Uber has purchased Oakland’s moribund Sears building and will open a major East Bay office there in 2017 after an extensive rehab, the company said Wednesday.

The imprimatur of the world’s most valuable private technology company should boost Oakland’s efforts to attract more major employers and add cachet to its burgeoning Uptown neighborhood, experts said.

Uber bought 1955 Broadway from developer Lane Partners, which purchased the seven-story property in late 2014 from Sears for a $24.25 million. Uber’s purchase price was not disclosed. Now known as Uptown Station, the building sits atop the 19th Street BART Station.

The company will team up with Lane and architecture firm Gensler on Lane’s planned $40 million overhaul of the building, which has been sheathed in concrete and steel reinforcements since it was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Constructed in 1927 as the HC Capwell building, it housed Sears from 1996 until the department store moved out last year, leaving the entire property vacant. The restoration will open up long-closed windows and feature a central atrium allowing natural light to flow throughout the building, Uber said.

Uber described the move as an “expansion” of its headquarters, now in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood. It will continue with its plans to construct a two-building, 423,000-square-foot campus in San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

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Uber said it projects that between 2,000 and 3,000 employees will work at Uptown Station. The company now has about 2,000 full-time Bay Area employees. (Its drivers are contractors, not employees, a point being disputed in court.)

“We are excited to deepen our roots across the bay by investing in the revitalization of historic downtown Oakland and to become a permanent part of the fabric of the East Bay community by adding thousands of jobs at our Oakland site,” Renee Atwood, Uber global head of people and places, said in a statement.

Lane’s plans include an upscale specialty market on the ground floor called Newberry Market & Deli. With 330,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, Uptown Station is one of the largest office buildings in Oakland.

Uptown, already home to new restaurants and performance venues, as well as the historic renovated Fox Theater, appears poised for an economic boom. Developer Seth Hamalian won planners’ approval last month for a 33-story, 345-unit residential tower across the street from Uptown Station at 1900-1944 Broadway.

“We’re proud that Uber was attracted to Oakland’s creative energy, incredible talent, progressive values, prime location and accessibility to the entire region,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement. “I also look forward helping Uber make other meaningful contributions to Oakland that will make this a more equitable, vibrant city where everyone can thrive.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid