The following had been rumored for months. Now it’s real.
Oakland A’s announce new office at Jack London Square
The Oakland Athletics today announced that they have signed a lease with CIM Group for approximately 40,000 square feet of office space at Jack London Square, the premier waterfront office and retail destination located in downtown Oakland. The new front office headquarters will allow the Athletics to consolidate their operations by relocating from their current offices located at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Oracle Arena. The club will make the move in January 2018.
Jack London Square offers the A’s proximity to both the Coliseum and the potential new ballpark at the Peralta site. Additionally, Jack London Square provides the amenities of a mixed-use environment on San Francisco Bay, with dining, shopping, and entertainment options, similar to the A’s vision for their new ballpark as a gathering place for bringing the community together.
“We are excited to put roots down in Jack London Square,” said Dave Kaval, Oakland A’s President. “We continue to say we are ‘Rooted in Oakland’ and this move helps further strengthen our commitment to this community.”
“The Athletics add to the growing lineup of prominent tenants including eclectic dining options and destination activities that employees, residents, and visitors from the greater Bay Area can enjoy,” said Shaul Kuba, Co-Founder and Principal of CIM Group.
“Our new offices will allow us to have our entire staff together in one location to create a dynamic and collaborative work environment,” said Chris Giles, Oakland A’s COO. “Our staff will now have the opportunity to easily gather for formal meetings or informal exchanges as it takes advantage of the beautiful outdoor waterfront areas. We will also still keep our office space at the Coliseum for day-of-game responsibilities.”
CIM’s 2016 acquisition of Jack London Square included 234,000 square feet of office space across three buildings. Designed to maximize the site’s waterfront views, Jack London Square’s seven mid-rise buildings are spread across the property around a central plaza that is programmed year-round with special events to enhance public engagement. It offers approximately 243,000 square feet of modern office space and approximately 191,000 square feet of retail, with a variety of dining and entertainment options that appeal to employees, residents and visitors. The property also includes a 1,095-stall parking facility. Jack London Square’s striking one-third mile of publicly accessible waterfront provides a significant recreation opportunity including biking trails, picnic areas, and water sports.
The Howard Terminal supporters didn’t get their site picked for a ballpark, but they can be happy knowing the A’s will have a good view of it for years to come.
Should the Peralta ballpark site come to fruition, I expect that the front office would move to their own carveout of the facility became ready. The A’s have plenty of time figure out how that will work. In the meantime, expect a lot of field trips on foot exploring the neighborhood and paths between the office and the ballpark site.
The baseball operations side will stay in the Coliseum. Getting all those marketing, sales, and finance people out of the Oracle Arena wing should help create a little more elbow room.
newballpark.org 
While it’s actually a further distance between JLS and the proposed Laney/Peralta ballpark site as compared to its distance to HT, in actuality it will be much easier to transverse between JLS and Laney/Peralta for both vehicular and foot traffic.
I meant to say traverse.
I generally see this as a positive. I know the fan fest has been held at JLS (a few times I think), so that probable makes it that much more conducive to doing it there in the future.
Also, I am guess the A’s might be thinking if all goes well with the ballpark site, this move might tie their operations together spanning several Oakland neighborhood’s moving from west to east at the actually ballpark site (hopeful) It also doesn’t hurt to have more of a physical and visible presence in the community.
I dig how they are operating right now. It’s lightyears different with Kaval as the public face of the team.
I remember when they opened their SJ office in the Fairmont hotel…gets them a bit off good press but otherwise meaningless–not going to change the Audubon’s position or the neighborhood groups that are opposed to it nor stop the gints from continuing to stir the pot. Same story line, different cast of characters…unfortunately same outcome
@ GoA’s
Man, judging from your last few comments, it seems as if you have no hope that the A’s will ever get a new park in the Bay Area?
Well, if that’s true I can’t say I blame you for filling that way.
I will buy GoA’s a beer if this has the same outcome
Come on Jeffrey- your 70% certain it will happen—lets put more than a beer on it! I’ll buy you one season ticket if ballpark is built at this site—you buy me 1 season tix if it is built at the Coli site—which is where I expect it to be built. NIMBY groups are way different than ENV groups. AVAYA was delayed a year by a NIMBY group suing at the last minute. Wait until ENV Impact work starts to happen and the ENV groups get really involved–it might be different if there was not another site that would address both of these concerns yet there is no way that Schaaf and others are going to go all out for this site–they know the A’s cant move and having them at the Coli is just fine.
