With the strong and continued growth of the UCD medical complex, and the commitment of local entrepreneurs, the improvement of the business and residential area surrounding Oak Park is certainly feasible and one hopes it continues.
Oak Park: The next midtown?
Developers see loft housing with quality amenities as logical next step in urban renewal of Broadway area
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, October 12, 2007
Architect Ron Vrilakas, designer of more than a half-dozen housing, dining and retail projects in midtown, has turned his attention to Oak Park.
Vrilakas and partner Skip Rosenbloom are finishing up work on the Fourth Avenue Lofts, 10 live-work and loft housing units just off Broadway at Fourth Avenue and 35th Street -- along what once was Oak Park's bustling commercial corridor.
The two-story units range in size from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet, and are priced from the low to mid-$300,000s. The project cost about $3 million to build; the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency provided a $1 million subsidy.
Vrilakas said this small development of ownership housing -- on a street lined with public housing -- is precursor to a bigger mixed-use project with retail downstairs and housing and office space upstairs that he and Rosenbloom hope to do nearby. SHRA recently selected the pair to develop two half-blocks of land the agency owns along Broadway.
Vrilakas said he is talking with former NBA star Kevin Johnson about working together to incorporate the two long-dormant blocks controlled by Johnson's St. HOPE Development. "We're hoping to have a joint venture where we can develop four blocks of Broadway all at one time."
