ReWorking Suburbia Event Aims to Put City on Regional Development Map

San Leandro should be a destination for high-tech jobs, say the sponsors of a forthcoming forum aimed at giving architects, developers and business development professionals a new appreciation for the city's unique geographic advantages.

"The flatland industrial area west of Interstate 880 has always been the economic engine of San Leandro," said Gaye Quinn, a commercial real estate developer and one of the principals of San Leandro By Design, an initiative of the city's Chamber of Commerce.

On Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 8 a.m. to noon, Quinn and other members of the group hope to bring development professionals from inside and outside San Leandro to a $40 per person event. It will spotlight an industrial zone that has fallen into disuse but still has attractive features in terms of transportation, zoning and infrastructure.

"As manufacturing has left, many of those (west of I-880) buildings have been under-utilized," Quinn said. "But it's ready to change."

She noted some of San Leandro's advantages as a destination for new industries like high tech, clean tech, biotech and software.

They include two BART stations to bring workers from around the region; access to the Port of Oakland; rail, truck and airport shipping capabilities; and the zoning and utilities that industries need.

The San Leandro By Design group has been working on these ideas for a couple of years and held previous events. Quinn said the energy behind the effort has increased with the recognition that the Kaiser Hospital project will give the industrial zone an economic boost.

Other developments in the works could also help make the city more attractive as a destination for new industry.

The San Leandro-based tech firm OSIsoft is working with city officials to get permission to lay in an 11-mile loop through business and industrial zones — a capacity that would interest Internet-based companies.

San Leandro By Design initially called its effort ReWorking San Leandro, but the group has tried to boost its regional visibility by calling its new event ReWorking Suburbia.

Quinn said developers around the Bay Area are seeing the wisdom of putting appropriate industry in vacant areas close to transportation and the work force, rather than putting jobs in the hinterlands and expecting people to move or drive.

"We want San Leandro to be the place where people come to talk about these types of design ideas," said Quinn, who is working with Alameda County and other municipal authorities to help this model of development gain traction.

For more information or to register for the event, visit the ReWorking Suburbia website.