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New role for cigar factory

Live-work units pop up in West Oakland

December 26, 2010|By Jeremy Schnitker, BlockShopper
  • building
    The flexible live/work spaces of 1411 Center St. in West Oakland offer maple hardwood flooring throughout, as well as large, operable windows that provide additional light and ventilation and walls of exposed brick.
    Credit: Scott Hargis Photography

According to construction manager Yusufu Bomani, the reasoning behind converting the former Rossi Cigar Co. building in the West Oakland neighborhood into seven brick-and-timber lofts was quite simple: There isn't anything else like it in the area.

Bomani, along with Kobler Development Consulting and the architecture firm Beaumont & Associates, worked on the six-month conversion of the building at 1411 Center St. that will officially open for sales at the beginning of the year. The building, which was built for Wells Fargo then used by the Rossi Cigar Co. beginning in the 1930s, is now called the Cigar Factory Lofts and is offering live-work units priced from $290,000 to $475,000. The lofts will range from 850 to 2,105 square feet.

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Bomani, who has worked on a number of West Oakland developments, said the team behind the Cigar Factory Lofts is simply trying to fill a void of loft-style housing in the area.

"I've done a lot of work in this area over the years and thought it would be really interesting doing artists' lofts like these here," he said. "We thought there would still be a good market for this kind of project, because there are a lot of condos in this section of Oakland but no spaces like this."

Red Oak Realty's Sara Garabedian, the listing agent for the development, said not only is the building's style rare in West Oakland, but the commercial zoning the building had been approved for is unique as well.

"This building allows for a more liberal permitted use than your typical live-work," she said. "Somebody can actually have employees working in the space and have clients come to the space. The largest unit we have is 2,100 square feet, so it can be more than just a small home office, but you can actually have a full business here and have room for your living space."

Bomani said he wanted to make the spaces as versatile as possible.

"These units are very flexible, and each person can come in here and do something different with any of the units," he said. "I think they'll appeal to a nice cross-section of people."

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