Oak Knoll neighborhood in Oakland hills gains new life and fresh start

OAKLAND — The long-stalled Oak Knoll mixed-use village proposed for the East Oakland hills is pushing ahead with a new development manager that has crafted a strategy to transform the project’s visions into reality.

After decades of delays, the development is poised to produce more than 900 homes, along with shops, restaurants, offices, a grocery store and open spaces.

(Hart Howerton)

Oak Knoll village center, part of the mixed-use housing and commercial development at 8750 Mountain Boulevard in East Oakland, concept.
Aerial view of the Oak Knoll development site and the Club Knoll former naval officer’s club at 8750 Mountain Boulevard in Oakland, February 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Oak Knoll development along Mountain Boulevard near Keller Avenue in Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Street-level view of Oak Knoll village center, part of the mixed-use housing and commercial development at 8750 Mountain Boulevard in East Oakland, concept. (Hart Howerton)

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For nearly 30 years, East Bay residents and Oakland officials have pondered the prospect of a new neighborhood on the site of the former Oak Knoll Naval Hospital.

Instead of a lively new neighborhood, however, chain-link fences and largely fallow hillsides have remained the primary features of the property at 8750 Mountain Rd., near the interchange of Interstate 580 and Keller Avenue.

Now, Boston-based real estate firm Freehold Communities wants to change that and has taken on the task to propel the project to its first stages of development — including vertical construction of the first homes on the site.

“We are pressing forward with land development and negotiations with merchant builders to sell lots in phases,” said Bradley Shuckhart, Freehold Communities regional president for California and Arizona markets. “The idea is to sell finished lots to homebuilders who will then construct the houses. When our builders close on individual lots, they should be in position to immediately pull permits.”

Streetscape near single-family homes within Oak Knoll village center, part of the mixed-use housing and commercial development at 8750 Mountain Boulevard in East Oakland, concept. (Hart Howerton)
Oak Knoll village development site in the East Oakland hills near Interstate 580, seen in February 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Some of the key components of the Oak Knoll village, according to documents on file with city planners, include 918 residential units; a village center with an array of uses; 72,000 square feet of commercial uses; a community center at the Club Knoll complex; and a mixture of types of residences, including townhomes and single-family units on separate lots.

It’s possible 2,600 people could live in the new village, planning documents show.

“We want to get housing construction started by the end of this year or, at worst-case scenario, early in 2026,” Shuckhart said. “At build-out, the first phase will have roughly 290 homes that will be built and then sold by the homebuilders. We have hired architects to advance the home designs.”

Still, plenty of work must be completed before homebuilders can become involved, Shuckhart noted.

“When we took over, one of the things we realized that created concern for the builder community was the perception that getting the final set of approvals to construct homes was uncertain from a timing perspective,” Schuckart said.

Freehold aims to build all the necessary interior infrastructure to serve the housing lots within the new village.

“We will build all the neighborhood improvements, interior streets, curbs and sidewalks,” Shuckhart said. “We would deliver finished lots to homebuilders. This work will begin in the next month or two.”

Bird’s-eye view of single-family homes and courtyard homes within the Oak Knoll redevelopment at 8750 Mountain Boulevard in East Oakland, concept. (Hart Howerton)
Pedestrian bridge at the Oak Knoll development along Mountain Boulevard near Keller Avenue in Oakland, as seen in February 2025 in a drone view. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

The current owner of the land is an affiliate that is linked to Argent Management, a real estate group based in Irvine. Stephan Elieff, a former executive with SunCal, is the CEO of Argent, which helps investors find real estate assets to own or finance.

Oak Knoll Naval Hospital operated on the site starting in the 1940s during World War II. It shut its doors in 1996.

The closure unleashed speculation and concepts about the land’s future. The first city overview plans were approved in 1998 in the form of a general framework of what might be developed.

In 2006, an alliance of veteran developer SunCal and Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers bought the 190-acre site.

In 2008, however, a financial crisis spawned by the subprime mortgage meltdown triggered the implosion, bankruptcy and insolvency of Lehman Brothers, shoving countless real estate ventures to the side.

Oak Knoll was a victim of that failure. Virtually the only distinct progress that materialized over the following 17 years was the successful relocation in 2021 of the historic officer’s club to a new location within the development.

Club Knoll is slated to become a hub for community activities in the future village.