OREANDA-NEWS. August 12, 2016. UC Berkeley is in negotiations with a developer to construct a hotel on University Avenue and Oxford Street. Photo: UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley is negotiating with a developer to construct a 200-room, 10-story hotel on the northwest corner of University Avenue and Oxford Street.

The university issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the project in 2015 and received seven responses, according to Christine Shaff, the communications director for UC’s Real Estate Division. The university narrowed that down to a finalist, with whom it is negotiating, she said. Shaff declined to release the name of the development group.

Cal wants a developer to build a single structure that abuts University and Oxford, stands 115 feet high and has about 200 rooms, according to the RFP. The university has requested the structure be an “upscale, full service or select-service hotel” with a public lobby, dining facility, meeting space and recreational space. The design and inclusion of those elements would depend, of course, on the design the development group comes up with, according to the documents.

The new hotel would be in downtown Berkeley. Map: UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley will give the developer a ground lease for the 0.41-acre property that sits at 2161 University and 1990 Oxford. The developer will be expected to design, finance and build the hotel. Nothing was said in the documents about who would run the hotel. Cal wants the hotel to be open by 2019, said Shaff.

There should be one parking space for every seven rooms, according to the RFP. It also said the hotel could lease those spaces from an off-site parking garage owned by UC Berkeley.

Bob Lalanne, who heads the real estate division, told Berkeleyside last year that the university would like to build a new garage right across the street from the proposed hotel on university-owned property.

Three businesses would lose their leases when construction on the hotel begins. They include Mike’s Bikes, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Brazil Caf?. Their leases expire in August 2017, according to the RFP.

Construction on the hotel could start after that, according to the RFP.

If the hotel project goes forward, it could be the second new hotel in downtown Berkeley. The Pyramid Hotel Group and Center Street Partners plan to build a 16-story, 334-room hotel at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, about three blocks from the UC project. Construction on that project is scheduled to start in 2017. Hotel Shattuck Plaza, a 199-room hotel at Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way, is also just a few blocks away.