Uber’s threat to sell headquarters site sparks worry.

Oakland residents have mixed reactions of disappointment, relief

OAKLAND >> After spending two years bracing for Uber’s arrival, residents reacted with both worry and relief Friday after the ride-hailing giant said it may instead sell the building that was supposed to be its Oakland headquarters.

Following Uber’s announcement that it is re-evaluating plans for the Uptown Station building at 1955 Broadway, Oakland residents are left wondering what will become of the massive, vacant building in the heart of the city’s revitalizing Uptown neighborhood. The space, formerly occupied by Sears, has generated excitement and controversy ever since Uber announced its intention to move in two years ago.

“As we look to strengthen our financial position so we can better serve riders and drivers for the long term, we’re exploring several options for Uptown Station, including a sale,” an Uber spokeswoman wrote in a statement Thursday night. “We remain committed to serving Oakland and our broader hometown Bay Area community.”

The San Francisco Business Times first reported the possible sale.

Mayor Libby Schaaf, who in 2015 said the company’s new Oakland headquarters would be a “game changer” for Oakland, on Friday downplayed the significance of Uber moving on.

“In the last two years, major companies like Oracle, WeWorks, Blue Shield and now Delta Dental have moved into Oakland,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “There are few locations in the region which offer such an array of social, economic and transportation benefits as Uptown Station. I look forward to working with the lucky buyer who hopefully will share Oakland’s values of diver- sity, inclusion and equity.”

City leaders likely will meet with Uber next week to discuss the building’s future, said Marisa Raya, an economic analyst with Oakland’s economic and workforce development department. She said it’s “not a huge concern” if Uber sells, because there’s such high demand for commercial real estate in the neighborhood, where vacancy is at 6 percent, she said.

Uber bought the building, which formerly housed the Capwell and

Sears department stores, for $123.5 million in 2015, rebranded it as Uptown Station and spent almost two years performing extensive renovations on the space.

The company originally planned to move up to 3,000 employees into the 3800,000 square-foot, seven-story building. But in March, Uber changed course and said it would move in just a few hundred employees, and lease the remaining space. The building, which was to have retail shops on the ground floor, was set to open in the second quarter of 2018.

Uber now says it’s reconsidering, citing a broader effort to cut losses and become profitable. The company last year cut sweeping losses in China by selling its business in the country to rival Didi Chuxing, and last month ceded control of the Russian market in a merger with rival Yandex.

Meanwhile, Uber is struggling turn around its image after a series of scandals, including claims of sexual harassment and sexism, tarnished the company’s reputation and cost it its CEO.

Uber says part of the effort to overhaul its company culture involves keeping all employees together in one office, rather than spread throughout several buildings. The company plans to consolidate employees in its new Mission Bay campus in San Francisco.

Oakland community members greeted Uber’s change of heart with ambivalence. Some worried the Uptown building would remain vacant and become a blight on the neighborhood, but others blamed Uber for raising already sky-high rents in the city.

Commercial rent in the most desirable spots in Oakland’s downtown and Uptown neighborhoods jumped from $23.16 per square foot per month in 2012 to $56.52 in the first quarter of this year, according to JLL, a Chicago-based commercial real estate services firm.

Still, it’s a shame that Uber would get the community excited about the prospect of new jobs and business, and then change its mind, said Lisa Dyas, 43, who was walking by the building Friday morning. She lives in Alameda, but spends a good deal of time in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood.

“Why not see it through?” she asked. “What’s so wrong with Oakland? Oakland’s awesome.”

But 35-year-old Nicky Bourque, who lives in the area, said most Oaklanders he knows would feel some relief if Uber decided not to move in. He doesn’t want another big tech company to buy the space, either.

“I’ve seen what they’ve done to Market Street in the city,” he said, referring to the tech boom in San Francisco. “It’s become a lot less friendly.”

Bourque isn’t the only one who feels that way. Oakland nonprofit The Greenlining Institute in June launched a “#NoUberOakland” campaign, hoping to keep Uber out of the city unless it met certain demands. Orson Aguilar, president of the institute, on Thursday said his team hopes that in the future city leaders will be more wary of large corporations coming into Oakland.

“We started No Uber Oakland because we worried Uber could have negative effects on a city already struggling with gentrification, and because we never saw evidence that Uber had any real commitment to Oakland, despite occasional pleasant rhetoric,” Aguilar wrote in an emailed statement. “Clearly, that second part at least was right.”