17 years in the making, the MacArthur Transit Village project has finally broken ground, making way for what will be a huge and potentially transformative development in a fairly desolate part of Oakland. The project, sponsored in part by the Oakland Community and Economic Development Agency and the Federal Transit Authority, will ultimately include a 624-unit residential project on the site of what is now the MacArthur BART's parking lot. 108 of these units will be made affordable, and there will also be 34,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

The first phase of the project involves the demolition of two condemned hotels that face West MacArthur Boulevard, the land under which will be used to create a structured parking garage to replace some of the lost BART parking. Bad news for commuters who might like this particular parking lot: Only 300 of the 600 existing BART parking spots here are going to be replaced, meaning that once they move into Phase 2 of the construction, a few hundred people are going to be shit out of luck trying to park here in the morning.

Below, check out another rendering, and a map of the development. It's pretty huge, right?