From Los Angeles all the way up to Vancouver, new neighbourhoods of tower blocks are changing the skyline
Developers along the Pacific coast are getting bullish on residential towers, but Steve Simi is upset.
The owner of the Connell Auto Centre, the largest of 22 dealerships along Broadway's Auto Row in Oakland, knows that he soon has to move out. Many dealerships here will be replaced by residential towers. Mr Simi owns six dealerships, including Nissan and Chrysler, but his lease expires in a year.
Ted Dang, a one-time mayoral candidate and one of the most active developers in Oakland, has bought the land where Mr Simi's cars sit and he wants to build a condo high-rise.
'I can see condos marching up the street,' said Mr Simi, who shares the destiny of all dealerships along the Auto Row. It became famous as Oakland's Golden Goose, generating 9 per cent of the city's sales tax revenue. But escalating land values are overtaking the dealerships.
Rents for their lots have climbed from an average of US$20 per sqft to more than US$100 per sqft. At the site of the former Negherbon Auto dealership, which sold luxury cars with the Audi and Porsche brands, Signature, the city's leading developer, is building a 425-unit tower.
