Sunset is moving to Oakland’s Jack London Square

Sunset, the venerable Californian publishing company best known for the monthly Sunset Magazine, is moving its headquarters to Jack London Square in Oakland.

The move, which is set for December, will see the company leave the beautiful Cliff May-designed Menlo Park campus that it has occupied since 1951. That property was sold last year by Sunset’s owners, Time Inc., to Embarcadero Capital Partners, a San Francisco real-estate investment and management company.

Along with the company’s Oakland editorial and business offices, to be designed by San Francisco architects RMW, Sunset will establish an additional presence at Cornerstone in Sonoma. That will include a test garden, outdoor kitchen and live programming.

The new headquarters will be located at 55 Harrison Street, Sunset announced today. The company will be in the same building that will house the Water Street Market, an artisan food marketplace being developed by Carlin Company, the team behind San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace and Napa’s Oxbow Public Market.

Sunset will occupy approximately 20,000 square feet on the second floor of the mixed-use building, and its offices will include a test kitchen and wine cellar.

“Cities like Oakland are at the heart of some of the most exciting trends and innovations coming out of the West, and we’re thrilled to be where the action is,” Peggy Northrop, Editor-in-Chief of Sunset, said in a press release. “We’re especially looking forward to moving to such a vibrant neighborhood, where readers will have the chance to interact with the Sunset brand each and every day.”

In a letter about the move posted on the Sunset website Northrop wrote: “Though we will all miss the gorgeous campus and gardens we have called home for so long, the move is consistent with Sunset’s longtime mission to reflect our readers’ lives and aspirations. In 1951 when Sunset moved from San Francisco to the south Bay, people all over the United States were leaving cities for the wide-open suburbs. Now the trend has reversed and Westerners — young people starting careers and empty-nesters alike — are opting to live where we can walk, bike or take public transit to work and experience new restaurants, shopping and culture out our front doors. We’ve documented this migration all over the West, from Denver to Portland, Seattle to San Francisco, Phoenix to LA. And now we’re part of it."

In addition to its new flagship location in Oakland, Sunset will have a continuous presence in California wine country at Cornerstone, a public garden, event and retail space in Sonoma. Cornerstone and Sunset have formed a strategic partnership that will entail hosting Sunset’s main test garden, an outdoor kitchen and on-site programming.

Of the company’s move from a bucolic location on the Peninsula to a bustling urban site, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in the release: “The addition of Sunset is a coup for Jack London Square, our burgeoning waterfront center, and underscores just how attractive the Oakland market is right now for emerging and established companies eager to grow and thrive.”

Sunset, whose interests span books and magazines, events and experiences, will hold its final, annual Sunset Celebration Weekend this weekend, June 6 to 7, at its Menlo Park headquarters at 80 Willow Road.