- Chinese developers are behind some of the Bay Area's stand-out residential projects.
- Most of the project's proposed by Chinese developers are high rises or feature more than 450 units.
- A two-tower, nearly 650-condo project is significant for downtown San Jose.
More Chinese developers are moving forward with sizable Bay Area residential projects outside of the city of San Francisco.
Several of these projects are condo developments that would impact markets with a minimal supply of new for-sale product. Others will deliver a significant number of townhomes or redevelop a waterfront.
Landsea Holdings, a U.S. subsidiary of a large Chinese homebuilder, recently purchased a former industrial campus in Sunnyvale for $186 million. The development site is entitled for 450 townhomes.
According to the site’s seller, Watt Communities, Landsea has an appetite to grow its Northern California operation.
“(The site sale) shows how valuable entitled residential sites can be in prime Silicon Valley locations,” said Max Frank, Watt’s division president, in a release.
In Milpitas, BDK Capital, a joint venture between Singpoli Capital Corp. and American BD, has proposed a 450-unit project, which would feature two, 22-story towers. The proposed development plan is slated to be voted on by the city council in early April.
Along Oakland’s waterfront, Signature Development Group has teamed with Beijing homebuilder Zarsion Holdings Group on the Brooklyn Basin project. The $1.5 billion, mixed-use development will feature 3,100 housing units and 200,000 square feet of retail. Infrastructure-related construction is currently underway with the first 300-unit residential building likely to break ground during the second quarter of this year.
In downtown San Jose, Guangzhou-based R&F Properties is currently developing 643 condos spread between two towers.
Chinese developers in San Francisco
R&F properties is also developing two projects in downtown San Francisco, a project approved for 118 units on Fremont and a eight-story building in SoMa.
Also within the city of San Francisco, Chinese developer Oceanwide Holdings Co. is working through the entitlement process for a project that would build two, mixed-use high rises on First and Mission streets.
Landsea increases its Bay Area and U.S. footprints
Aside from its Sunnyvale townhome project, Landsea is currently selling two, three and four-bedroom condos/townhomes in the Bay Area city of Dublin.
Outside of the Bay, the developer has a 553-home project proposed in the Orange County city of Lake Forest. The gated community will feature 313 single-family detached homes and 240 townhomes.
In Boston, Landsea has partnered with developer Steve Samuels on a luxury 30-story, 109-condo development. The project broke ground in October 2015.
