Goodbye City Center Tower

City Center Tower, the former home of Hayward City Hall, is set to come down piece by piece starting in March 2020, eliminating a source of downtown blight and making way for future redevelopment and other publicly beneficial uses of the property.

The City Council voted unanimously last week to authorize a $3.9 million demolition contract for the deconstruction of the City Center building—a nine-month process that begins with project mobilization and hazardous material removal in January and February, followed by five months of pulling down the structure, plus about a month of final site preparation and cleanup.

The 11-story building, located at 22300 Foothill Blvd., was structurally damaged in the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta Earthquake and subsequently sold into private hands. It has sat vacant ever since and was re-acquired by the City in June for $5.2 million.

The tower property is adjacent to other land owned by the City. Together, the combined 5.8 acres presents a unique opportunity to control and plan a site strategically positioned to help drive downtown revitalization and serve other community objectives—with an eventual resale to a developer allowing the City to recoup its tower acquisition and demolition costs.

The Council approved the building’s demolition after an engineering assessment determined the cost of a seismic retrofit and restoration of mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and fire alarm and suppression systems would be economically prohibitive.