When:
November 1, 2007, 7 AM (Delivery through the streets of Oakland)
What:
Delivery and Raising of 65’ Jack London Square Christmas Tree
Where:
Broadway and Embarcadero in Jack London Square
November 1st, 2007– Jack London Square will officially kick off the Bay Area’s holiday season with the delivery and raising of a massive Christmas tree on Thursday, November 1st. The 65’ white fir will be one of the first major Christmas trees to arrive in the Bay Area and certainly one of the “Greenest.”
The tree, with a girth of 20’ and weighing 13,500 lbs, will end its long journey from Mount Shasta at 7AM on the Thursday. It will be driven through the streets of downtown Oakland before finally arriving at Jack London Square. There, at the foot of Broadway on Oakland’s scenic waterfront, it will be raised to its full height and put in place for the Holiday Season.
This year, for the first time, the standard incandescent bulbs decorating the tree will be replaced with 4,500 energy-efficient LED lights provided by PG&E. The new LED’s will use only 10% of the power required by their incandescent counterparts and last 5 times longer, up to 50,000 hours.
Jack London Square’s Tree Lighting Ceremony, now in its 17th year, has become a family tradition in the East Bay and a staple event of the holiday season. At this year’s ceremony on November 23rd, the public will have a chance to receive a free set of the same LED lights used on the tree in the Square. Families will be able to turn in their old strings of lights and have them replaced with energy-efficient LED’s at no cost.
The white fir to be used in the Square was originally planted to provide wood for orange crates. It has been harvested in a sustainable fashion by Carlton Enterprises. Once the Holiday Season has ended, the tree will be recycled. Its trunk will be cut into firewood while its branches will be chipped and turned into fuel for cogeneration power plants. A cogeneration plant not only produces electricity, but captures the heat byproduct normally wasted in other processes, utilizing it for a variety of purposes including heating for local housing.
The delivery of this “green” Christmas tree comes on the heels of the groundbreaking for the new Jack London Market and marks yet another example of Jack London Square’s commitment to environmentally responsible practices. Jack London Square strives to embody the ethos of the East Bay, an area long at the forefront of the environmental movement.
About Ellis Partners:
Ellis Partners LLC (www.ellispartners.com) was founded in 1993 for the purpose of acquiring and developing commercial real estate properties. The firm has a long history of championing and completing architecturally significant renovation and development projects.