property taxes on the project should reap $100 million over the next 20 years, much of which will go to improving this beleaguered part of town.

Survivors!
Even with all the cranes swinging above the city, many of Oakland’s great old buildings are being reborn instead of replaced. Here are four historic local beauties in various states of renewal.

The Cathedral Building
1605 Broadway
Named for its churchlike spires, this 14-story flatiron (top left) was the West Coast’s first Gothic “skyscraper” when it was built in 1914. It may be the most beautiful building in Oakland. Developer Andrew Brog bought it in 2005, and he’s in the process of converting the top seven floors into luxury condos for people looking for intense urban living at half the price they’d pay in San Francisco.

The Fox Oakland Theater
19th St. and Telegraph Ave.
When the city of Oakland bought this 1928 Moorish movie palace (top right) in the mid-’90s, the building had been dark for 25 years. Developer Phil Tagami agreed to manage the restoration. Now, through a combination of municipal funding, historic preservation tax credits, and private fundraising, it’s being lovingly and painstakingly restored to all its exotic, escapist glory. Set to reopen in fall 2008, the Fox should be the centerpiece of the Uptown arts and entertainment district.

The Lake Merritt Hotel
1800 Madison St.
Continually overshadowed—first by luxury hotels in San Francisco, then by the rise of auto travel and motels, and finally by the onset of chain suite hotels—this massive 1927 art deco structure (bottom left) with lake views may have found its raison d’être as the home of tasteful urban independent living for seniors in the LGBT community. It’s now called Barbary Lane, with Armistead Maupin as spokesman, and its new management group is redecorating and modernizing, but with a reverence for the building’s architectural history inside and out.

The 16th Street Train Station
16th and Wood Sts.
With its 40-foot ceilings, grand windows, and 7,000-square-foot main hall, this once bustling beaux arts behemoth is just a palatial ruin now—but owner BUILD West Oakland, LLC, is reviewing proposals for the building’s rebirth over the next three years. It’s likely to become a performance or educational space, but one wonders: could it become Oakland’s version of the Ferry Building, if Harvest Hall (in Jack London Square) doesn’t pan out? Just a thought. James O’Brien