Plans for a Chinatown high-rise containing 380 condominiums are advancing, despite the developer’s proposal last year to scale it down to include half as many units.

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The project at 325 Seventh St. was first approved by the city in 2011, and consisted of two towers — one 27 stories tall and the other 20 — which included the condos, almost 12,000 square feet of open space and almost 10,000 square feet of commercial space.

In 2016, local developer Balco Properties unveiled plans to submit a new proposal with the same amount of commercial space, but half as many condos.

But at the Oakland Planning Commission meeting last week, Balco CEO Mollie Westphal announced the company would be returning to its original plan of 380 condos.

The site sits alongside Interstate 880 between Harrison and Webster streets, across from Chinese Garden Park. A Queen Anne Victorian that sat on the lot was destroyed in a 2013 fire.

Westphal last year said the costs of such a large project seemed too high. But as the company blossomed and other developers attached themselves to the project, it was able to shore up the funds, Westphal told planning commissioners.

“This particular project was our first big development project,” Westphal said. “Back when we did it we thought we’d be able to develop it. The economy changed; we didn’t have the funds. Now after reviewing it, it looks like we’re going to be able to do it.”

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At the meeting Wednesday, Balco requested an extension of the 2011 approval. The approval had been extended through December 2016, but now that the company is returning with the original number of condos, it needs more time to “redesign and figure out the structure to be the best for that whole area,” Westphal said. The company is looking to just have one tower as opposed to two, but include four or five more stories, she said.

Though Balco asked for a two-year extension, the commission extended it for a year, to Sept. 6, 2018.

Commissioner Clark Manus expressed concern that a two-year extension would be too long, since the project already has taken so long.

“The leash needs to be tighter,” Manus said. “Clearly I am in full support of delivering housing and this getting built, but I worry about the history of this project so far. … We want the project to succeed in the city.”

Commissioner Jahmese Myres urged developers to reach out more in the next year to people who live in the surrounding community to get their input.

“This is one of the first developments actually in the heart of Chinatown, and it’s in an area of importance, which to me indicates that there should be some more community engagement than it appears there is,” Myres said.

Several other new developments meanwhile have been approved nearby, including a six-story mixed use development across the street from the post office on 13th Street and a 634-unit, 40-story tower to replace the Merchants Parking Garage between 13th and 14th streets, Webster and Franklin streets.

Westphal said Balco’s project is “a benefit to the community,” since the site consists of a mostly empty lot apart from some old warehouses, which the company plans to demolish.

Yui Hay Lee, the project’s architect who said he considers himself a “Chinatown stakeholder,” noted the development provides much-needed housing to the area.

“This project is right in the heart of Chinatown, and on a piece of land that, forgive me I say this, is functionally, physically and economically obsolete,” Lee said. “So we’re talking about returning a piece of land like that into 380 units of housing, I think it would make a major impact on Chinatown.”

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