Uber to Pay Oakland More than $1M For Affordable Housing, But It Won't Go Far

The city of Oakland will receive approximately $1 million for affordable housing from Uber as part of the city's jobs/housing impact fee on new developments. Uber, of course, will be opening a major office in Oakland's converted Sears Building, now known as Uptown Station. The selling price was $123.5 million. The added fee for housing comes from a decade-old law that aims at balancing growth with benefits for low-income residents, especially as new office space attracts workers to move into Oakland. However, $1 million is a drop in the bucket for Uber—a company that is valued at $50 billion—and probably won't go a long way in building new affordable housing units.

Currently, Oakland charges $5.46 for each square foot of office space above 25,000. With at least 330,000 square feet of Uptown Station used as Uber offices, that means that the company would pay $1.6 million or less. However, given that the cost of a newly built affordable housing unit is $400,000, Uber's fee won't provide that much.

· OMG! Uber to Pick Up Oakland's Redesigned Sears Building for Office Space [Curbed SF]
· Uber to Pay Oakland Around $1M For Affordable Housing [SF Business Times]