-
1 week ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
The Claremont, the 276-room luxury hotel at the foot of the Berkeley Hills, has changed hands for at least the 10th time in its 110-year-history — and the fifth since 2007. After a decade of operation under the Fairmont flag, management of the property passed to HEI Hotels + Resorts in February, two years after the hotel was sold to Ohana Real Estate Investors by the estate of Richard Blum, the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The hotel’s official name has changed to the Claremont Resort & Club.
-
2 weeks ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
Find out which stores have opened, closed or moved and what’s new in Berkeley’s nonprofit, retail and small-business communities. If you have updates to share, send an email to [email protected]. Closed ElmwoodAfter eight years selling artisan-made goods, including clothing, jewelry, handbags and kitchenware, Palm + Perkins closed its College Avenue shop on March 21.
-
2 weeks ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
A new neighborhood grocery store has popped up on the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Cedar Street, across from Acme Bread, in a space formerly occupied by Animal Farm Discount Pet Foods. Green Leaf Grocery Market sells a variety of canned and packaged foods, with an emphasis on organic goods, according to owner Moheeb Eltareb. Eltareb grew up working in his parent’s liquor store in Merced, but he has a very different vision for Green Leaf. “I’m not a big fan of liquor stores,” he said.
-
3 weeks ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
Creative Growth Art Center, the 50-year-old Oakland-based studio and gallery for artists with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD), is opening its first satellite space on the ground floor of The Grinnell, a new affordable housing apartment building on San Pablo Avenue for families and people with disabilities. “We’re excited about our new space and the possibilities it holds for Creative Growth and our community,” said Ibby Sasso, the nonprofit’s marketing director.
-
1 month ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
After 11 years in Berkeley and five years at its current location in the Gilman District, Laurel Burch Studios is closing its flagship store on the corner of Eighth and Camelia streets because the building is being sold.
-
1 month ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
Find out which stores have opened, closed or moved and what’s new in Berkeley’s nonprofit, retail and small-business communities. If you have updates to share, send an email to [email protected]. Moved Telegraph AvenueThe Ink Stone, the printing and art supply store that caters to architects, engineers, and students, has moved from its former location on Telegraph Avenue to Durant Avenue, just a few blocks away.
-
1 month ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
In the mid-2000s — when the Iraq War was raging, when documentaries like Who Killed the Electric Car? and An Inconvenient Truth were being filmed, when bicyclists boasted they were making a “quiet statement against oil wars” — five women opened a small shop in West Berkeley selling biodiesel, a fuel made from recycled vegetable oil. The women later moved the shop, which they called BioFuel Oasis, into a former gas station in South Berkeley, at the busy corner of Ashby Avenue and Sacramento Street.
-
1 month ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
Forty tons. That’s the amount of clothes the team at ThriftyCat sorted through to set up their new thrift shop on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in downtown Berkeley. Forty tons is an amount that would have been daunting to most, but to shop owner, Bryce Kalousek-Maritano, it’s just another day at work. Kalousek-Maritano also owns Curiosity Shop, home of “100,000 things you don’t need,” just a few blocks down from ThriftyCat on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and is a consummate collector.
-
2 months ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton |Zac Farber
JCC East Bay is selling the Walnut Street building it has called home for 43 years and moving its operations from north Berkeley to Rockridge in Oakland. Founded in 1978 as Berkeley-Richmond JCC, the community center serves 9,000 people each year. It is home to a popular preschool and after-school program and hosts a wide variety of classes, workshops, and other events. The center changed its name to JCC East Bay in 2006.
-
2 months ago | 
berkeleyside.org | Nathan Dalton
After announcing its imminent closure in August 2023, and a year after , Annapurna, the legendary head shop on Telegraph Avenue has finally closed for good. The last day of operations was Feb. 2, according to shop owner, Al Geyer, who announced the closing on Facebook. The five-story building that Annapurna called home for more than 50 years, at 2416 Telegraph Ave. (at Channing), was sold to The Berkeley Group in December 2023 for $15 million. Geyer did not have a lease when the sale went through.
