Oakland Alameda Hotels to Convert Radisson Into Housing

Oakland Alameda Hotels will soon turn a 300-room Radisson location near Oakland Airport into affordable homes.

Banta Architects has filed permits on behalf of the locally based hospitality firm to convert the hotel into homes at 8400 Edes Avenue, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Plans for the conversion into affordable apartments include installing kitchenettes in each of the rooms, according to the permit application. Some of the units would contain permanent supportive housing for an undisclosed population.

Oakland Alameda Hotels is led by Nupen Patel, according to state business records.

The Radisson made headlines last October after a three-year city investigation revealed 128 hotel workers were underpaid a total of $404,491 for nearly a year’s worth of paychecks between June 2019 and April 2020 — the largest wage theft finding in Oakland’s history, the East Bay Times reported.

The plan to convert the hotel into affordable housing is among the first of its kind in Oakland, though such conversions have picked up steam across the country during economic hardships for hotels, according to the Business Times.

Hotels that struggled through the pandemic in cities such as Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Denver and Washington, D.C., have been acquired by apartment developers and turned into homes.

Developers say these conversions generally cost less than new construction, with savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a 2021 report from the National Association of Realtors.

Last year, owners of a hotel in Mountain View announced plans to convert it into affordable housing for youth aging out of the foster system. Crestview Hotel is slated to open its 48 rooms to residents this summer, San Jose Spotlight reported.

In early 2022, San Mateo County received $16 million from the state’s Project Homekey to turn a 51-room Comfort Inn & Suites into permanent supportive housing in Redwood City.