SAN FRANCISCO | Oceanwide Center | 910 & 636 FT | 61 & 54 Floors | ON HOLD - Page 48

david_h · #**941** Posted **Oct 10, 2019, 4:51 PM**

From https://swinertonwebcor.com/updates/

October 10, 2019 Update

Greetings from our team at Oceanwide Center! Activities will continue 24 hours a day on the site as we prepare for our next major concrete foundation pour for the First Street tower. This concrete pour will start the evening of Friday October 11th at 10:00PM and end Saturday October 12th at approximately 1:00PM. Ecker Street between Jessie Street and Mission Street will be closed to traffic during this time.

On Sunday, October 13th we will be erecting an additional tower crane to support the construction of the First Street tower. No additional street closures are planned for this activity.

Skyy · #**942** Posted **Oct 10, 2019, 11:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobbyMucho

Well yea, but also this is two separate structures.

It looks like there will be 3 cranes total, 2 for the taller building

viewguysf · #**943** Posted **Oct 11, 2019, 3:55 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobbyMucho

Well yea, but also this is two separate structures.

Two for the taller First Street tower Bobby, just like Salesforce.

timbad · #**944** Posted **Oct 14, 2019, 11:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by viewguysf

Two for the taller First Street tower Bobby, just like Salesforce.

two BIG ones

close-up look at the rebar on the Mission St side

Smashing Alligator · #**945** Posted **Oct 14, 2019, 5:12 PM**

david_h · #**946** Posted **Oct 15, 2019, 10:27 PM**

Happened to be walking by this afternoon when this was taking place...

Pedestrian · #**947** Posted **Oct 16, 2019, 7:45 AM**

Seems to me this type of crane, as opposed to those where the working part is horizontal to the ground, is unusual in SF but more common in the construction of really tall buildings elsewhere. Glad to see these here. And if you notice, the two that will will be in operation on the taller 1st St tower look more robust than the one working on the Mission St. tower.

1977 · #**948** Posted **Oct 16, 2019, 10:22 PM**

I'm happy to hear the whole project isn't being put on hold, but this is still kind of a bummer. Hopefully, they can land a buyer quickly, so the Mission St. tower can resume. I would think with Waldorf in place it would be attractive, but who knows:

Quote:

Oceanwide halts construction on Transbay hotel and condo tower

Chinese developer Oceanwide stopped construction on a tower that was slated to house a Waldorf Astoria hotel and 106 residences, the developer said Wednesday.

The $1.6 billion Oceanwide Center is a two-tower development at the corner of First and Mission streets across the street from Salesforce Tower.

Work will continue on the taller of the two buildings, on First Street, that contains 1.2 million square feet of office space and 109 condos.

"In light of local market changes and economic uncertainties, Oceanwide has determined that a realignment of the work scope on the Oceanwide Center Project is necessary to keep the project sustainable," the developer said in a statement.

The stall comes after months of speculation that construction was delayed because of a lack of funding. Numerous prospective buyers have tried to snap up the project, but Oceanwide has yet to make a deal.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc..._news_headline

fimiak · #**949** Posted **Oct 16, 2019, 10:44 PM**

It seems reasonable to me that they would still finish the street level concrete pour, but it doesn't seem like it. We will be very lucky if this delay is the only repercussion from the global trade war.

theskythelimit · #**950** Posted **Oct 16, 2019, 11:42 PM**

With China reining in their companies and restricting the flow of money out of China, I am surprised they don’t sell off the project. Their LA project is stalled and there was word floating around Oceanwide finances are softening.

madrian · #**951** Posted **Oct 17, 2019, 4:32 AM**

Does this mean that the Waldorf Astoria won’t be opening? I’m a bit sad, I was excited to stay there.

Pedestrian · #**952** Posted **Oct 17, 2019, 6:23 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1977

Hopefully, they can land a buyer quickly, so the Mission St. tower can resume. ]

Niether tower is for sale:

Quote:

The developer, an affiliate of publicly traded Oceanwide Holdings Co. Ltd., said the hotel development site is not for sale but declined to elaborate.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...Uyc1oifQ%3D%3D

I see this as a change in development strategy as much as anything--rather than building the two rather unrelated towers simultaneously, it seems they intend to do them sequentially now with the more important one first. Actually, I wondered if that wasn't the plan before they turned the first spade of dirt.

But yes, this was their chance to suspend BOTH towers and they didn't do it. It seems illogical they would let this opportunity pass if they have any intention now of ever doing it, but of course their intentions from one day to the next could change. One gets the impression their finances are a shakey as US-Chinese relations.

Pedestrian · #**953** Posted **Oct 17, 2019, 6:33 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by theskythelimit

With China reining in their companies and restricting (attempting to restrict) the flow of money out of China, I am surprised they don’t sell off the project. Their LA project is stalled and there was word floating around Oceanwide finances are softening.

Consider:

Quote:

‘Back Door’ Capital Outflows Should Worry Beijing
By Nathaniel Taplin
Oct. 14, 2019 7:15 am ET

The Chinese talk of “walking through the back door”—meaning finding a way around the rules, and often implying graft or the use of personal connections.

Beijing has, since 2016, successfully used tough controls on outbound foreign investment and other capital movements to lock the front door through which money used to leave China. There is increasing evidence, however, that the pressure on the back door is rising, following the recent sharp depreciation in the country’s currency.

The yuan is down almost 6% against the dollar since late April, and 10% since mid-2018. Should the back door open any wider—or official trade or investment inflows dry up for some reason—Beijing might find itself once again forced to sell down big parts of its currency reserves to avoid a panic. Worries about cracks in currency fortress China are another reason Beijing is likely to remain wary of aggressive monetary stimulus.

The relevant figure here is China’s “errors and omissions” line in its balance of payments, or BOP. This number represents the residual of the main BOP accounts registering trade and investment flows—in other words, capital that has somehow moved across China’s borders without being documented.

In most countries, this line item is relatively small. In China, however, since 2014—when the yuan ended its decadelong trend of appreciation against the dollar—it has become persistently and mysteriously large and negative . . . .

Errors and omissions hit a record first-half high of $131 billion in 2019, notes Gene Ma of the Institute of International Finance, much larger than the first-half average of $80 billion during the last period of big capital outflows in 2015 and 2016.

That suggests that while measures instituted a few years ago to limit capital flight have appeared effective, China remains vulnerable to rising outflows through unofficial channels. And the country has yet to report its third-quarter figures, following the big yuan depreciation in early August . . . .

https://www.wsj.com/articles/back-do...s&page=1&pos=5

Somehow it seems like overseas real estate development would offer significant "back door" opportunities.

Jerry of San Fran · #**954** Posted **Oct 17, 2019, 3:44 PM**

Chinese Developer Pauses Tower - in today's San Francisco Chronicle, Construction of the 605 foot tower suspended as Oceanwide Holdings grapples with rising construction costs. Construction continues on the 910 foot tower.