New Law Aims to Revive Oakland’s Jack London Square by Expanding Allowed Businesses

On a sunny Monday afternoon in Oakland’s Jack London Square, bartender Chris Strong pours whiskey shots and cracks beers at Merchants’ Saloon. The dim, weathered dive opens weekdays at 7 a.m. and caters to the area’s many blue-collar workers.

“The postal sorting facility guys, the dock workers, people who want to drink before they go into their crummy jobs,” Strong said.

Jack London Square clings to this gritty identity. The cries of freight trains and the rumble of container trucks echo through the warehouse-lined streets. The neighborhood is one of the oldest parts of Oakland, where in the 19th century sailors and fishermen worked the waterfront and a young Jack London wrote stories about his adventures.

While the industrial history of the neighborhood and views of the Oakland Estuary are part of this area’s charm, Jack London Square is in serious trouble, Strong and other workers told KQED.

“ Restaurants don’t survive. I’ve seen dozens come and go. There’s no draw,” Strong said.

As Oakland’s shipping business boomed over the years, the core of the city’s maritime industry left Jack London Square for the docks in West Oakland. City leaders later reimagined Jack London Square as a district focused on retail and shopping — similar to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

But local business leaders say that strategy hasn’t paid off. About 52% of Jack London Square’s ground-floor space is now vacant, according to the Port of Oakland — more than 10 times the city’s overall retail vacancy rate, according to Oakland’s most recent economic report.

SB 304, authored by state Sen. Jesse Arreguin (D-Oakland), aims to change that. The new law, recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, lifts longstanding restrictions on the types of businesses that can operate in Jack London Square.

Much of the neighborhood has been subject to the Tidelands Trust, a state law requiring coastal land to be managed for the public’s benefit. In Jack London Square, where the average asking rent for office space is $2.43 per square foot, that responsibility falls to the Port of Oakland, which owns several properties in and around the area, said Jonathan Veach, the Port’s chief real estate officer.

Under the trust, the Port can lease its properties for “water-related commerce, navigation, fisheries, ecological preservation and regional recreation,” or “visitor-serving commercial establishments” such as restaurants and hotels. SB 304 lifts these restrictions on seven Port-owned properties through Feb. 1, 2066.

“ [SB 304] allows us to move a little bit from tourist-serving retail to more local-serving retail,” said Veach, who called the bill “fairly unprecedented” in state history. A similar effort happened only once before, for San Francisco’s eastern waterfront in a 2007 bill, he noted.

“ It could be a grocery store, a barbershop, a nail salon. Things that the local community would be able to use but aren’t necessarily visitor-serving retail,” Veach added.

Veach hopes SB 304 spurs growth beyond tourism. Oakland recorded 3.4 million visitors in 2024, according to a city tourism report. San Francisco, by comparison, saw more than 23 million visitors the same year.

Oakland’s tourism industry has struggled following the departures of major league teams, like the A’s, Raiders and Warriors, Veach said.

“ Once you start adding tenants, it gets easier to add new tenants because it’s an attractive place,” he added. “Conversely, once you start losing tenants, it gets harder. And then you have a downward spiral. So I think the cost of doing nothing is very significant.”

No arguments in opposition to SB 304 were submitted during the legislative process.

Standing outside the now-vacant Waterfront Hotel, which closed earlier this year after 35 years in business, Savlan Hauser, executive director of the Jack London Improvement District, said SB 304 will be a “game-changer” for the neighborhood.

“Having the flexibility to bring more diverse [businesses] down here that people can patronize and engage with is a big deal; this will help,” Hauser said.

Local business owners like Dorcia Darling-White, co-owner of Everett & Jones BBQ, are excited to see Jack London Square shift toward offering conveniences for Oaklanders.

She said a nail salon would be great. She currently drives to Alameda for her manicures.

“ People want to go to a place that’s bustling with life and energy,” she said. “The more that things are closed, the less people will frequent the area. So we’re excited for anything new.”

Strong, who’s worked as a bartender in the area for more than a decade, also supports more shops tailored to locals, such as a grocery store.

“ I would love to be able to run errands before work. The closest we have to a grocery store is the Restaurant Supply, and I don’t need 50 pounds of onions for home,” he said.

Though optimistic about the new law’s potential, Port officials are trying to temper expectations. Veach said major changes, like a new grocery store, could take time, but smaller businesses might open within a year as new marketing and leasing efforts begin.