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SF Bay Area Development News

63K views 504 replies 59 participants last post by  Rainier Meadows 
#1 · (Edited)
San Francisco Bay Area Development News

Post any info or pictures of projects in the Bay Area.

Undersonstruction, approved or proposed.

SF:
301 Mission
St. Regis Museum Tower
One Rincon Hill
555 Mission
300 Spears
301 Folsom
Intercontinental Hotel
324 Howard
Exchange Place (350 Bush Street)
1101 O'Farrell
Federal Building
Watermark

Oak:

SJ:
Civic Center
8 East San Fernando
 
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#56 ·
I hate to turn my attention away from Oakland :( but take a look at these beauties:





Rincon Hill, Harrison & Fremont,and they're RESIDENTIAL :banana: The 2nd firm involved is Arquitectonica.

The picture of the rendering is from today's San Francisco Chronicle, shown in connection with a lengthy and very fine article entitled Rincon Hill on the Rise by the paper's wonderful architecture writer John King. :eek:kay:

It appears there's something of a master area plan in the works for this section of SF so close to downtown. It would require some adjustments and commitments, but, having read King's article, I think it would be just fantastic if the City pulled itself together to make it become reality. The first stage of approval is set for Thursday before the Planning Commission; let's keep our fingers crossed! :cheers:
 
#65 ·
I think there's an initial step for approval scheduled before the SF Planning Commission. Let's hope those folks will like it, too, and get ready to remove some barriers and devise & approve some area plan modifications so that these towers can become reality! :)
 
#66 ·
Daly seeks fees on new Rincon Hill high-rises
Money would aid existing residents


Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly wants developers who build high- rise homes on Rincon Hill to pay a fee to combat the negative effects that he believes the projects will have on low-income residents who live South of Market.

At Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Daly asked the city attorney to draft a law requiring such a levy and to establish a South of Market Community Stabilization Fund.

"The ripple effect of the new development -- skyrocketing property values and diminished land availability -- threaten to bring about displacement of existing businesses and low-income residents," Daly said.

He said the fund would be used to counter displacement and increase opportunities for employment and housing for South of Market residents, many of whom live on low or fixed incomes.

The City Planning Commission isn't scheduled to vote on the Rincon Hill rezoning plan, which would authorize the residential towers, until May 5 at the earliest. After the commission's vote, it will go before the supervisors.

The ever-changing plan to transform an industrial district into a luxury neighborhood would allow up to five new towers above 35 stories that would house apartments and condominiums with panoramic views of San Francisco Bay.

The high-rises would alter the city's skyline, climbing as high as 550 feet in selected spots in the area bounded by the Embarcadero, Second Street, Folsom Street and the approach to the Bay Bridge.

Already approved for the neighborhood are four high-rises by Tishman Speyer Properties. The supervisors approved the Tishman Speyer project early last year, but only after Daly brokered a deal with the developer that netted more affordable housing units than are required by city law to accompany such projects.

The current rezoning plan for the rest of the 12-block area at the foot of Market Street "gives away great density bonuses," Daly said Tuesday.
 
#67 ·
whew.. never been here for a long time.. btw, i went to metreon yesterday. bloomingdale's mission facade is almost done. the last floor level already has walls.. and this morning, seen the federal building. theyre putting on real clear glass windows which is so cool..
 
#72 ·
Stem cell panel picks S.F.
Tally of points after weekend site visits gives city clear edge for Friday's full-committee vote


Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer

Tuesday, May 3, 2005



San Francisco bested three competing California cities Monday in the battle to land the headquarters of the state's $3 billion stem cell program, scoring well ahead of the second-place finisher.

After totaling up points for location, amenities and general impressions, key decision makers for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine decided San Francisco was clearly the best place to be. Although there is still technically a chance of an upset, it appears almost certain that the institute's full 29-member board, known as the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, will go along with the eight-member subcommittee's preferences when it meets Friday to make the final call.

Sacramento narrowly edged out San Diego as the No. 2 choice, while a proposed site in Emeryville finished last.

San Francisco won largely on the strength of the Bay Area's biomedical research institutions, as well as the estimated $17 million value of incentives the city is offering the stem cell program, which include 10 years of free rent, $900,000 worth of hotel accommodations and free use of laboratory facilities at San Francisco General Hospital.

San Diego and San Francisco had long been considered the most likely choices. Although the Southern California city's bid was boosted by a location surrounded by other top research centers and biotech companies, it had no comparable offer on hotels and lab space.

Sacramento's proximity to state government and low housing costs pushed its score much higher than many observers had expected, despite the city's lack of biomedical heft. Emeryville, where the stem cell program is being housed on a temporary basis, was praised for local enthusiasm for the stem cell venture -- but penalized for not having big conference facilities other than borrowed space at two local businesses, Chiron Corp. and Pixar.

More than a dozen cities initially entered bids to host the Proposition 71 headquarters, all of them seasoned with generous discounts. The subcommittee threw out all but the final four based on staff recommendations, then conducted site visits of the finalists over the weekend to choose the winner and a runner-up.

The only real contest now is between San Diego and Sacramento for second place. And that matters only if a new chief executive is chosen for the Prop. 71 program who has a strong preference to be in the No. 2 city, rather than San Francisco.

"I feel good," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said after the decision. Newsom and Sacramento's mayor, Heather Fargo, attended the proceedings, which were held in a UC Davis Medical Center conference room a short drive from the State Capitol.

"The (San Francisco) location is as good as it gets," Newsom said, adding that his administration will "continue the advocacy" until the final vote. The San Francisco site is on the third floor of a new mixed-use building at 250 King St. overlooking SBC Park and near the UCSF Mission Bay campus.

Robert N. Klein, chairman of the site search subcommittee as well as the full oversight board, did all he could to soften the disappointment for the also-ran jurisdictions. He noted that much bigger plums are yet to come, once the stem cell enterprise starts issuing grants for new laboratories. And the "real winners," he insisted, are patients and taxpayers who will reap the benefits of the additional research financed by the savings gained from the municipal subsidies offered in the winning bid.

No other state government program has ever been courted in such a fashion, he said, calling it evidence of "a renaissance in California for science and medicine," likening it to what happened in Europe during the middle of the 17th century.

Most of the subsidies are being financed by private contributors and business leaders anxious to add a prestige nameplate to their city's skyline - - even though only 50 administrative employees will be working at the stem cell institute's central office.

Winning the stem cell program will help "create a real psychological turnaround" for the regional economy, said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a regional business group.

"We've been hurt by significant job losses," he said. "The economy of the Bay Area is at stake."

But he insisted it would be a mistake for San Francisco advocates to assume the contest is over.

"Basically we're now in the bottom of the eighth, and we have a nice lead. But there is still a 29-member panel that has to discuss this, and nobody has heard from them yet," Wunderman said.

Monday's subcommittee meeting was a mixture of tortured discussion of the scoring process and sometimes subjective judgments about the merits of the four finalist locations.

San Francisco had a commanding lead going into the meeting based on results of an initial round of scoring. On a scale of 200 maximum points, San Francisco was awarded 158, followed by Sacramento (135), San Diego (127) and Emeryville (119).

The site visits were scored separately, on a 90-point scale. Up to 10 negative points were also allowed to account for such "burdens" as high living costs and, in San Diego's case, its distance from the state capital.

In the site visit rankings, San Diego was the top point-getter, with an average 72.8 points awarded by the eight subcommittee members, only five of whom actually participated in the weekend tour.

Sacramento got 65.5, largely on the strength of the community support demonstrated during its site visit and the quality of its proposed office location near the Sacramento River at 1 Capitol Mall. San Francisco was given 64.75 points, followed by Emeryville at 52.7.

The scoring by individual board members varied widely and clearly reflected hometown favoritism. Phyllis Preciado, for instance, a Fresno doctor who extols the merits of the Central Valley at nearly every meeting she attends, gave Sacramento an almost perfect score based on the site visits.

John Reed, head of the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, gave San Diego a nearly perfect score, while dinging San Francisco for poor "functional suitability" of a building that includes condominiums and retail stores rather than high-end laboratories.

But it was only the grand total of all the scores, from both sets of evaluations, that mattered: And San Francisco ended well out front, with 222. 75, followed by Sacramento (200.5), San Diego (199.8) and Emeryville (171.7).

The razor-thin margin separating Sacramento and San Diego led Klein to recommend that all three top vote-getters be invited to make one last presentation on Friday when the full board meets. However, none of the bidders will be allowed to add any new incentives to their offers.

The attention drawn by the location derby has largely overshadowed a question considered far more important by most biologists: How soon will the money start to flow?

Klein had initially targeted the first grants for this month, but that will not happen. In fact, lawsuits have been filed that effectively block the state's ability to issue Prop. 71 bonds.

Gov. Schwarzenegger invited Klein and his colleagues at the stem cell institute to a private briefing in his office after Monday's meeting. Although the governor's staff indicated it was merely an update, Klein said the talk would include matters related to the litigation, presumably including details of an alternative financing plan Klein has been trying to assemble in order to get the stem cell enterprise going this summer.
 
#73 ·
Thanks! :) That's pleasing news indeed, bv3! :banana: I figured that SF would be chosen ... where else do you have such world renowned universities as Berkeley and Stanford in close proximity? Now let's just hope the full panel will give the thumbs up! :eek:kay:


On another note, it seems the developers of the Emporium/Bloomingdale's project committed a no-no that is now costing them dearly: they demolished a section of the old building that was meant to be preserved. The punishment: $2.5mio to the City for preservation work elsewhere. Here's the article in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
 
#74 ·
Whose Homepage said:
Thanks! :) That's pleasing news indeed, bv3! :banana: I figured that SF would be chosen ... where else do you have such world renowned universities as Berkeley and Stanford in close proximity? Now let's just hope the full panel will give the thumbs up! :eek:kay:
I'm really glad that SF has a really good chance of getting this, it will seriously help fill in the hole the dot-com burst left.


Whose Homepage said:
On another note, it seems the developers of the Emporium/Bloomingdale's project committed a no-no that is now costing them dearly: they demolished a section of the old building that was meant to be preserved. The punishment: $2.5mio to the City for preservation work elsewhere. Here's the article in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
Thanks for the find, I haven't heard of this until now. I'm really surprised, I hope it doesn't put a dent on the Bloomingdale's/Mall project.
 
#75 · (Edited)
I found this on Webcor's site. It's going to be right next to Lake Meritt, where the highrises are.

CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE LIGHT

Owner: Catholic Cathedral Corporation of the East Bay
Construction Manager:Conversion Management Associates
Design Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Architect of Record: Kendall/Heaton Associates
Structural Engineer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Mechanical Engineer:Taylor Engineering
Electrical Engineer: The Engineering Enterprise

5 level subterranean parking
 
#76 ·
612bv3 said:
Thanks for the find, I haven't heard of this until now. I'm really surprised, I hope it doesn't put a dent on the Bloomingdale's/Mall project.
I doubt that it will ... after all, such contingencies are probably built
into the project. But I'm sure the fine will have something of an
"ouch" effect.

Upon reading the article you'll find that this penalty is not entirely immune
to challenge: it appears that there was a lack of clarity and specificity
among the various SF departments in charge of issuing the permit. :bash:
Thus the company may have acted in perfectly good faith when it destroyed
those portions of the old building.


Now this new Oakland project: :eek2:
 
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