Centennial Tower (Hayward)

Infobox Skyscraper
building_name= Centennial Tower


caption= Centennial Tower.
year_built= 1969
location= coord|37.40'45.92|-122.04'56.75|display=inline,title
22300 Foothill Blvd
Hayward,CA 94541
groundbreaking= 1966
constructed= 1966-1968
est-completion=
opening= October 18,1969
destroyed=
use= Hayward City Hall (1969-1998)
spire=
roof=
top_floor=
floor_count= 11
floor_area=
elevator_count=
cost=
architect= Mitchell Van Bourg
engineer=
contractor=
developer= City Of Hayward
owner= Intercoastal Property Group of Los Angeles (sale pending to Mika Realty of Los Angeles)

Centennial Tower is an abandoned building located between Foothill Blvd. and City Center Drive in Hayward City Center district in Hayward, California. It was formerly known as the Hayward City Center Building.

History

The City of Hayward opened this concrete tower on October 18 1969. originally planned to have 20 floors and a cinema but only 11 stories were built without the cinema. The 11 story structure served as Hayward's City Hall from 1969 to 1998. Its top floor was the seat of municipal government and other floors were rented out for other companies. The purpose of this new City Hall was to replace the Old Hayward City Hall (now called Alex Giualini Plaza) on Mission Blvd. and D Street. Back then, the City Center consisted of only the tower.

It was Allan Temko who first called the building "the toaster" in the 1970s and set the tone for everybody else to hate it.

In the 1980s, a family owned company built a complex named PlazaCenter next to the building. This complex consisted of a new Safeway store, retail shops, and a new office tower called the PlazaCenter Building built on the former grounds of Hayward High School. The PlazaCenter is still used today and the same family owns it. A City of Hayward owned parking garage was also constructed at the time to serve the adjacent City Center and Centennial Convention Center.

In 1989, the Loma Prieta Earthquake damaged the building's structural integrity and accordingly, the Hayward City Hall moved out of the building. [ cite news | last = O'Brien | first = Matt
title = Tower owner to ask for more time
publisher = Oakland Tribune | date = January 16, 2006
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060116/ai_n16005942
accessdate = 2007-09-29 ] Nine years later in 1998, after the completion of a new City Hall, the building was closed to the public.

The city sold the building for $1.5 million in 1998 to a developer who wanted to fill it with condominiums, renamed it Centennial Tower and sold it to another developer. Plans to turn the vacant tower into condominiums were never implemented because it is too expensive to convert the old building into something useful, developers have said.

In 2006 plans were to demolish the tower. However, a year later, the demolition of the City Center was canceled and today the building still stands.

In May 2006, the City Council voted to sell the HCC parking garage that it still owns next to the City Center Building for $1.5 million.

New Hayward City Hall

A new Hayward City Hall was built in the 1990s, and opened in January 1998. It is located on 777 B Street at Watkins next to the Hayward BART Station.

City Center and Centennial Tower today

Today Centennial Tower remains vacant, but the parking garage and Centennial Convention Center are still used. The only part of Centennial Tower still used is the walkway between the Parking Garage and The Centennial Convention Center, which goes into Centennial Tower. Much of the rest of the vacant building is decrepit and has been vandalised. The tower resembles a shell; the walls, pipes and heat were removed by city officials. There are a lot of broken and boarded-up windows on Centennial Tower. In addition, graffiti is ubiquitous on the top floors of this abandoned building. As of late, there has been a problem with homeless people breaking into the tower to spend the night. In January 2008, due to vandalism, a fence was erected around the building with no trespassing warnings.

New plans

Plans were released in early 2008 for a remodel of the tower. Intercoastal Property is in the works to sell the area to Mika Realty of Los Angeles. Mika plans to do seismic retrofits and develop the tower into offices. Additionally there are plans in the works to build condos over the centennial hall parking garage.

igns of redevelopment

A fence has been set up around the tower. Old Furniture and chairs are getting taken out and a huge dumpster has appeared in the back with old part if the tower in it.

AC Transit bus stop

Notes