A coalition of filmmakers, sound professionals and their advocates have blocked a move by a West Berkeley landlord to transform vacant media offices into research and development space in a building with a decades-long history of producing smash musical successes, classic feature films and groundbreaking documentaries.
The Zoning Adjustments Board voted Thursday to halt owner Wareham Development’s plan to revamp suites on two floors of its building at 2600 10th St., also known as the Saul Zaentz Media Center.
It’s the building where Green Day recorded Dookie in 1994, where Santana recorded Supernatural in 1999.
Some tenants and locals refer to the original, two-story section of the building as “the house that Creedence built” and the newer, seven-story section as “the house that Jack built,” references to the band Creedence Clearwater Revival and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which starred Jack Nicholson. When they hit it big, Creedence was signed to Fantasy Records, which previously owned the building and was helmed by the late Saul Zaentz, who later produced Cuckoo.
But more than just a focal point of entertainment lore, say the film and sound professionals who work there, the building is a one-of-a-kind social and cultural resource for the East Bay. Fantasy Studios, the section of the building where internationally renowned bands recorded songs for half a century, closed in 2018, but the building has nevertheless remained a nexus for East Bay professionals and students working in audio and visual media.
Wareham, which bought the building in 2007, sought a permit to convert 9,750 square feet on the first and second floors from three media production suites to up to nine research-and-development suites. The company has argued there’s a strong demand for that type of office unit in the area, though a recent leasing flier for the building showed vacancies in some of its research suites.
The company criticized the decision but did not immediately say whether it would appeal to the city council.
“Wareham Development will be evaluating its options following last night’s decision, which we strongly believe was made in error,” Wareham spokesperson Andrew Neilly said in an email in response to an inquiry from Berkeleyside. The Zoning Adjustments Board, he said, ignored the analysis and recommendations of the city’s own staff in backing the appeal.
Zoning restrictions in the area require property owners to seek permits to use more than 20,000 feet for research and development. Of the building’s 117,316 square footage, 19,555 is already research and development space, according to city records.
A city zoning officer signed off on a permit for the conversion, but several of the building’s professional tenants and the West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies (WEBAIC), which advocates for zoning rules more favorable for artists and manufacturers, filed an appeal in December. Among other points, the tenants argued that the media production suites should be considered arts-and-crafts studios, which have greater protections in that part of the city.
Jed Riffe, a filmmaker who has worked in the building since 1989, said he was “offended” at the city’s initial findings, which favored the conversion. “I feel they don’t understand what we do, and I feel like we’re being put out of business, which is what has happened since Wareham bought the building,” Riffe, who was one of the appellants, told the board Thursday.
Jim LeBrecht, who in 1978 began working as resident sound designer for Berkeley Rep, said he found out about the building in 1985 when he went there to record a score for a play. He would go on to run Berkeley Sound Artists out of the building for 20 years before selling the company, which is now called IMRSV Sound and is still housed in the same building, where LeBrecht also still works.
LeBrecht has since partnered with another East Bay filmmaker, Nicole Newnham, to direct and produce Crip Camp, an Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary chronicling a summer camp for teenagers living with disabilities on which former U.S. President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama also partnered.
LeBrecht moves with assistance from a powered chair, and said the 10th Street building — with its two elevators, secure parking and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms — were big draws for filmmakers and other professionals with different physical abilities.
“I don’t have the options that other people do. I can’t take the cheap office up a flight of stairs,” LeBrecht said. “For me, this building, first off, accepted me as a person and as an artist.”
Of the three suites Wareham wanted to convert, two have been vacant since 2008 and the third since 2018, said Lisa Vogel, an asset management director for the developer.
“What’s interesting is I have 30 suites on the sixth floor available today for over 8,000 square feet for any media production tenants who are in the market,” Vogel said Thursday. Vogel said Wareham has always supported media production at the building. The company, along with The Saul Zaentz Company and the city of Berkeley, co-sponsors the Berkeley Film Foundation, which administers grants to Bay Area filmmakers.
Commissioners Yes Duffy, Kimberly Gaffney, Shoshana O’Keefe and Debra Sanderson voted in favor of the appeal; Brandon Yung voted against it “in the most loving way possible” and, despite his dissenting vote, exchanged friendly words after the meeting with filmmakers working in the 10th Street building.
