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Legacy Property on Tuesday shared interior photos of new luxury apartments in Oakland, showing pristine hardwood floors, modern appliances and a rooftop garden complete with ample deck furniture for outdoor parties.

The property management company began leasing out the Baxter on Broadway apartments at 4901 Broadway a few weeks ago, and held an open house on Saturday. Regional director John Figone hasn’t given out exact numbers on how many people he’s actually rented to yet. The units are located at the corner of the affluent Rockridge and Temescal neighborhoods.

Still, the rents are eye-popping to many, and the price of the 130 units have been the focus of much social media criticism about the gentrification of Oakland and the growing divide between haves and have-nots.

The units include: Four town homes that are renting for $8,000 a month; 87 570-square-foot one bedrooms for about $3,500 a month; 24 1,000-square-foot two bedrooms for $5,000 a month; and 15 400-square-foot studios for about $3,000 a month.

But Figone said he feels the pricing is appropriate.

"We're just being competitive," he said.


Darin Ranelletti, policy director for Housing Security, said that Oakland has an affordable housing impact fee requirement for market-rate housing set at $22,000 per unit. However, he said, the fee does not apply to the Baxter units because the project began in February 2016 and the impact fee was established in September 2016.

To compare, developer SunCal is contributing $20 million to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund as it builds the new mixed-use Oak Knoll development, because that project was approved after the impact fee rules.

Baxter on Broadway is one of several new apartment buildings coming online in Oakland. City housing records showed there were 6,982 housing units under construction in Oakland, including 416 affordable units as of August.

