An update on San Francisco high-rise developments!
From this week's San Francisco Business Times:
IN DEPTH: SAN FRANCISCO STRUCTURES
From the June 25, 2004 print edition
Highrise hot spots: Where plans are looking up
Elizabeth Browne
Most highrises in the pipeline have been proposed near San Francisco's downtown core, with the largest numbers of tall buildings slated for South of Market, particularly in Rincon Hill and around the Transbay Terminal. The mid-Market/Mission Street corridor could also see significant additions to the skyline.
Rincon Hill
Less a hill than the sloping industrial companion to the foot of the Bay Bridge, this neighborhood could see by far the most new highrise development. The city's Rincon Hill Plan, an attempt to update planning and zoning controls, aims to increase its potential for housing by 4,200 units. The city should have no trouble encouraging the type of development it seeks for Rincon Hill. Six projects comprising nine towers have been proposed, and four of those projects have already been approved. The next residential highrise to get under way will be Union Property Capital's 300 Spear St. towers, scheduled to begin next spring. Double towers at 201 Folsom St., to be developed by Tishman Speyer, have been approved, as has a 20-story tower at 325 Fremont St. San Diego developer Urban West Associates has proposed a set of towers of 30 and 35 stories for the site of the Bank of America clocktower at 425 First St., and projects at 375 and 399 Fremont St. are in the planning stages.
Transbay Terminal area
The city's redevelopment agency has earmarked sites for six highrises, all 30 stories or more, in the Transbay Terminal area. The towers would be part of a mixed-use, transit-oriented neighborhood consisting of nearly 3,400 new housing units, nearly 1,200 of which would be available to very low-, low-, and moderate-income households. Office, hotel, and retail space are also planned around the $2.7 billion new terminal and Caltrain station. The terminal itself, along with construction of the Caltrain extension, won't be finished until 2011, and because of land-use issues related to the construction, the accompanying highrises can't be built until after that.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to consider adoption of the Transbay Redevelopment Project sometime this year.
Six highrises in the Transbay Terminal area are already in the pipeline, however. Construction began on one, Myers Development Corp.'s controversial Hemisphere project at 80 Natoma St., this spring. The 51-story residential tower stands in the path of the proposed new Transbay Terminal, and if built, would force substantial changes to the terminal project's rail lines. On June 7, the city issued a two-week stop-work order on the project, saying legal issues needed to be worked out.
Four other towers have been approved nearby. Two are office projects: Higgins Development Partners' 23-story tower at 524 Howard St. and Tishman Speyer's 555 Mission St. At 535 Mission St., developer Hines originally planned a 24-story office building, but now wants to construct 30 stories containing 251 condominiums. A fourth approved project, Millennium Partners' 301 Mission St., would combine 260 residential units with a hotel in 58 stories.
Market/Mission street corridor
A hodge-podge of residential, office and hotel towers are in the works along Market and Mission streets from about Third Street to 10th Street. Nearest completion is the St. Regis Museum Tower at Mission and Third streets. Developed by Trizec Properties and the Metropolitan Development Group and designed by architecture firm SOM, the 42-story tower will house 102 condo units, a St. Regis Hotel and an African-American museum. Completion is set for 2005.
Also under construction is the new Federal Building at Seventh and Mission streets, an 18-story environmentally-friendly office tower that should be finished next year. Nearby, plans have been approved for a 24-story city office building at 10th and Market streets, to be developed by Myers Development Corp. Nonprofit housing developers Citizens Housing Corp. and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. will build an adjacent 21-story, 400-unit affordable housing project. Other approved projects include a 23-story residential project at 1160 Mission St., and 690 Market St., where eight floors will be added on to the historic Chronicle building to house condos and time-share units.
The most significant changes to the mid-Market skyline could come from Trinity Properties' proposed five-building residential complex at 1177 Market St. Four of the buildings will be 20-to-24-story towers containing 250 to 325 units each.
Other parts of the city
A smattering of other towers could join the highrise parade. Twenty-five years in the making, Shorenstein's 19-story 350 Bush St. office project was recently approved. Malcolm Properties recently proposed a 21-story, 120-unit residential tower at 631 Folsom St. And a 31-story InterContinental Hotel at 888 Howard St. has been approved. Other possible locations for building up? The Planning Department's Market and Octavia Better Neighborhoods Plan encourages slender residential towers on several sites around the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue, and California Pacific Medical Center, which picked up a site on Van Ness Avenue last year, may be thinking tall as it considers plans for a new medical center there.
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