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414 13th STREET (Pontes Financial Group Office)

414 13th Street
Oakland, California

Built in 1906, the previous owner had taken this very nice old building and modernized it in the early 1980s. After the 1989 earthquake and the fires of 1991, Oakland's office market was decimated and had upwards of 30% vacancy. But from an investment standpoint, the building was still desirable because it was centrally located in the Bay Area with easy access to public transportation. UDP principal Steven Pontes secured the rights to buy this property in 1997 and closed escrow in 1999, just before the “dot com” boom greatly increased demand for vacant downtown office space.

It was during the retrofitting and restoration of 414 13th Street that Steven and Avi Ben-Zaken first worked together. With the help of Avi's team at Quality Bay Construction, Steven spent several years restoring the building, bringing both its interior and exterior closer to their original architectural integrity. The building was also completely retrofitted to hopefully withstand the next earthquake. 414 13th Street is now the Pontes Financial Group office building.