BERKELEY — Raising Cane’s has paid more than $10 million to buy a retail property at a prime intersection near UC Berkeley in a sign the high-profile dining chain is eyeing a new Bay Area location.
Related Articles
Medical tech heart health company expands with South Bay office deal
Sutter Health launches $1 billion East Bay campus with property deals
San Jose affordable apartment complex is bought for $80 million-plus
Fire-torched rubble of old Victorian homes is cleared away in San Jose
South Bay office and research building lands local real estate investor
The fast-service, casual-food chain paid $12.7 million for a property at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way, according to documents filed on Feb. 21 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office.
Raising Cane’s Restaurants LLC bought the parcel, which is at 2310 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, the county real estate records show.
Family trusts whose principal members include Nancy Downey and Virginia Roush sold the retail building to Raising Cane’s Restaurants, according to the county property files.
Raising Cane’s bought the property through an all-cash deal, according to public real estate documents.
Walgreens currently occupies the property as the site’s anchor tenant. The retailing chain has embarked on an odyssey to shut 1,200 stores nationwide including 500 in 2025.
The drugstore and pharmacy titan has a lease that runs through 2036, according to marketing materials circulated by Levin Johnston, a commercial property firm that arranged the building purchase deal. Levin Johnston is a division of Marcus & Millichap, a major Bay Area real estate brokerage.
The rental agreement also allows Walgreens to terminate its lease in 2026 or 2031, the brochure states.
The building that Raising Cane’s purchased totals 12,400 square feet, according to the marketing materials.
Raising Cane’s in recent years had eyed a possible Berkeley location on the next block at the corner of Bancroft Way and Bowditch Street. In 2022, however, those plans fell through.
The restaurant chain, known for its chicken fingers, has eateries in Hayward, Oakland and Colma and has listed an east San Jose site in its coming soon category.
Berkeley isn’t listed in the restaurant chain’s coming soon category at present. The provisions for Walgreens to terminate its lease as soon as next year could allow Raising Cane’s to jump into a choice location in the next few years.
Raising Cane’s bought a building that’s across the street from the south edge of the main UC Berkeley campus in the Telegraph Avenue neighborhood, one of the East Bay’s most lively commercial and residential districts.
“The subject property offers tenants access to dense foot traffic coming from Shattuck Avenue, Telegraph Avenue, and the UC Berkeley campus,” the Levin Johnston marketing brochure stated.
