A 372-unit apartment complex built into the brick bones of a century-old Alameda cannery is now 96% occupied, and its ground-floor retail spaces are filling in right behind it. Star Harbor, located at 1501 Buena Vista Avenue and 1518 Clement Avenue, has just landed its first two commercial tenants: fitness studio LuxFit and coffee roaster Highwire Coffee Roasters.
The leasing milestone was reported by The Mercury News, which detailed how the historic waterfront property has transformed from a shuttered industrial site into one of Alameda's more distinctive residential addresses. Nadine Whisnant, whose firm Maven Commercial handles leasing for the shops and dining spaces at Star Harbor, described the property as a stunning historic building and said LuxFit and Highwire are the first retailers to sign on for its ground-floor spaces, according to the same report.
From Del Monte Warehouse to Waterfront Homes
The building at the heart of Star Harbor dates to 1927, when California Packing Corp. — which later became Del Monte Foods — built a 240,000-square-foot brick warehouse that stood as Alameda's largest non-military building. The facility served as the central hub during the era when Alameda was the world's top distributor of canned food, according to research from VerPlanck Historic Preservation Consulting. During World War II, the warehouse and the adjacent Encinal Terminals operated as the General Navy Supply Depot for the South Pacific, moving fuel, vehicles, weapons, and relief supplies, with cargo carried along Clement Avenue via the Alameda Belt Line railway, per Star Harbor Alameda.
Del Monte operated the site until closing it in the late 1980s, and the property sat as an industrial relic for decades before Atlanta-based Wood Partners teamed up with Iowa-based Principal Real Estate Investors to buy and redevelop the old cannery, per the Mercury News report. The resulting 372-unit complex, which opened in 2022, sits within a 10.2-acre historic site and represents an adaptive reuse of the longtime cannery operation, combining new construction with the preserved six-acre brick facade. Architectural firm BAR Architects executed that reuse by selectively removing portions of the 1920s roof to create open-air interior paseos and courtyards while retaining original brick walls, industrial sash windows, and heavy timber framing inside individual residences, according to BAR Architects. Star Harbor's mix of 372 residential units includes traditional rental apartments, 44 townhomes, 10 live-work units, and 24 moderate-income housing units, per Strada Investment Group.
A Pricey Sale and a High-Occupancy Property
Wood Partners and Principal Real Estate sold the apartments to Strada Investment Group, with Strada paying $153.7 million for the property in February 2025. That deal was financed in part through a $90 million loan from Prudential Insurance Company of America, valuing the property at roughly $413,172 per unit, according to The Real Deal. San Francisco-based Strada acquired the property in partnership with an undisclosed public pension fund, the same outlet reported.
The sale echoes a broader pattern among regional multifamily developers: Wood Partners' Bay Area strategy has centered on building and later selling premier properties, as seen with the developer's 172-unit Alta Potrero sale for $132 million in San Francisco. Amid that turnover in ownership, Star Harbor's apartments have held strong, now sitting at 96% occupancy, per the Mercury News.
LuxFit Brings Its Outdoor-Indoor Concept East
LuxFit has leased 5,000 square feet at Star Harbor, marking the San Francisco-founded fitness brand's first expansion beyond the city. LuxFit launched as an outdoor fitness concept in Hayes Valley before growing into SF's East Cut and Mission Rock neighborhoods, offering small-group outdoor classes, personal coaching, and open-gym training, according to LuxFit. The company describes its offering as an indoor and outdoor fitness experience.
Yotam Israeli of LuxFit said Alameda's community deserves more than a traditional gym or single-format studio, per the Mercury News report. Amber Woolcock added that the Alameda LuxFit space was designed around how the community lives, trains, and spends time together, according to the same account.
Highwire Coffee Opens a Second Alameda Shop
Highwire Coffee Roasters has rented 1,500 square feet at Star Harbor, which will become the coffee and tea merchant's second Alameda location. The company already operates eight locations across the East Bay, including five in Oakland and one each in Albany, Walnut Creek, and Alameda, per the Mercury News.
Highwire's expansion into Star Harbor fits its broader East Bay infill strategy, which relies on delivering freshly roasted beans at least three times per week from its central roastery in Emeryville, as Hoodline previously reported. Robert Myers said Highwire's shops are intended to welcome everyone and foster community connections, according to the Mercury News.
Filling In the Ground Floor
Star Harbor's retail spaces total 10,000 square feet, and with LuxFit and Highwire signed on, the commercial component is now mostly full, according to the Mercury News. The historic building itself features high ceilings, outdoor seating, a brick facade, and preserved interiors that give the retail corridor its industrial character.
The push to bring housing and neighborhood-serving businesses together at the old cannery site traces back to Alameda's Northern Waterfront Specific Plan, which required developers to extend Clement Avenue and establish public shoreline access to ease truck congestion on Buena Vista Avenue and reconnect residents to the estuary, according to reporting referenced by Alameda Magazine in September 2014. The city also designated Clement Avenue as a multimodal transit priority route as part of that same planning effort. With LuxFit and Highwire now activating the ground floor, Star Harbor appears to be delivering on that long-standing city mandate to blend residential density with public access and local commerce.
