BART's Board of Directors on Oct. 22 chose a team of Pacific Development and Affirmed Housing to enter exclusive negotiations to build housing on parking lots at Fremont station, according to BART. This is the first phase of development at the station, and it is not a final approval.
The team's early plan calls for 643 homes, including 176 affordable homes, plus a landscaped plaza near the station entrance, a new bike and pedestrian route from Mowry Avenue and a café with play space and art studio space. BART describes the Phase 1 site as about 8 acres on the northeast side of the station.
Pacific Development partner Sean Murphy told the San Francisco Chronicle he hopes to have the project approved in 2027 and start building in 2028. Many units would look out on Tule Pond, a 17-acre wetland and stormwater system behind the station. "Tule Pond is a really important natural resource that everyone has turned their back on for decades," Murphy said.
A downtown from scratch. Fremont was formed in 1956 by merging five communities, so it never had a traditional main street. "We have never had a downtown of our own, so we are now building one from scratch," Donavan Lazaro, who heads economic development for the city, told the Chronicle. About 1,000 homes have opened along or near Capital Avenue, the city's new downtown spine, with about 3,500 more in the pipeline. Lazaro said the BART site could house up to 1,500 people.
Parking. BART says at least about 700 parking spaces will remain for riders once Phase 1 begins. In its fall 2025 count, 550 spaces were in use across all the Fremont station lots.
BART has built 4,232 homes on its land so far, with 3,800 more in the pipeline, the Chronicle reported.