SAN FRANCISCO | Jasper | 450 FT / 137 M | 45 FLOORS | U/C

[rocketman_95046]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior

Maybe they've decided to turn it into a park.

Seriously, this would be the oddest time for them to start construction. I wouldn't complain, but it just perplexes me.

It would only be an odd time if they were seeking financing for the tower.

If they have the financing in place, or they have cash of their own.. the timing may be perfect. ie.. complete the tower as the economy turns around in 2-3 years.

As long as they are not putting down asphalt for a parking lot... this is positively good news for those hoping for construction to start!

[livin' in the city]

I hope that type of equipment doesn't spell Parking Lot.

[peanut gallery]

There is absolutely no reason to turn this into a parking lot. There is plenty of street parking in the area and no demand (ie: nearby office buildings).

[BTinSF]

As far as the timing goes, the typical economic cycle should have produced, at the very least, recovery by the time a building started now or in the next few months could be occupied. You can decide for yourself if this is going to be a typical economic cycle, although I personally agree with the increasing number of people who think the housing market will bottom late next Spring (for what it's worth, the stock market seems to think so because among the few types of stocks doing pretty well right now are the home builders which typically turn 6 - 9 months before the actual housing market does).

Furthermore, this is going to be a high end building (probably the highest new building in San Francisco). People buying $2 million plus units tend to be relatively immune from economic cycles.

[Downtown Dave]

Here are the machines as of Sunday:

[peanut gallery]

Since they haven't moved much in the past week, it's been difficult to tell exactly what they're doing. It's all quiet again today.

[peanut gallery]

The excavator is gone, but the loader is still in the same spot.

[peanut gallery]

Color me skeptical, but someone on SocketSite has inside info that Turnberry sold a 50% stake in this and will start construction in early 2009.

From a plugged-in tipster with respect to Turnberry's San Francisco development at 45 Lansing:

[T]hey just sold a 50% stake in the project to another group led by Mike Zoi. Expected to start construction early 2009.

Once again, cater-corner to One Rincon Hill, 45 Lansing is slated to become 305 uberluxury condominiums (“the most upscale development the new neighborhood has seen, with “exotic” marble baths, Italian Snaidero cabinetry, Gaggenau cooking appliances, Jacuzzi hydrotherapy tubs with built-in TVs, individual security systems, and 12-foot penthouse ceilings”) in a 40-story tower.

[BTinSF]

Socketsite's tipster is widely read:

Last updated: November 5, 2008 09:30pm
Turnberry Sells 50% Stake in Condo Project
By Brian K. Miller


Turnberry Tower (right)

SAN FRANCISCO-Turnberry Ltd. of Miami has sold a 50% stake in a planned 40-story luxury condo tower in San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood to Group 24 LLC, a new equity investment vehicle of Mike Zoi, a Miami-based entrepreneur and investor. Slated for 45 Lansing St., near First and Harrison, the $275-million endeavor is the first in California for Turnberry, which is known for its luxury residential developments in Florida and Las Vegas.

While the financial details of the partnership were not immediately available, GlobeSt.com has learned that the $275-million represents the total development cost of the project, versus a gross sell-out value of approximately $350 million. Turnberry president Bruce Weiner tells GlobeSt.com that all the necessary entitlements and approvals have been finalized, permits have been pulled and impact fees paid and that excavation for the subterranean garage should begin in the first quarter of 2009 and that the entire project should take 30 months to complete.

Due to turmoil in the credit markets, Weiner says final construction financing has been delayed. “That said, the major banking participants are fully committed and the consortium is being assembled,” he adds.

Turnberry Tower is expected to include 217 one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom residences, as well as townhouse, penthouse and tower suite units. Residences will range in size from approximately 1,000 square feet to more than 3,800 square feet, not including large outdoor terraces. Amenities will include an indoor swimming pool and 24-hour valet parking, security, concierge and front desk personnel. A development timeline for the project was not immediately available.

Turnberry Ltd. acquired the project in 2006 from another developer after it had been approved by the city in its schematic stage. Turnberry has since been refining the tower and its amenities and floor plans. For example, the project originally included approximately 250 units in the same amount of space, Weiner says.

Group 24, its new partner in the project, is one of several companies controlled by Mike Zoi. He and Turnberry chief executive Jeffrey Soffer first met while competing with each other on Ferrari North America’s racing circuit. Zoi won the North American Ferrari Challenge Championship in 2007, according to published reports.

Zoi could not be reached Wednesday for comment. "We find San Francisco's high barrier to market entry coupled with Turnberry's internationally recognized brand and loyal following ... make the Rincon Hill project an extremely compelling investment for Group 24," Zoi says in a statement.

In addition to Group 24, Zoi also founded and runs Ener1 Inc., a Fort Lauderdale-based alternative energy company that last month acquired 83% of the capital stock of Enertech International Inc. Enertech owns a 200,000-sf manufacturing plant and lithium-ion battery manufacturing equipment located in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea and, through its US-based subsidiary, Emerging Power Inc., leases 11,000 square feet of office, battery pack assembly and warehousing space in Hackensack, New Jersey. A Group 24 representative tells GlobeSt.com that the batteries are used in hybrid-electric vehicles.

