[BTinSF]

Friday, January 23, 2009
PUC to clear site for new headquarters
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

The Public Utilities Commission will start demolition on the abandoned state office building at 525 Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco, a signal that the agency is optimistic it will score funding to construct its planned super-sustainable $188 million new headquarters on the site.

PUC General Manager Ed Harrington said the agency has requested federal funding in the pending stimulus package to help foot the bill for the 12-story Civic Center building. He said he expects to hear in less than a month.

“If we get the funds, we are ready to begin construction of a (LEED) platinum building as soon as demolition is complete,” Harrington stated in an email. “If we don’t get the funding, we will have to consider other options.”

The utilities headquarters has been a pet project for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has said the structure would “lead the way” in sustainable building and “demonstrate state-of-the-art green building technology.” But with wind turbines on the roof and photovoltaic panels embedded in portions of the facade, the 221,000-square-foot building will not be cheap. And with the city facing a budget shortfall and the cost of leasing office space declining in the Civic Center district, Harrington put the project on hold last June, just before construction was slated to start.

Webcor, the contractor on the project, is “mobilizing” to knock down the existing structure, according to Vice President Shelley Doran.

“We are pleased we have authorization to start demolition because it keeps people working — it creates jobs,” said Doran.

The site, at Polk Street and Golden Gate Avenue, is home to a state office building that closed because of damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The city bought it for $1 and originally planned to build a City Hall annex there, but that project was scrapped in 2002 after the dot-com crash.


jkdineen@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4971

Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...ml?t=printable