A new downtown Lafayette condominium project has quietly reached a key milestone — and its developers say the first buyers are about to move in.
Blue Oak, a 20-unit condo development at 950 Hough Ave., recently received its certificate of occupancy, according to project partner Brian Griggs, who said in a note to Bay Area Telegraph that the first of eight committed buyers is expected to move in later this month.
Public city materials describe Blue Oak as a four-story project with 20 units, including three below-market-rate homes.
What makes the opening unusual is how quietly it has happened.
“Our project has been kept fairly under the radar as we wanted to complete it before fully exposing it to the market,” Griggs told Bay Area Telegraph.
That “under the radar” approach helps explain why many Lafayette residents may not have heard much about Blue Oak, even though the project sits just down the street from the busy Lafayette Circle area, near restaurants and retailers including Tutu’s, The Hideout and Public House.
Blue Oak’s own website pitches the project as being in the heart of downtown Lafayette, about a two-minute walk from downtown, with 20 two- and three-bedroom homes.
The project has been years in the making. We’ve covered it when it was still just studs rising from the earth.
City records show the site went through study-session review in 2019 and 2020, and by November 2020 the project was described as a proposed 20-unit, four-story multifamily development replacing an existing 3,045-square-foot commercial building at 950 Hough Ave.
The project qualified for an infill CEQA exemption and included requests tied to the state’s density bonus law.
Later, the city’s Public Art Committee staff report said The Blue Oak development application was approved by Lafayette City Council on March 22, 2021, with a change of conditions approved on Oct. 24, 2022. That same report described the project as a four-story condominium development with 20 units, including three below-market-rate units.
In one 2021 City Council agenda item, Lafayette described the requested design changes as modifications to approved massing, height and open space, including a larger fourth floor and reduced open space.
There are signs the public-facing rollout is only now catching up with the project itself. Lafayette’s online major development tracker still lists Blue Oak as “under construction” with completion scheduled for Spring 2026, even though Griggs says the project has now received its certificate of occupancy. That suggests the development’s formal public launch is arriving just as the building becomes ready for residents.
Blue Oak’s sales materials show a relatively small downtown project with homes ranging from roughly 738 to 2,579 square feet, with multiple units already marked “under contract.” A separate listing site currently shows asking prices starting above $1.4 million, though buyers would want to verify current pricing directly with the sales team.
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