Zoi also controls TGR Energy LLC, which owns TOT Energy LLC, a new company that began trading on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board in September under the symbol TOTY.OB. The company bills itself as “a multi-national, diversified energy company” that “provides oil and gas companies operating in Russia and other markets with exploratory and development well drilling and oilfield services.” The company, which operates out of the same offices as Group 24 (201 S. Biscayne Blvd. Suite 2868), has a 75-25 joint venture with Sibburnefteservis, a Russia-based oil exploration and drilling company created from the former Soviet Union’s Ministry of Geology. In a June press release announcing its business strategy, TOT Energy said its activities “are expected to include the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas in Russia and Kazakhstan.”

Turnberry Ltd. has on its resume some $10 billion in commercial and residential property development, including approximately 20 million square feet of retail space, more than 7,000 luxury condominium and condominium-hotel residences, 1.5 million square feet of class A office space and approximately 2,000 hotel and resort rooms. The company is known for turning a 785-acre tract of marshland into the City of Aventura and is the developer and owner of Aventura Mall, one of the five highest grossing centers in the nation, and the landmark Turnberry Isle Resort & Club.

Earlier this year, Turnberry completed The Residences at Atlantis, a condominium-hotel tower at the world-renowned resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas, and in Las Vegas completed Town Square, a 1.5-million-square-foot lifestyle center, and Turnberry Place, an ultra-luxury condominium and private club community, and The Residences at MGM Grand, a condominium-hotel development with more than 1,500 residences. Soffer also serves as executive chairman and majority owner of Fontainebleau Resorts LLC, which is developing Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a $2.8 billion, world-class destination resort located on the Las Vegas Strip that is expected open in fall 2009.

Source: http://www.globest.com/news/1282_128...1.html?type=pf

If only that rendering were large enough to see.

[peanut gallery]

Due to turmoil in the credit markets, Weiner says final construction financing has been delayed. “That said, the major banking participants are fully committed and the consortium is being assembled,” he adds.

I guess the question is which carries more weight: the first part (financing has been delayed) or the second part (banking participants are fully committed). I sure hope it's the latter.

[BTinSF]

The 45 Lansing SocketSite Scoop: Turnberry Quietly Shopping The Lot



The word on the street as confirmed by a plugged-in developer: Turnberry is quietly shopping their 45 Lansing lot (outlined above in blue).

The implications: likely no new building at 45 Lansing for 5-10 years, and extremely low odds that once developed it will be the uberluxury product Turnberry (and neighbors) had envisioned.

And sorry folks, no April Fools.

Source: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2....html#comments

[peanut gallery]

So Turnberry is selling their half. I wonder what Mike Zoi has to say?

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

At this point in our current economic situation and with all of the financial turmoil that increases on a daily basis, I would be surprised to see any construction starting on any major non-government project. It certainly feels like this construction cycle is over and that tough times may lie ahead for a number of people. I'm usually not a pessimist, but what we have been hearing has been extremely bleak. In an in depth interview last night, it was the first time I heard two notable experts agree that we are most likely entering the worst period for the United States since the Great Depression. We are in fact becoming a poorer nation.

Fasten your seatbelts, enjoy the wonderful structures being completed and hope that somehow more can be done. I would love for my outlook to be proven wrong.

It's shocking to think how long we've been in this situation. I was looking through the history of Turnberry posts and came across this that I wrote on 3/15/08. I never bought the argument that this project would go forth because it was for the rich people who did not need mortgages, but it's a real bummer to actually see everything canceled with owners attempting to sell land. It's even worse to think that One Rincon Hill will stick up like a sore thumb for years with nothing around it. IMO, it looks totally inappropriate as it is without its mate and surrounding buildings.

[peanut gallery]

Yep. I wanted neighbors for ORH so bad, I kept hope alive for a very long time. Even into January of this year, I kept walking by this site hoping to see something happening. But it's just not meant to be. Not now anyway. Just have to hope that someday Rincon Hill will rise and give ORH some company.

[BTinSF]

Time to kill the thread?

Thursday, May 7, 2009, 2:30pm PDT | Modified: Thursday, May 7, 2009, 3:11pm
Rincon Hill condo tower canceled; Turnberry seeks $8.4M refund
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

Rincon Hill developer Turnberry Associates has canceled its 40-story deluxe condo tower at 45 Lansing St., and asked the city to refund an $8.4 million affordable housing fee it paid when the building permit application was filed in 2007.

In a letter dated May 4, land use attorney Andrew Junious said the building permit for the 227-unit tower “will be withdrawn immediately by the project sponsor.”

The cancellation is a significant blow to the future of highrise development in Rincon Hill and other downtown neighborhoods. Turnberry bought the property in September, 2006, near the height of the market, paying $30 million, or $130,000 per buildable unit. At the time Turnberry President Bruce Weiner told the Business Times that the project would cost $230 million to $240 million and would be the most upscale development Rincon Hill has seen, with “exotic marble baths, Italian Snaidero cabinetry, Gaggenau cooking appliances, Jacuzzi hydrotherapy tubs with built-in TVs, individual security systems and 12-foot penthouse ceilings.”

“We have big plans for California overall, and San Francisco fits our model,” