The developer behind Napa’s Oxbow Public Market and the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace has signed on to create a similar high-end artisanal food market — albeit with a decidedly East Bay focus — on the cavernous ground floor of a building at the south end of Oakland’s Jack London Square.

Steve Carlin has signed a lease with Jack London Square Ventures and Ellis Partners, in partnership with the Port of Oakland, to open the Water Street Market in the early fall of 2016.

“I believe we are entering Oakland and Jack London Square at a good time,” Carlin said Monday. “Oakland is often referred to as the Brooklyn of the Bay Area, and I believe that, too.” San Francisco architectural firm BCV, which also designed the Ferry Building and Oxbow markets, has been enlisted in the initial design phase.

Carlin says Water Street will reflect the local marketplace with East Bay vendors, including a garden where chefs and other food purveyors can grow their own produce. He also envisions lots of room for collaboration with the events and festivals that have made Jack London Square their home, including the farmers market and the popular Eat Real Festival.

The tale of Jack London Square’s public marketplace is one of oft-raised hopes and dashed dreams. Aside from offices on the upper floors, the waterfront building has been virtually empty since it was built eight years ago by Ellis Partners LLC and funded by private equity investors, but the hope now is to capitalize on the growing food scene in Oakland as vendors and restaurants cater to the cravings of the East Bay’s foodie population.

Oakland’s draw as a center for specialty food and drinks has exploded in recent years; in 2014 alone, 300 new restaurants and bars opened. Jack London Square, for example, has recently welcomed Plank, a beer garden with an 18-lane bowling alley, wood-fired Forge Pizza, and seafood-centric Lungomare and Jack’s Oyster Bar & Fish House.

Dreams of extending that momentum to the far end of Jack London Square are being revived given Carlin’s previous success with San Francisco’s Ferry Building, which draws crowds of tourists to dozens of specialty food stalls, and Napa’s Oxbow market, where wine and food mix on the bank of the Napa River.

Given the historically hexed property, local food purveyors were cautiously optimistic, including Miette’s Meg Ray, who has patisseries in the San Francisco Ferry Building, Hayes Valley and at Jack London Square.

“It’s good news,” she says. “I’m glad they are bringing in the right person to make it work, but I can’t get too excited about it.” She also hopes that the vision is modified “to fit the character of Oakland and not be a replica of the Ferry Building or Oxbow Market.”

Chris Pastena, owner of Lungomare, and who lives in Jack London Square, says it will be an asset to have a place to shop for local food.” He says he’s also excited that the new marketplace would “show off this jewel we have by the bay.”

But there’s certainly grounds for wariness. When construction began on the six-story building in 2007 — including two floors of market space and four floors of office space — the community was looking forward to a 170,000-square-foot waterfront development that was to include retail, restaurant and office space, an open-air farmers market, bistros and a cooking school. While new restaurants have come to the square, and the marketplace itself hosts events such as the Eat Real Festival, pop-up markets and an annual boat show, a 2012 attempt to bring in local food producers fizzled.

Still, Carlin is jumping in at a time when Oakland is riding a rising tide of redevelopment that began with the Fox Theater renovation in 2009. In Uptown Oakland, the Hive will be a housing, retail and office complex, with anchor tenant Impact Hub, a small business incubator. Developer Lane Partners presented plans to the city in December to retool the former Sears space, also in Uptown, into Oakland Station, where they hope to attract high-tech business with a market hall. And the ambitious Brooklyn Basin waterfront development project, which broke ground in early 2014, is expected to bring a mix of residences, parks, businesses, retail and a new marina to a 65-acre parcel south of Jack London Square in 2016.

“Having more residential development like Brooklyn Basin, which is within proximity to the port’s Jack London Square, bolsters the vitality and longevity of this retail, dining, and entertainment district,” says Pam Kershaw, the Port of Oakland’s Director of Commercial Real Estate. “Jack London Square is coming into its own for even greater success as more people discover Oakland as a foodie destination.”

Timing of the new project will stretch over several years, Carline said.

The veteran developer noted there’s a three-year ramp-up for markets to take hold and pointed to the challenges Oxbow faced when it first opened in late 2007. Those included road closures around the market due to construction on the Napa River flood control project, a lack of tenants upon its opening and bad timing, with the 2008 economic downturn.

What ultimately made Oxbow a success was that “the community decided it was their place,” he says, something he hopes will happen in the East Bay. While talk of potential tenants for Water Street is premature, he says, he’s got some names in his back pocket and is convinced “Oakland will support (the Water Street Market) and the East Bay will be proud of it as a community asset.”