So glad you got everything figured out. It’s a shame that there is no way around any of this. Horrible that the 49ers are still playing in Candlestick and the Earthquakes are still in Buck Shaw. Unfortunate that the Rams haven’t been able to break ground and are surely headed to some other business friendly state.
Or, did all of those give the A’s a blueprint for how to get it done in California? How to get around Environmental challenges via State Legislative help?
Save it.
So does that mean you won’t take my bet Jeffrey? Comparing Levi’s and Avaya sites to an environmental sensitive waterway is apples and oranges- and neither site had city politicians advocating other sites-
Did somebody type something? All I read is fart nosies…
If the Audubon Society always got their way Donald Trump would not be President. Lake Merritt is downtown. There’s not going to be a moratorium on development downtown, so the focus should (and hopefully will) be on mitigation.
I’m not convinced a ballpark is materially more harmful to wildlife at Lake Merritt than a tech campus or other large scale project would be. It’s not like the A’s are trying to build an oil refinery.
Just keep an eye out for the trains.
this is on the right side of the tracks 🙂
Another Oakland pol promoting indicating his preference for the Coli- wait until they are asked to approve more than $200M for infrastructure upgrades
We remain hopeful that we can create a long-term home for the Oakland Athletics at this world-class property. Our East Oakland site is unique in its development opportunities and the ease with which we can create something unique for the A’s that does not disrupt a neighborhood or the flow of Bay Area traffic.
@GoA’s “Another Oakland pol promoting indicating his preference for the Coli-”
That quote is from Larry Reid. He is advocating for the Coli site because it’s in his district. Hardly an unbiased voice and not indicative of a surge of opposition.
On the contrary, polls show over 70% of Oaklanders in support of a ballpark somewhere downtown.
“wait until they are asked to approve more than $200M for infrastructure upgrades”
They would ask for that even if they were building at the Coli site. The city was willing to give it to the Raiders, so not clear that this is a deal breaker.
Agree it is not a dagger but with Schaaf being lukewarm, the council member who is elected to this district being lukewarm and now Reid- pointing out we have another site that is much easier to develop. This combination coupled with ENV group opposition is def not what the A’s wanted to see right out of the chute. Sure 70% of people want a ballpark downtown until they hear what it might cost and no- infrastructure improvements to replace an existing 60000 seat stadium with a 35000 seat stadium will be no where near costs to upgrade this site…and this is before the A’s begin the property acquisition (gonna be expensive land) and relocation of existing headquarters before a shovel even breaks ground on a $600M+ stadium. A’s aren’t gifting a stadium to Oakland nor did they gift Avaya to SJ. The city will need to give away lots of development rights/entitlements to make this pencil out. While SJ citizens didn’t bat an eye for what was given to the quakes we are talking about a cost that will be 7-8x the $100M for Avaya. That’s a lot of giveaway of public land which is something Oakland activists have frowned upon in the past-
To the credit of the A’s, they will make every realistic effort over the coming year to calm the fears of any neighborhood objections to the proposed Laney/Peralta ballpark. However, if Oakland officials ultimately allow the NIMBY objections to the proposed ballpark site to prevail, then Oakland will soon be without any major level sports team. The Coliseum property was always viewed as a very suitable location for both the Raiders and the Warriors. Much better than as a site for a MLB team. Yet both teams are well on their way towards vacating the site. Given that fact, then why would the A’s ever agree to build their very own funded ballpark at the Coliseum locale, if Laney/Peralta were ever to be blocked. The Giants could ultimately get their wish with the A’s move to well away from the Bay Area.
@ llpec
Unfortunately, could see the San Francisco Giants being thrilled if this site didn’t work out for the A’s, but I do think the A’s would return to the coliseum site and perhaps try a ballpark village concept , before any realistic talk began about them moving out of the Bay Area came about.
And, we know how the San Francisco Giants would fill about that…
@Lakeshore/Neil,
I doubt the A’s have any interest in building their new ballpark at the Coliseum site, even as a last chance to remain in Oakland. The A’s want to build their new ballpark in an already developed neighborhood such as what a near downtown Oakland locale offers. It will be Laney/Peralta for the A’s, or it will be a move to a new market.
@ IIpec
You certainly could be correct, let’s just hope they get it built at Laney/Peralta so we don’t have to deal with what could come to pass after that if they dont.