- dmca
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...tml?ana=e_bay_real&s=newsletter&ed=2014-03-18Mar 13, 2014, 3:22pm PDT
Ferry Building-style food emporium to open in Chinatown
J.K. Dineen
Reporter-San Francisco Business Times
A new 20,000-square-foot Chinese food emporium is coming to San Francisco’s Chinatown — a combination marketplace and high-end restaurant by restaurateur George Chen.
Real estate investment firm Cypress Properties Group has signed a 20,000-square-foot lease at 644 Broadway with China Live. While Cypress already owned the 45,000-square-foot Broadway building, the group went out and acquired 660 Broadway to be able to offer more ground floor space to Chen’s groups. China Live will be a culinary destination occupying the ground floors of 644 and 660 Broadway.
Founded by restaurateurs George Chen and his wife Cindy Wong-Chen — the couple is behind Shanghai 1930 and Betelnut — the China Live group includes managing partner Richard Miyashiro, who has been involved in Boulevard and Hakkasan. The plan is to create an unprecedented Chinese food and beverage marketplace on the ground floors, presenting curated interactive retail and a variety of casual dining options prepared at exhibition kitchens. The second floor at 644 will include Eight Tables, an intimate upscale restaurant, in addition to a bar, lounge and banquet space. Both venues are scheduled to open by Chinese New Year, February 19, 2015 . . . .
The Pruneyard is for sale. While I've never been a huge fan of the Pruneyard, it is a decent mixed use development, not far from downtown Campbell, its connection to light rail is a little beyond where I would find it convenient though. Granted the light rail is much closer than it is to Santana Row.The Pruneyard, a Silicon Valley mixed-use gem, hits the market for first time in 15 years
Since its opening in the early 1970s, Campbell's the Pruneyard mixed-use development has occupied a prominent place in Silicon Valley's real estate scene — but it has traded hands only infrequently. Now the 27-acre property is up for sale for the first time since 1999.
Equity Office has begun quietly marketing the asset, which includes 253,000 square feet of retail, 365,000 square feet of office and a 171-room hotel.
The sale is likely to be one of the more closely watched transactions this year, given its size and uniqueness. The Pruneyard, while no spring chicken, is nonetheless considered to be one of the more successful open-air, mixed-use developments in the South Bay, a kind of proto-Santana Row whose 18-story office tower was once the tallest building between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
...
The article goes on to mention finishing out an Asian shopping center in Fremont and including a 12 story hotel, something that would actually end up towering in Fremont.Vietnam Town's turnaround, Globe's new tenants: Update on two massive retail projects
Nathan Donato-Weinstein
Seven months after buying San Jose's Vietnam Town retail center out of foreclosure, the new owners have closed eight deals there and plan to start the $35 million final phase before the end of the year.
The activity means only about a fourth of the 120-unit commercial condos at 909 Story Road are available, the owners told me when I stopped by their offices this week. What's more, deals are closing at around $600 per square foot, compared to about $400 per foot just last year.
That's quite a turnaround from a couple years ago, when the project was mired in debt, papered with mechanic's liens, and mostly vacant. (We've followed this project extensively — click here for much more.) And the recent success has given confidence to owners to move forward with Phase 2; this week, the developer submitted building permits to the city of San Jose to construct five additional retail pads that will bring the total number of units to 256.
"There's definitely enough demand," said Joseph Nguyen, director of sales for private equity firm American Pacific International Capital Inc., which is partnering with owner SingHaiyi Group on the project. "San Jose has a lot of retail, but there are so many people here, especially in the Vietnamese community, who want to open their own businesses there."
...
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matie...tting-fixed-up-but-governor-s-not-5570045.phpChain wars (SF style): First it was waterfront development - now, Mayor Ed Lee's critics are drawing a line in the sand over any attempts to tinker with the city's tough restrictions on chain stores.
The mayor and Planning Department want to increase the number of outlets that a company can control - from 11 in the U.S. to 20 worldwide - before it's considered a chain store. That designation makes it difficult to open an outlet in some neighborhoods and impossible in others.
Lee's proposal has former Board of Supervisors President and perennial mayoral-thorn-in-the-side Aaron Peskin doing his best John Burton imitation as he promises a ballot fight.
"We will stick it up their asses and we will win," said Peskin, an architect of a 1996 ban on chains in North Beach and a key organizer in the recent "No Wall on the Waterfront" fight.
About 5 percent of the city's retailers would fall into the newly exempted category. Mostly they are popular, homegrown outfits such as Blue Bottle and Philz Coffee that are looking to avoid having to obtain a conditional use permit for every store they open, said Planning Director John Rahaim.
Still, it's a touchy time to be bringing up the idea of loosening chain-store rules, with many neighborhood businesses feeling the pressure of higher rents.
In the past year, no fewer than seven supervisors concerned about the fast-changing character of their districts have proposed broadening - not narrowing - the definition of chain stores.
The first round in the fight over Lee's plan could come this week, when the Planning Commission takes up proposals to update and standardize the various chain store regulations put in place since the Board of Supervisors imposed the first ban in Hayes Valley in 1994.
Phillip Matier And Andrew Ross
Updated 8:06 am, Sunday, June 22, 2014
You just so love to demean SF.I would have thought that NY and LA were in a league by themselves. But who can say.
http://sf.eater.com/archives/2014/08/12/midmarket_getting_massive_food_hall_next_month.phpMid-Market Getting Massive Food Hall Next Month
Tuesday, August 12, 2014, by Allie Pape
. . . Called The Hall, it's taking over the former billiards parlor at 6th and Market . . . .
Here are the seven participating vendors:
· Fine & Rare: A concept from Wilson and Peterson, this spot will offer Southern-influenced seafood dishes sourced as locally as possible, as well as a raw bar and a wine shop with bottles to go.
· The Whole Beast: A brick-and-mortar incarnation of the popular food stand and pop-up, featuring dishes created from whole animals.
· Little Green Cyclo: A food truck gone perm, with Vietnamese dishes like pho, banh mi, and spring rolls, as well as bubble tea and housemade sweets.
· Raj + Singh: Curries and other Indian fare, including vegan and vegetarian options, and naan freshly baked on-site.
· Cassia: Moroccan-Peruvian fusion in dishes like a meatball masala bowl or a coconut pork pita pocket, from the folks behind the Fuki food truck.
· Dignitá: Coffee (including cold brew), pastries, and healthy snacks.
· Anchor Brewers and Distillers: An on-site bar, featuring wine and beer from the Anchor portfolio.
All of this fare will be offered in a communal setting, with picnic tables, trees located both indoors and out, and what's described as an "indoor-meets-outdoor, rustic-industrial vibe." An outdoor grill will apparently cook many of the meats and vegetables, which all the involved vendors are attempting to source as locally as possible. The Hall says it plans to land by the end of September . . . .
Update: Bloomingdale's revives Westfield's Valley Fair expansion plans — but questions abound
Macy's Inc.'s announcement last week that it would build a new Bloomingdale's at Westfield Valley Fair by 2017 — reviving long-dormant plans for the mall — perhaps raises more questions than it answers.
Chief among the questions swirling around one of Silicon Valley's biggest retail hubs: What remains of plans for the larger Valley Fair expansion, announced with fanfare in 2006, only to be put on ice as the recession took hold in 2007?
Those plans included 650,000 square feet of additional retail-space capacity at Valley Fair, including the Bloomingdale's, a Neiman Marcus, and a new wing with up to 70 specialty shops and restaurants. Westfield was also going to rebuild the Safeway and CVS at Winchester and Stevens Creek boulevards on the Santa Clara side of the mall property. (Valley Fair straddles San Jose and Santa Clara.)
Westfield spokeswoman Katy Dickey last week declined to discuss further details of the new 150,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's, whether Neiman Marcus is still on board, or the expansion with me. But city officials say they expect Westfield to submit revised plans to the city in the next month or so.
Westfield confirms $600M expansion to feature ShowPlace ICON theater in 2017, high-tech garage this year
Westfield Valley Fair shopping mall has confirmed a luxury cinema concept is coming to the West Coast for the first time — part of a $600 million expansion of the retail center that will also bring a previously announced Bloomingdale's.
What's more, the mall is going high-tech for a new parking garage, including a feature that will let you locate your car by typing your license plate number into a kiosk.
Construction on both the 150,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's and the ShowPlace ICON cinema will start in 2016 for a 2017 opening, according to a statement released exclusively to the Silicon Valley Business Journal on Friday.
We first disclosed the theater coming to Valley Fair last month, on the heels of the Bloomingdale's announcement. The two new tenants join Macy's and Nordstrom as major anchors. The dollar amount of Westfield's investment had not previously been reported.
...
http://media.bizj.us/view/img/5877491/westfield*xx.jpgInside Westfield's big plans for its $600M Valley Fair expansion (renderings)
If you’ve bought into the media narrative that malls are just so over, allow me to introduce you to Westfield’s latest plans for Valley Fair.
The South Bay’s highest-profile enclosed shopping center will start construction early next year on a $600 million expansion that will bring 80 to 100 new stores, a glitzy new anchor tenant and fresh entertainment and service offerings — including a fitness center with an expansive third-floor outdoor yoga deck.
What you won’t find: A total re-think of the mall concept. To hear Westfield officials put it, the long-standing vision of a largely enclosed, climate-controlled shopping experience is very much alive. It’s just evolving.
“What we’re trying to do is keep up with the customer’s expectations,” said Scot Vallee, Westfield vice president of development. “In Silicon Valley, we’re always trying to do something new. You can name centers that froze in time, and they just disappeared.”
...
There will be extensive new connections to both SR and to the new development across Winchester where the old Century Theaters are. Even a bridge/park proposed for above the Winchester/Stevens Creek corner.http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/...ey.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
http://media.bizj.us/view/img/5877491/westfield*xx.jpg
So basically bringing another movie theater to the place, I wish they would do more pedestrian connections to Santana Row, some are mentioned though, it is no secret that shoppers in Valley Fair will cross to Santana Row for dinner, without moving their car (since that kind of requires you to circle the mall, get in line to turn into Santana Row (the street) and go to another crowded parking garage).
That sounds reasonable even though they say their real competition is the internet. That's why the emphasis is on things the internet can't do well: super-luxury, dining, gym, movies, landscaping, all in one place.Sorry didn't mean to downplay the expansion plans, yes many new stores, a new Bloomingdales, the luxury movie theater is replacing an adjacent space to the mall structure in the block in Santa Clara, the current progress so far is just tearing down the old parking garage. I know it is big.
And while it may be logical to combine Santana Row and Valley Fair as one major retail establishment, probably being the largest in the Bay Area, I think you get into a slippery slope if you start talking about things crossing Winchester, even in SR, SR is very inward facing, except for the main entrance at Steven's Creek, and so is VF, VF will be making moves to be more ped friendly with SR, by being able to cross the street and walk to and from the mall. But I don't think Federal Realty is really being that good about connecting the other side of Winchester with Santana Row as a way of extending retail to that side.
As for competition, I would imagine it competes more with Stanford Shopping Center than any other shopping area, since they tend to have similar upscale stores, VF has to lure people from north and west and get them not to go to Stanford essentially, I suppose by having more selection.