A prolific investor in multifamily real estate around the San Francisco Bay Area hopes to build condos at the site of an alternative school and church in Berkeley, as the California city works to rapidly boost its housing inventory.
Oakland-based ArtHaus Partners has filed a preliminary application with the city to build 23 for-sale condo units on a mixed-use site that currently houses the Model School Comprehensive, a Montessori preschool, at 2330 Prince St. in the university town.
ArtHaus, formerly Riaz Capital, has invested in or built hundreds of rental apartments in the Bay Area in recent years, from micro-studios and student housing to "vintage" apartment buildings in Oakland.
Berkeley is a desirable housing market for families thanks to its reputation for good public schools and public services, investors say. Its thin supply of homes for sale has pushed up prices and fueled competition for the limited stock that does hit the market.
"The cost of buying a home is still incredibly high," said Lisa Vilhauer, the vice president of design and entitlement at ArtHaus. "We believe adding more supply to these constrained single-family markets is another way to attack the housing crisis in California."
Developer plans condos under Senate Bill 330
However, there is another reason some developers are pivoting to build townhouses or condo developments in the Bay Area, where soaring construction costs and high interest rates have stalled new residential construction, as such projects have failed to pencil out for developers.
"We have chosen to go with a for-sale product at 2330 Prince St. because generally development costs for multifamily rental projects are still fairly prohibitive," explained Vilhauer.
The project is near South Berkeley, where the average home value is nearly $1.3 million, according to Homes.com.
The 2330 Prince St. property, built in 1955, includes a school, church and parsonage that would be torn down to accommodate the new housing, according to public records.
ArtHaus submitted an application to redevelop the site, located less than a mile from the University of California, Berkeley campus, under Senate Bill 330, a California state law that aims to expedite housing construction by streamlining bureaucratic processes for such projects. In exchange for including one very low-income unit for sale, the developer is seeking concessions on building height and parking requirements.
The development would rise 48 feet in three- and four-story buildings and include 46 parking spaces, per the application submitted in December to city planning officials. The plot was put up for sale by the Model School back in 2024. The school has owned and occupied it since purchasing the property back in 2012 for $1.2 million.
Records indicate that the school's asking price was $3 million, although it was not immediately clear whether a recent sale of the property had closed or for what amount.