Oakland: Jack London Square Bets on Bowling, Beer, Live Music

By Doug Oakley
Staff Writer
doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com
OAKLAND -- A new 50,000 square-foot sports bar and bowling alley that opened in the old Barnes & Noble space at Jack London Square has area business leaders hoping it attracts more people to the area and eventually more retail businesses. 

Opened last week, the indoor-outdoor venue called plank features 12 lanes of bowling, outdoor bocce ball, 40 television screens, food, beer and a game arcade. 

At $150 a square foot, owner Trifecta Management Group of Agoura Hills invested more than $7.5 million to renovate the space, which features an outdoor bar and beer garden that can accommodate 800 while the inside space can hold up to 1,200, said Managing Partner Michael Auger. 

Auger said the venue also will have live music, with acoustic sets outside and full live acts on a stage inside. 

Jack London Square already has restaurants and office workers that inhabit the area during the day, but at night and on weekends it can feel like a ghost town. 

"There's not a lot for kids down here," said John Lyman, who was bowling with his friends and 2-year-old daughter at plank Friday night. "So this is great. It's exactly what Jack London needs." 

More people like Lyman and his family could mean more retail, which is what the area really needs to take off, said Dean Rubinson, director of development at Ellis Partners, which leases 11 square blocks at Jack London Square from the Port of Oakland. 

"The missing element really is foot traffic at all times of day," Rubinson said. "It's a great spot for families. I did my son's 12th birthday party at plank last week. Then the vibe changes at night and becomes more of a nightclub scene. It's really intended to fill that foot traffic void." 

Rubinson said foot traffic is sacred for retail shopping and that's what he hopes happens next at Jack London Square. 

"We filled up the office space, added five or six restaurants, and then the entertainment and retail follows," Rubinson said. "We hope we're at that tipping point. Retailers want to see foot traffic before they put a store there." 

He said Jack London Square has been perceived as unsafe in the evening because it gets lumped in with the rest of high-crime Oakland. 

"Relative to the rest of Oakland, it's very safe," Rubinson said. 

And with the launch of the new Jack London Improvement District in May with a $750,000 budget and "ambassadors," who will walk people to their cars, pick up trash, refer street people to social services and call the cops if necessary, the area should start to feel safer. 

Savlan Hauser, executive director of the district, said the main thrust of the new business improvement district is to keep the streets clean and make people feel welcome "and happy to come down here." 

She said she hopes with plank the area will get "that critical mass of visitors to bring in the retail." 

Hauser said getting a grocery store in the area also would be great. 

"We're right on the threshold of having more neighborhood amenities," Hauser said. "We want places people who live here can walk to. As it stands now, a lot of people get in their car to go and do grocery shopping." 

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