BART Buys Oakland HQ, Will Foot Bill for Seismic Upgrade

Until it closed in 2009, one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco pre-dated the 1906 earthquake: a former speakeasy called Jack’s that opened in 1863 and served grilled rattlesnake accompanied by a variety of vintage whiskies, among other delicacies.

After the 1989 earthquake, the one that disrupted the only World Series between Oakland and San Francisco, we visited Jack’s again, only to discover it was closed for renovations. You guessed it: a place that survived the Big One at the beginning of the 20th century didn’t conform to the tougher standards that were put in place after the 1989 temblor.

Earthquake-proof renovations are an expensive proposition in the Bay Area, a fact that has been underlined by a recent acquisition by the regional transit agency BART (a.k.a. Bay Area Rapid Transit).

BART has cut a deal with healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente to purchase Kaiser’s building in Uptown Oakland, which the transit agency plans to use as a headquarters for its transit police force. The building transaction doesn’t seem too pricey: it translates into about $250 per square foot.

But that’s before you apply the Richter Scale to this deal. The earthquake-magnitude scale devised by seismologist Charles Francis Richter in 1935 is based on an extrapolation that increases the magnitude of the quake tenfold for every tick on the meter.

The analogous multiplier for BART’s deal for Kaiser’s building isn’t quite as large-it’s only a four-fold increase-but it’s enough to increase the cost of this transaction to nearly $100M when you factor in the cost of a renovation to earthquake-proof the building.

Okay, let’s cut to the chase: the regional transit agency has approved a deal for a 105K SF office building and given the owner a pass on making earthquake-safety retrofits.

The necessary retrofits for the building at 2000 Broadway may be as much as $96M, according to a report in the San Francisco Business Times. This would peg the ultimate price tag, including the retrofit, at up to $1,200 per SF.

BART is planning to move its police force from its current HQ at 101 Eighth Street, which is due to be demolished to make way for a transit-oriented development at the Lake Merritt station that will include more than 500 new homes.

So, who will be paying for the quake retrofit at 2000 Broadway? According to the report, BART has indicated it plans to use federal funding or issue bonds to pay for the renovations.

One thing is certain: they won’t be asking Barry Bonds to pay for it. When San Francisco lost to Oakland in a four-game sweep in the only Fall Classic to be interrupted by an earthquake, Bonds was still playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates.