Alameda County schools are buying land in Oakland and San Leandro

Across Grand Avenue from Children's Fairyland, at the corner of Lenox Avenue, sits a two-story office building with a stone facade and a for-lease history. The Alameda County Office of Education is buying it for $5.55 million in cash, and on Oct. 21 it filed the state environmental notice that clears the sale.

Two days earlier, San Leandro Unified filed the same kind of notice for a strip of PG&E land behind San Leandro High School. Two public school agencies, two cities, three days. Neither purchase changes anything on the ground yet. Both tell you what the agencies plan to do with the blocks around them.

The Oakland building sits in Adams Point, where Houseberry's price history shows the typical home fell from about $600,000 in October 2025 to about $555,000 in September 2026. The San Leandro land is in Halcyon / Foothill, where prices went the other way.

268 Grand Avenue: an office building becomes a school

The building is 13,927 square feet on about a quarter acre, built in the 1950s and upgraded in 2018, according to its CBRE listing. CBRE had it on the market for sale and for lease. The seller in ACOE's purchase agreement is Schmidt Lithograph Holding Company, LLC.

ACOE's reasons are spelled out in a staff presentation from the Aug. 11 meeting. QUEST-Oakland now leases about 8,000 square feet on International Boulevard for $47,250 a year. Staff called the agency's current program sites short-term and not purpose-built, and pitched the lake building as "a long-term asset," with tree views and park access across the street.

GRACE is new. ACOE describes it as a relationship-centered program for secondary students with significant social, emotional and behavioral needs, with instruction built around each student's individualized education plan. These are small programs, not a 1,000-student campus.

The money comes from land ACOE sold years ago. The presentation shows the purchase paid from its building fund and capital reserve, money left from the 2010 sale of a Chabot Road property for $2.3 million and the 2021 sale of a Fremont property on Chapel Way for $7.5 million.

What it does to the blocks around Grand

Very little, at first. The building is already an office, and the plan is to reuse it. The state notice covers a transfer of title only and says the agency intends to use the property for school facilities.

One cost is easy to measure. A county agency does not pay property tax on land it owns. The building's 2026-27 tax bill was about $94,751, per PropertyShark, and that amount should drop off the rolls once ACOE takes title.

The other cost is harder to see. A quarter acre on Grand Avenue, across from Lakeside Park and under a mile from 19th Street BART, is the kind of lot that could one day hold apartments. Once a public agency owns it for a school, that is off the table for decades.

We think ACOE made a good deal anyway. It is buying a building for less than the last buyer paid, ending a lease, and putting two small programs next to one of the best parks in the East Bay. The housing case is real, but a 0.24-acre office lot was not going to be Oakland's next tower soon. Adams Point scores 3.2 out of 5 overall on Houseberry's Oakland rankings, 24th of 130, with 4.1 on amenities, much of it from the lake.

San Leandro High's back lot

The San Leandro land is the unpaved strip along the southeast side of the San Leandro High campus, between the school and the backyards on 136th Avenue, based on satellite imagery. PG&E owns it, which is why the filings carry State Board of Equalization numbers, the system the state uses for utility property.

The district has bought it in two pieces. On April 21 the board voted 7-0 to buy the first parcel for $550,000 from Measure N bond money. On Sept. 15 it added a second parcel for $180,000 from Measure J, raising the total to $730,000. The purchase agreement makes closing depend on approval from the California Public Utilities Commission. The district's October notice says the use will not change until a redevelopment plan gets full environmental review.

No plan has been adopted. The only hint is the budget line for the second parcel, labeled "Drop-Off/Paving." A paved drop-off lane would move pickup traffic off Bancroft Avenue and closer to those 136th Avenue backyards. Neighbors there should watch for the review.

The school sits in Halcyon / Foothill, which scores 2.5 out of 5 overall, 16th of 18 in San Leandro, on Houseberry's San Leandro rankings. Its typical home price rose from about $779,000 in October 2025 to about $792,000 in September 2026.

The two deals side by side

The deals differ by a factor of seven in price, and only one has a stated use.

San Leandro Unified is also a buyer elsewhere. In March it completed the purchase of 1388 Bancroft Avenue, across from Bancroft Middle School, for a planned 51-unit apartment building for teachers and staff.

The next filings for Lenox Avenue and 136th Avenue

Nothing here needs a reader to act today. If you live on Lenox, Perkins or the Grand Avenue blocks near the building, the next public step is whatever ACOE files when it remodels for classrooms. If you live on 136th Avenue, it is the district's environmental review of the back lot.

Before either one, see how Adams Point and Halcyon / Foothill compare with their neighbors on Houseberry's East Bay rankings, or pull up the blocks around both schools on the Houseberry map.

Sources

• CEQAnet, SCH 2026100760, Alameda County Office of Education Notice of Exemption, Oct. 21, 2026
• CEQAnet, SCH 2026100665 and SCH 2026081017, San Leandro Unified Notices of Exemption, Oct. 19 and Aug. 27, 2026
• Alameda County Office of Education Board, Aug. 11, 2026 minutes, Resolution 2540, purchase agreement and staff presentation
• San Leandro Unified Board, April 21 and Sept. 15, 2026 agenda items
• CBRE listing for 268 Grand Avenue and PropertyShark property record
• San Leandro Unified, 1388 Bancroft Avenue announcement, April 23, 2026
• Houseberry neighborhood scores and price history, October 2026