A century-old building in Oakland's Jack London Square warehouse district has been seized by its lender after the entity that borrowed a $1.65 million loan defaulted. The Parker Electric Foundation's arts and performance venue remained active after the foreclosure. The Parker Electric Manufacturing Building at 221 Washington St. was constructed at the start of the 20th century and became one of the more recent casualties of Oakland's ongoing commercial real estate crunch.
According to the Bay Area News Group, the property entered foreclosure through a speedy foreclosure process, and documents showing the lender's ownership landed at the Alameda County Recorder's Office on September 24. The lender is described as a Bridger Fund affiliate, which provided the $1.65 million loan in 2025 to an entity headed by W. Bradford Paley, a cognitive engineer who founded the Oakland-based Parker Electric Foundation. That foundation had been operating an arts, community, and performance venue at the address, according to the same report.
The building's history stretches back further than most Oaklanders realize. Bay City Iron Works constructed the Parker Electric Manufacturing Building in 1905, replacing a prior structure wrecked by fire, and the new building incorporated much of the exterior of a structure built around 1892, per the Bay Area News Group. Bay City Iron Works sold the 221 Washington St. property to Parker Electric in 1924 before relocating to a larger building. A 2019 report from Environmental Science Associates documented that history, and additional research from LocalWiki notes that Bay City Iron Works had originally set up shop at the site in 1901 before eventually relocating to 320 Washington St. around 1927.
A Venue That Was Still Hosting Shows
The Parker Electric Foundation's space remained an active part of Oakland's cultural calendar after the foreclosure. Listings on Eventbrite show the venue hosted the “Queen Lessons Comedy Show” this month, alongside dance performances staged there in early 2024. Those events illustrate the building's recent role as a venue for local performers and audiences.
The 8,800-square-foot property is now held by the lender after foreclosure.
A Bridger Fund affiliate now holds the property.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Distress
This isn't an isolated case. Hoodline reported in January that lender Rialto Capital Management filed a foreclosure lawsuit tied to a $111 million defaulted loan portfolio that included Oakland's landmark Tribune Tower foreclosure fight at 409 13th St., where court filings cited broken windows, asbestos, and squatters. The Bay Area News Group's report on the Parker Electric Building also notes that the Tribune Tower remains mired in that mortgage default.
The broader numbers help explain why. Downtown Oakland's office vacancy rate reached nearly 38% in the first quarter of 2026, up sharply from 10.8% in 2019 before the pandemic, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report relayed by The Oaklandside.
There is a silver lining for buildings like this one, though. Oakland's office market posted positive net absorption of 13,000 square feet in the first quarter of 2026, as tenants showed what a Colliers study cited by The Real Deal called a “flight to value” away from expensive Class A towers.
