Oakland’s
iconic Kaiser Center cemented its reputation as a leading edge commercial
location with the opening of The Port Workspaces, a three-story, vertical entrepreneurs’
campus providing workspaces for individual entrepreneurs, start ups, small and
mid-sized companies as well as chefs, artisans and makers. The opening celebration included a ribbon cutting ceremony with Mayor Libby Schaaf.
The
third location for Oakland-born Port Workspaces, the Kaiser Campus occupies
60,000 square feet in Kaiser Center’s former mall area, a portion of the one
million square foot property which itself has had a storied history. When Kaiser Center was first occupied in the
early 1960’s as the headquarters of Henry J Kaiser’s industrial empire, the
mall housed a department store, the White House. In later years, the mall was converted to a
multi-tenant building and other retailers, including Joseph Magnin, Grodin’s, Casual
Corner and Nesbitt’s, came and went. As
retail trends shifted, the tenant population of the mall dwindled and much of
the three-story mall space, particularly space without exposure to the street, remained
vacant.
That
is, until recently. According to Deborah
Boyer, executive vice president of The Swig Company, discussions with several
parties about utilizing the previously unused mall space have occurred over the
years but the collaboration with Port Workspaces brought the most creative and
innovative adaptive reuse opportunity.
(Deborah Boyer, The Swig Company, speaks at the ribbon cutting ceremony at The Port Workspaces with Joel Pool, Karen Wertman & Mayor Libby Schaaf.) Photos by: Morgan Sully
“Port
Workspaces is Oakland grown and understands what it means to create a vibrant,
diverse coworking community in our city. The Port had the clearest vision for
the space. Were he here today, Henry J’s
entrepreneurial spirit would applaud the Port’s designers for successfully reimagining
the mall as a coworking campus that responds to today’s demand for enriched and
flexible work environments.”
Port
Workspaces’ flexible workspace concept fits perfectly into the space, providing
three separate floors with a variety of flexible formats and amenities for a
wide range of users. The facility
includes a roof terrace, a commercial co-working kitchen, The Port Kitchens, conference facilities,
a bar/lounge and event space.
The
Port Workspaces - Kaiser Campus renovation features a variety of visually
stunning new design features. Visitors at the first floor main entry are
greeted by a “valley” of custom-made, sit-stand-lean workstations resembling
icebergs, dyed terrazzo flooring and a massive 3D themed mural by renowned
Oakland artist Sean Griffin. Other unique features include a towering LED-lit fountain,
offices in former retail stores and meeting rooms made from a former walk-in
restaurant refrigerator and from freight containers. An escalator (remnant of
the building’s department store days) rises to the 2nd floor and The
Port’s own 40-seat computer programming school, the Port Academy, a yoga studio, a presentation
theater, and 180-seat “team room” – designed with bendable partitions and color-changing
lighting for on-the-fly teamwork configurations. On the 3rd floor, Port entrepreneurs
enjoy a 4,500 square foot private bar and lounge, private offices, coworking spaces
overlooking the 3-acre Kaiser Roof Garden, and a vast private terrace with Lake
Merritt views, a 24-seat thatched Tiki bar, artificial turf and rolling lounge “hills.”
“Thanks
to the forward-thinking leaders at The Swig Company, we’ve had a wonderful
opportunity to bring leap-ahead workspace design and use to this hidden gem of
a property,” says Port Workspaces CEO and founder Joel Pool. “We could hardly
believe it when we saw these soaring, unobstructed spaces, next to BART, with
lake views and a 3-acre roof garden for a backyard. Both the space and owners
provided remarkable freedom to explore a range of layouts, technologies and
aesthetics. There’s no other place in
Oakland we could have realized this concept of a multi-industry entrepreneurs’
campus, on the scale needed – and certainly not in such a gorgeous setting.
It’s been an honor to work with The Swig Company, to put so many resources
under one roof for Oakland’s innovators.
We can’t wait to see what they create here.”
(From left to right: Joel Pool, Port Workspaces CEO & Founder, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Deborah Boyer, Executive Vice President of The Swig Company & Karen Wertman, COO The Port Workspaces.)
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