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Jack London Square. Photo: The Chronicle.
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The water fountain on the plaza in front of 98 Broadway. Photo: The Chronicle
Oakland’s Jack London Square has had its share of challenges and false starts (most prominently that mega-market that never materialized), but recent years have seen a bunch of new restaurants help usher in a new era: Bocanova, Haven, Encuentro, The Forge, and Lungomare.
Today, the Jack London developers — Ellis Partners LLC and DivcoWest — have announced an ambitious new project in the Pavilion Building (98 Broadway) that previously housed Barnes and Nobles, which has been closed since early 2010.
Trifecta Management Group is moving in, with a still-unnamed “dining and entertainment concept” that will take over the 34,000 square foot building and adjacent 15,000 square foot plaza. Construction is reportedly underway, and they plan to open in the fall.
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It will include a restaurant billed as a gastropub, bowling lanes, a music venue, arcade games and an al fresco beer garden with bocce courts.
(And for what’s it worth, the Trifecta website has a page dedicated to an Oakland venue offering bocce and bowling due this summer, named Plank. So take that as you will.)
The preliminary floor plan:
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So the big question: Who and what is this “Trifecta Management Group”?
It’s a Los Angeles-based company that creates and develops restaurants, casinos, and entertainment venues. On their portfolio are mostly places throughout mid-size American cities like like Latitude Global (Jacksonville), Mestizo (Leawood, KS), Shenaniganz & Rozies (Rockwall, TX) and so on. This year, they plan to open other bowling/dining venues in Cincinnati, Sparks (NV) and now, Oakland.
So, it’s interesting that after embracing local restaurateurs for the last few years and once promising the Oakland equivalent of the Ferry Building, Jack London is now going in this direction. Maybe the A’s will follow? Regardless, for the waterfront neighborhood’s sake, here’s hoping that it does go well … because if it doesn’t, the headlines for a failed undertaking named the Plank will write themselves.
Update: A few renderings of the project:
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