Former Dolan's Lumber Site Eyed for Senior Housing

A visitor to the Patch booth at El Cerrito's July 4th festival asked what's happening with the former Dolan's lumber yard site that has long been vacant on Central Avenue.

The large site straddles the border of El Cerrito and the Richmond Annex, but since most of it is in Richmond, the City of Richmond handles development proposals for the property, whose address is 5620 Central Ave.

So we called the Richmond planning department, and learned from Senior Planner Jonelyn Whales that the property is currently in the process of being sold and that a developer is interested in building affordable senior housing there. She said the sale has not been completed and that it would not be appropriate to reveal the name of the developer.

Property records at the Contra Costa County Assessor's office list the current owner as Rea Partners of San Ramon, which obtainted the parcel in a Deed of Trust dated Sept. 28, 2011.

It is listed by the Cassidy Turley commercial real estate firm at a price of $1,850,000. 

"The property is for sale," said Brian Collins, a senior vice president with the firm. "We have received a lot of interest and we are currently in negotiations.  We welcome further interest in the site as well!"

He said the current owner was the former lender, who foreclosed on the property in the fall of last year.

Whales said an earlier potential developer had proposed a car wash but withdrew the application in August last year.

The property is zoned "regional commercial," meaning that senior housing would require a conditional use permit from the Richmond planning commission, Whales said.

We're not sure of the parcel's size. A representative of the county assessor's office said it's 1.69 acres but also 68,816 square feet, which according to our calculator would be 1.60 acres (based on 43,560 square feet per acre). At the same time, the Cassidy Turley listing puts it at 2.58 acres.

The dilapidated buildings of the former lumber yard remained on the site for many years but are now gone. 

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