The Forge and ZOWA — Projects | The Town Development Group

The portfolio

Two projects, named.

Both in West Oakland. The Forge is a community campus with its programs already public and its own site; ZOWA is earlier, and we are holding it to the same rule — nothing published until it is settled.

An evening gathering in a courtyard between shipping-container studios, lit by strings of bulbs.

Featured project · West Oakland Coming soon

The Forge

Neighborhood: West Oakland
Program: Community campus
Status: Coming soon

“The Forge Oakland is a community campus in West Oakland where makers, artists, families, and entrepreneurs come together to build the future.”

Four things under one roof — a floor to move on, benches and torches to build on, training that leads somewhere, and rooms a neighbor can actually book. It is the clearest answer we have to the question we put to every site: what does this block actually need?

“The Forge Oakland is rooted in community and powered by collective imagination. We invest in local talent, support local businesses, and create space for the next generation of leaders.” It is built for Oakland artists, families, youth, and entrepreneurs — their four words, in their order.

The Forge has its own home online, with its own voice — theforgeoakland.org. Opening date, address, and partners are not published yet; when they are, they will appear here too.

Inside The Forge

Create. Learn. Move. Belong.

Four programs sharing one campus, described here in The Forge's own words. “By Oakland. For Oakland.”

A dance class rehearsing in a bright, high-ceilinged studio.

Wellness + Movement

Dance, yoga, fitness, and family programs for a healthier Oakland.

A welder joining steel, sparks scattering across the bench.

Maker Spaces

Welding, woodworking, bike repair, fabrication labs, and creative workshops.

Two people working together on a bicycle at a repair stand in a workshop.

Workforce Development

Hands-on training, apprenticeships, and career pathways that lead to real opportunities.

A young artist painting a large bird mural across a shipping container.

Flexible Spaces

Modular studios and event spaces for entrepreneurs, artists, and community.

Making an impact together

The Forge's numbers, as The Forge reports them.

“Building a stronger, more creative, and more equitable Oakland.” The figures below are published by The Forge at theforgeoakland.org and are reproduced here as stated.

250+

Jobs created, and counting

1,000+

Youth served, through programs

80+

Local businesses, supported

50+

Community partners, building with us

Container cranes and a docked ship at the Port of Oakland, lit against a dusk sky.

West Oakland Details coming

ZOWA

Neighborhood: West Oakland
Program: To be announced
Status: To be announced

West Oakland has spent decades on the receiving end of other people's plans — freeways driven through it, redevelopment done around it, and lately capital arriving with a thesis about what the neighborhood is going to become. ZOWA starts from the opposite question: what does this block want to keep?

Program, partners, and timeline will be published here as they are confirmed — and not before.

Around the site

What West Oakland already is.

Not renderings of ZOWA — there are none to show yet. This is the district it sits in: the working port that built the neighborhood, and the industry still running along its edge.

Gantry cranes lettered Port of Oakland standing over a container ship. — The Port of Oakland, a few blocks west of the neighborhood.

A row of container cranes silhouetted against an orange sunset. — Crane row at sunset — the skyline West Oakland actually has.

Warehouses and rail lines along the Oakland waterfront with hills beyond. — Warehouses and rail along the waterfront, with the hills behind.

On both projects

How we run them.

The same rules apply to ZOWA and The Forge, and to anything we take on after them.

Commitment

What we are committing to

The same four rules that apply to everything we build: neighbors hear from us before drawings go to the City, local trades do the work, the ground floor stays reachable for small businesses, and we hold the building afterwards.

Transparency

What we will publish

Who we spoke to before we drew, what changed in the plan because of it, who built it, and what the ground floor costs to rent. Those are the numbers that tell you whether a project was good for a block.

Neighbors

How to weigh in

If you live, work, or own property near either site, we want to hear from you early rather than at a hearing. Send us a note — name the cross streets and we will tell you plainly where things stand.

Deal criteria

What we look for in a site.

If you are a broker, an owner, or an organization with land, this is the shape of a project we can move on quickly. Anything close is worth a conversation.

Where

Oakland and the near East Bay

We concentrate in Oakland — East, West, North, and the flatland corridors — and will look at adjacent East Bay cities where a project serves the same neighborhoods.

What

Infill parcels and tired buildings

Underused or vacant parcels suited to multifamily and missing-middle housing; vacant storefronts, small warehouses, and older housing stock that is worth saving rather than scraping.

How

Acquisition, JV, or advisory

We buy outright, we co-develop with owners who want to keep their land, and we advise organizations that need a development partner without giving up control of the asset.

With

Mission-aligned partners

Congregations, nonprofits, community land trusts, legacy family owners, and capital partners who understand that a hold period is measured in decades rather than quarters.

Not

What we pass on

Projects that require displacing existing residents, ground floors designed to sit empty, and deals whose only thesis is that the neighborhood will change out from under the people in it.

Then

How to reach us

Send the address, the parcel number if you have it, and one line about what you would like to see there. That is enough for us to tell you quickly whether it is a fit.

The Forge, ZOWA, and what comes after.