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6 <br /> <br />station in 2002, with home-grown TriNet as its anchor tenant9. Plans for a compact office park-styled, <br />transit-oriented Tech Campus located next to the San Leandro BART Station are currently in process, but <br />no similar concentrated office development has occurred west of I-880, due in part to zoning restrictions <br />that preserved industrial-zoned land. <br /> <br />Why Fix It: Today, San Leandro’s industrial areas and the related commercial uses within them <br />comprise almost one-quarter of the city’s land area – around 2,000 acres10 (Fig. 1). They provide <br />approximately two-thirds of jobs within the city. For over 200,000 I-880 drivers daily11, the industrial <br />areas act are the front door to the city, with the Davis Street and Marina Boulevard interchanges serving <br />as two out of the City's three I-880 exits. The districts remain an important source of tax revenue and <br />it’s the warehouse vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2013 was just 4.6%, while manufacturing space <br />vacancy stands at 5.3%12 (Table 1), so a natural question comes up - "if ain’t broke, why fix it?" <br /> <br />This is why: because, economically, the city can get far, far more benefit from it in terms of pride, jobs <br />and economic prosperity. Today many of the former factory buildings are simply used for storing and <br />moving goods, not making them (Figs. 19 & 20). 63% of the built industrial space in the districts is used <br />for warehousing and distribution13. These uses have low employment per square foot relative to other <br />workplace uses. The wages associated with this are lower than manufacturing, for which employment <br />has now dropped to about 6,800 jobs14 (Table 2). <br /> <br />With the districts’ mass production origins and the low-cost orientation of both municipality and <br />industry, these areas were and are not good “people places,” and are neither memorable nor <br />particularly pleasant to get around (Fig. 21). They remain physically and psychologically apart from the <br />rest of the city. Biotech and software companies are not likely to spill over soon into San Leandro’s <br />industrial areas – the proximate business ecosystem and talent-attractor features are not present. <br /> <br />A Fourth of the City's Land: In the long term, using a quarter of the city’s area in a built-out, inner ring <br />Bay area community to primarily meet the warehouse and distribution needs of the region does not <br />help to create wealth for San Leandro itself. Because of the industrial areas’ I-880 location and <br />proximity to Oakland’s Airport and container port, “goods movement” uses remain regionally important <br />and should continue to be supported, but it is possible for even a moderated shift in the balance of <br />workplace uses in the district toward accommodating higher value-creating businesses. This will <br />increase higher wage employment opportunities and strengthen the image of the city. Increasing the <br /> <br />9 Thomas, Susan, “In Depth: Alameda County Growth Profile – San Leandro reworks the past,” East Bay Business <br />Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2003/08/25/focus1.html American City Business Journals, <br />August 25, 2003. <br />10 San Leandro General Plan. City of San Leandro: 2011 update, Chapter 3, page 12,Table 3-1 <br />11 WMH Corporation. Lane, Ramp and Full Freeway Closure Analysis - 1-880 Southbound HOV Lane Project (Marina <br />to Davis). November 2011, p. 2. <br />12 CBRE "Oakland/East Bay, Industrial - Statistics & Transactions Q2 2013" - Industrial Insert. <br />13 Ibid. San Leandro warehouse square footage is indicated as 13,963,580 out of a total industrial inventory of <br />22,132,354. <br />14 City of San Leandro business license data.