The Claremont Club & Spa, a gleaming chateau that’s one of the most visible landmarks in the East Bay hills, is about to get a makeover — and potentially 45 new condos.

Developer Michael Ghielmetti is negotiating with the city of Oakland to build several stories of housing on what’s currently a terraced parking lot outside the hotel lobby, creating what he says will be a perfect residential community for empty nesters.

“It’s an opportunity for new housing, which is desperately needed in the Bay Area,” Ghielmetti said. He and the Claremont’s general manager, Leonard Czarnecki, have pitched the project as an optimal use of land that’s now taken up by parking spaces and a wide, sloped driveway.

That proposal found favor with Rachel Flynn, head of planning and building for the city of Oakland. “It’s a great idea to create density near existing neighborhoods,” Flynn said. She added that it makes sense for Ghielmetti to market the condos to aging Baby Boomers, who, along with Millennial tech workers, are the largest drivers of the Bay Area real estate market.

Yet the project has prompted concern from preservationists and residents of the surrounding neighborhood. Despite Ghielmetti’s promise to complement the existing hotel architecture, and not build beyond Alvarado Road — the east boundary of the 22-acre property — some neighbors still fear that a stack of new condos will blemish an iconic site.

“From our point of view, there’s good development, and there’s bad development,” said Roger Feuer, general manager of Rick & Ann’s Restaurant, a popular brunch spot across the street from the hotel.

“If we hardly notice it, that’s good,” he said. “But if it’s a big pimple on the Claremont, that’s bad.”

Over the past few months, staff from Ghielmetti’s firm, Signature Development Group, have met with members of the community to discuss concerns and visions for the project. Although Ghielmetti said the meetings have been overwhelmingly positive, he also cautioned that the idea is still in its early stages. Signature still has to conduct traffic studies, create enough parking to accommodate newcomers and guests, and convince longtime residents that a new condo development won’t crowd the neighborhood.

“They’ve asked us to study traffic, and that’s something we’ll look at in depth in our environmental studies,” he said, insisting that 45 new homes shouldn’t have a significant impact on congestion.

Fears of traffic jams

But Miriam Wilson, a Realtor who lives on the Uplands — a street wedged between Claremont Avenue and Highway 13 — said she worries that a new condo development will create huge jams outside her home.

“It’s not that we’re opposed to growth; it’s that our street is already a gateway into the hotel and onto the freeway,” said Wilson, 69, who has already attended three planning meetings to discuss the project.

“This is not going to add to anyone’s benefit except the Claremont,” she added.

The next planning meeting is set for Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Claremont Hotel Ballroom.

Once the environmental studies are complete and the project is approved by Oakland officials, it could break ground as early as 2018.

Built more than a century ago, the Claremont was an homage to the Tudor architecture of 16th century England: a sprawling castle on a hill with jutting dormers and a bell tower.

“The story I’ve always heard is that it was painted with dark timbers and light-colored stucco to look Elizabethan,” said Anthony Bruce, head of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. “But then for the 1939 World’s Fair on Treasure Island they wanted it to be very visible, so they painted it a brilliant white.”

Idea of housing not new

To this day, it’s the most opulent resort in the region, with 276 guest rooms and an adjacent club that includes three swimming pools, 10 tennis courts and a “mind-body studio.”

The idea to add housing began gestating years ago, and it’s long been a subject of controversy, said Bruce, who grew up nearby.

In 1959, he said, “they sent postcards to everyone in the neighborhood about a new high-rise,” he said. “Everyone was shocked.”

Naomi Schiff of the Oakland Heritage Alliance said the Claremont was the focus of spirited debate in the 1980s, when local historians were fighting to preserve it as a landmark. Though it eventually got landmark status in 2002, the designation extended only to the edge of the building, not the entire grounds.

“We were not happy about that,” she said.

The Oakland Heritage Alliance has yet to weigh in on the condo proposal, but Schiff said its members have concerns about whether it will interfere with the character of the hotel.

Two years ago, the Claremont was purchased by the Fairmont hotel group and Richard Blum, the powerful financier who is the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. The new owners took on an ambitious restoration project — remodeling the guest rooms, repairing the elevators, redesigning the lobby and adding a new restaurant. They also revived the housing idea, hiring Signature to do preliminary studies.

Over the past few months, Signature has produced conceptual designs for what Ghielmetti hopes will be a comprehensive upgrade. The parking will move underground, the entryway will be spruced up, and the blacktop driveway will become a chic residential enclave. Ghielmetti hired San Francisco architecture firm Levy Design Partners to create the condo blueprint.

Designed for downsizers

To Czarnecki, it’s a “perfect marriage.” The market-rate condos will provide ideal housing for hills residents looking to downsize. Living next to the Claremont would give them all the amenities of a big house, he said. Plus they’d be walking distance from the shops and restaurants on Domingo Avenue.

“If empty nesters move into those condos, it’ll free up homes for new families to move in,” Ghielmetti said.

At least one person who happened to be walking along Domingo Avenue on Friday said he liked the sales pitch.

“Our house is too big, it has too many steps, and having more alternatives is a good idea,” said Stuart Lichter, a 70-year-old retired community college teacher who lives in the area.

“We would consider moving in,” he added.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @rachelswan