San Leandro could be on the verge of a dramatic redevelopment.
The city was long a sleepy, blue-collar manufacturing center. It’s now buzzing with a fresh technology focus. Word is spreading about a sturdy fiber-optic backbone running through the town and backers are making a marketing push that’s savvy about tech startups, especially in a space for 3-D printer manufacturers and other “makers.”
The city of 86,000 people has more than 1.2 million square feet of office, medical, retail and industrial space that is newly open, about to open, under construction or freshly approved.
“I’ve always felt it was kind of a diamond in the rough,” said Gaye Quinn, a managing director with Westlake Development Partners, which is developing the San Leandro Tech Campus, a Class A office project that was just approved.
In fact, San Leandro’s real estate success has been years — and in some ways, decades — in the making.
