Oakland – (Special to ZennieReport.com) According to The Battery SF Owner Michael Birch, in an exclusive for Zennie62Media, Inc., the planned The Battery Oakland has been delayed, or as he put it “shelved.” Mr. Birch pointed to economic conditions and that he and his wife were focused on other pursuits.
Here’s the video-blog version of the news:
Two years ago, Michael Birch and Xochi Birch, owners of the legendary Battery SF Club announced plans to buy and take over the historic Bellevue Club In Oakland next to Lake Merritt and make it “The Battery Oakland”. Now, at the time, such a move, even the talk of it, let alone by the very owners of The Battery SF, was really huge news.
To understand why The Battery Oakland was a huge idea, you have to know what The Battery SF – at 717 Battery St Ste 100, San Francisco, CA 94111 · (415) 230-8000 – is, and how it came to be.
First, there’s what The Battery SF is described as by its owners on its website: “The Battery was founded with the goal of hosting bright minds with big ideas and offering a sense of community amongst an ephemeral population. Designed by world-renowned interior designer, Ken Fulk, our club and luxury boutique hotel provide a welcome respite from the busy downtown streets without sacrificing proximity. A bit of fantasy, a bit of surprise, and a bit of seclusion in an increasingly public world await you.”
This blogger has visited Battery SF, and went up to the Musto Bar with friends. The scene was crowded but not uncomfortably so, and full of well-dressed, mostly young with a smattering of older hipster types, scores of beautiful business women (generally lawyers) and groups of men who would not be insulted if you thought they were either a celebrity or wealthy, or both.
And then, as it happens if you live in the San Francisco / Oakland Matrix, you’re bound to see at least one person you know in the room. Then you feel right at home. That’s another way of saying that the scene can get a little crazy, like the random woman who came over and kissed me smack on the lips. Then stuck around for a while.
I did not complain.
Upon departure that night, this Oakland vlogger wondered if The Battery SF was too cool for uptight Oakland?
The Battery Oakland: How The Battery SF Came To Be
Second, there’s the story of how it came to be. Take what Insider wrote back in 2018:
San Francisco’s booming tech industry has produced an array of gated societies throughout the city. The Battery SF, which opened nearly four years ago, is a members-only clubhouse dedicated to creating an innovative social networking space. The club is an intentional throwback to the social clubs of earlier eras and its opulent trappings complete the vibe.
Created by the husband-and-wife founders of early social network Bebo (which was acquired by AOL for $850 million), The Battery hosts a who’s who of tech industry power players who dine at its restaurant, mingle at the establishment’s various bars or attend the special events.
With its pricey entry and strict no-photos-allowed policy, few people have glimpsed the club’s sumptuous interior.
Insider
And here’s a video showing what the Battery SF is like for an event:
The Battery Oakland: Fusing SF Tech Hipsters With Oakland Anti-Gentrifiers
The news was as exciting as it was controversial because of the (mostly-white) tech-hipster clientele The Battery SF was known for and the seeming clash with Oakland’s intensely anti-gentrification crowd, mostly black and or “of-color”. Every major San Francisco and Oakland (well, not much) news organization picked up the story, though none had a video interview with Mr. Birch. Which you can watch here:
To find out more, I met and ended up really hitting it off with Michael, who was jazzed over the challenge of establishing the Battery Oakland. He said it would take two years to get off the ground.
That Zennie62 YouTube video interview I conducted with Michael was viewed over 1,000 times, which follows my definition of a locally-viral video being one that clears 300 views and yet is about an Oakland-focused topic.
Two years later and a Zennie62 YouTube viewer asked what happened to The Birch’s plan for Oakland. I reached out via email and got this answer:
Hi Zennie,
Unfortunately not any real progress. It’s on pause for now as our focus lies elsewhere and we’re waiting to see what happens with the economy. It doesn’t feel like the right time to open a club or to invest that much in real estate since it needs a significant amount of work.
Michael
From email to Zennie Abraham from Michael Birch
The Battery Oakland Was A Sign Toward A New Oakland Or Oakland As East San Francisco
So, if there was ever a sign that Oakland was about to become East San Francisco and gain a higher income crowd, The Battery Oakland would have been it. Now, if that’s good or bad is a point of long talks, and should be. But, there would be no denying that SF Bay Area tech wealth finally hit Oakland culture.
But now that it’s not happening, and this blogger can’t help but feel sad about the news, frankly. The reason is having something like The Battery SF in Oakland, at Lake Merritt would be a sign that Oakland’s economic power was on its way to being equal to that of San Francisco’s. And that there would be one more reason not to go over to San Francisco to hang out or eat well, and this reason would be right in the middle of Oakland, at Lake Merritt.
But The Battery Oakland plan has been shelved.
It’s not happening because of problems like the economic downturn but also ones that Michaël is too polite to point to: excessive crime and business disinvestment in Oakland.
Sad stuff Oakland’s Government could correct if it stopped playing the information denier game. Mayor Sheng Thao has to take the red pill, declare a State of Emergency, give LaRonne Armstrong his Chief of Police job back, and use tax increment financing to develop a financing plan to help the suffering small businesses that are closing by the day.
Maybe, Oakland could invest in The Battery Oakland, and get it built? Why not?
Stay tuned.