Construction starts on Oakland's Lampwork Lofts
The wait is over. Madison Park Financial kicked off construction on the $25.2 million, 92-unit Lampwork Lofts, the firms’ second apartment project to start construction in Oakland. The longtime East Bay developer is the sole firm building market-rate apartments in Oakland right now. It started construction last fall on the 79-unit, third phase of the Bakery Lofts community that sits on the border of Oakland and Emeryville.
The story behind Lampwork Lofts is one of waiting and waiting, said John Protopappas, founder and CEO of Madison Park. He first toured the property, a former factory, in 1986 and asked the previous owner to sell this historic, 1911 structure to him. The owner said he would sell when he was ready, which didn’t happen until 2003. Then it took four years to close the sale because of delays. So Madison didn’t close on the property until 2007. “Then we had something called the Great Recession,” Protopappas said. “So guess what? We had to wait.”
San Francisco Business Times - 04/26/13 - Full Article
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