Bayfair Mall Finds New Life as Innovative Industry Job Center

Bayfair Mall is changing. Once one of the first malls in the East Bay, the center is now transforming into a transit-oriented research & development campus. Owners B3 Investors are delivering 400,000 sf of flexible studio, production, and R&D spaces that are customizable, have flexible lease terms, and offer room for businesses to grow. Innovative businesses such as Berkeley Yeast and Vantage Robotics are among the first new businesses to call the new Speedway at Bayfair home.

A recent video by ABC7 and September 9, 2024 Mercury News article highlights Bayfair Mall for taking a forward-looking approach to the use of outdated retail space, and applauds the work of B3 Investors whose vision is to offer light industrial, research & development spaces for rent to innovative businesses in emerging industries. B3 calls this space Speedway at Bayfair – a nod to the site’s use as a race track prior to the construction of the mall.

Speedway at Bayfair is located in the interior and rear of the former Bayfair mall space. The building offers good construction, heavy power, high-capacity air conditioning, and other valuable infrastructure. In an example of creative reuse, the owners are making major renovations to the former mall, building bright new tenant spaces, tenant amenities and an entry lobby.

Bayfair Mall is located within the Bayfair Transit-Oriented Development area, a specific plan for which was adopted in 2018. The vision for this area is to transform the area adjacent to the Bayfair BART station into a vibrant, mixed-use transit village that hosts housing, retail, and office space alike, within a short walking distance to transportation.

A key vision of San Leandro’s 2024 Economic Development Strategy is to become East Bay’s Premier Location for Innovation-Based Industry. Growth of the Speedway at Bayfair is a key first step in the city’s Innovation Action Strategy to attract and retain growing businesses and good jobs in Clean Tech, Food Tech, Biomedical, Hardware, Robotics, and the creative economy.

The transformation of Bayfair Center is the product of rapid changes in the current retail landscape that result in large-scale shopping malls needing to revisit their value to the community and finding creative ways to reuse existing space and infrastructure that promote economic resilience, while also fulfilling the evolving needs of new and innovative businesses.

The commercial office, life sciences, and governmental office sectors continue to show interest in locations, such as Bayfair, that are in urbanized areas and near major public transit. B3 Investors has begun to rent spaces to startups and continues to talk with a variety of interested businesses seeking office space and/or light research and development spaces – particularly those in the biotech and bioscience areas, which could attract a substantial number of jobs to the area.

Adding employment-generating businesses not only brings jobs to San Leandro at a transit-accessible location, but also enhances the customer base for local retailers. It also helps to reinforce San Leandro as the “missing middle” area for growing Bay Area startups in need of physical space to perform research and development.