Oakland is in the final stages of a DOOM LOOP. A major, iconic building has not been occupied for a decade—and the value of the building has plummeted. Why?
“Courthouse News contacted businesses located in the building. None could provide information on building management or how to contact them. We did reach a tower receptionist by phone — but again, they wouldn’t even disclose the number of floors in the building. They did let it slip, though, that about half of the building is still empty.
Maybe it’s not just Tribune Tower struggling, but Oakland itself. While many Oaklanders would love a more active downtown, the city has struggled to get there since the pandemic.
“You have nobody working,” Danny Haber, co-founder of Oakland-based housing developer oWow, told the San Francisco Business Times in 2022. “There’s no active spaces, and that means you have streets that are quiet and dark and empty at night, which makes people feel unsafe.”
Due to lack of tenants, the owners of the building have not paid their mortgage. While this is about one building, this story is really about Oakland, a dying city.
Like Oakland, iconic Tribune Tower faces troubled times
Oakland’s iconic Tribune Tower has spent nearly two decades bouncing between owners. Are its current ones here to stay?
Matt Simons, Courthousenews, 10/25/24 https://www.courthousenews.com/like-oakland-iconic-tribune-tower-faces-troubled-times/
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Oakland’s Tribune Tower turned 100 this year — and all four of its clocks are broken. Each one is frozen at a different time. 5:23, 9:11, 6:53, 6:02.
It’s a fitting metaphor for the building, a Bay Area landmark that for decades served as the home of the now-defunct Oakland Tribune newspaper. But more troubling still is the possibility that maybe, the tower and its fortunes are metaphors for the city itself.
Opened in 1924, this building has long been a symbol of the city’s daring spirit. Harry Houdini once dangled from its ninth floor in a straitjacket. And when novelist Gertrude Stein famously quipped about Oakland, “there is no ‘there’ there,” the Tribune went out of its way to prove her wrong, flying a flag atop the tower that simply read “THERE.”
Now, after a yearslong string of ownership changes, seemingly no one can quite tell what its future holds.
Since the Oakland Tribune left the tower in 2007, general chaos has reigned in the building as it became a revolving door for coffee shops, restaurants, marijuana delivery services and a call center. The Tribune itself ceased to exist in 2016 after merging with the East Bay Times.
The building’s newest owners think they can turn the page, ending the turmoil that has plagued the tower for decades. But challenges still lie ahead. Among them: apparent financial difficulties, as well as changes in Oakland and to the nature of work itself.
Those new owners —Douglas Abrams and his company, Highbridge Equity Partners — say using the building for regular office space will both help revitalize downtown Oakland and bring stability to the building. In a promotional video last year, Abrams touted a new leasing agreement with International Workplace Group, a company that provides coworking spaces.
“It’ll be one of their largest locations in the Bay Area, if not the largest,” he says in the video, speaking of the coworking company. “They find the tenants, and we provide the beautiful physical presence.”
The Tribune Tower has long been a fixture of the Oakland skyline. At night, 11-foot tall capital letters spell out “TRIBUNE” in red neon lights, like a beacon for anyone approaching downtown.
Declared a city landmark in 1976, it’s loved by many locals and has become something of a symbol for the Bay Area city. Unlike other city icons (think: the Oakland Warriors, Raiders or A’s), it won’t be changing cities.
And yet since the Oakland Tribune vacated in 2007, the property has seen four different owners. One lost it in foreclosure, another in a lawsuit.
The last owners, Emeryville-based investment firm Harvest Properties, had plans to stay. They even renovated the building — only to sell it three years later.
All the drama has given an aura of mystery to the building, as highlighted by the fact some local news outlets can’t even agree how tall it is. Is it 22 stories or just 20? (Alas, Courthouse News can’t solve that puzzle. Reached by phone, a receptionist declined to say, citing security reasons.)
Amid this chaos, grassroots activists called on the city to buy the tower and turn it into a museum.
That’s not quite how things panned out. Enter Abrams, who bought the Tribune Tower in 2019 for $48 million. His company, Highbridge Equity Partners, has become one of the most prolific investors in Oakland: Between 2016 and 2019, the company spent more than $100 million on office buildings, including to buy the tower.
At press time, workers are beginning to fill the Tribune Tower. That includes branding agencies, therapists, personal injury lawyers and freelancers using coworking spaces. And yet five years on, owning the tower appears to have been a rocky road for Highbridge.
Although Highbridge appeared confident about its purchase in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t do it any favors. In 2020, many tenants shuttered their doors and paid what they could — often, around 65% of normal rent.
As the pandemic has faded, many workers in Oakland and beyond haven’t exactly returned to their in-person desks. Office vacancy in Oakland soared to a record high of nearly 30% last month, indicating hard times ahead for office buildings.
There are more bad omens, too. Last year, Highbridge fell more than 30 days delinquent on a $99 million loan it used to buy the tower.
Lender Rialto Capital Management Fund said it wouldn’t enforce the payments. In a statement to The Real Deal, a news outlet focused on the real-estate industry, Abrams stressed Highbridge was not in default and that the company is no longer considered delinquent.
Courthouse News made multiple attempts to interview Abrams and Highbridge for this story, to no avail. Highbridge Equity Partners does not seem to have a website or a publicly available email, nor did California business records provide a good way to contact the company.
A message left on the company’s Instagram also received no response. And although Abrams did initially agree to a phone interview, he ultimately did not respond to follow-up texts and calls.
Courthouse News contacted businesses located in the building. None could provide information on building management or how to contact them. We did reach a tower receptionist by phone — but again, they wouldn’t even disclose the number of floors in the building. They did let it slip, though, that about half of the building is still empty.
Maybe it’s not just Tribune Tower struggling, but Oakland itself. While many Oaklanders would love a more active downtown, the city has struggled to get there since the pandemic.
“You have nobody working,” Danny Haber, co-founder of Oakland-based housing developer oWow, told the San Francisco Business Times in 2022. “There’s no active spaces, and that means you have streets that are quiet and dark and empty at night, which makes people feel unsafe.”
And yet downtown remains the main engine in the Bay Area city’s economy, providing about 38% of jobs citywide. Faced with uncertain times, both Highbridge and Oakland would like to see downtown buzzing again. In a city like Oakland, with its radical past, it’d be a hard pitch to many residents that they should be rooting for the success of a multimillion-dollar company and its office building. But maybe they should. Just maybe, the future of Oakland itself is tied to this troubled tower and its big red “TRIBUNE” lights.
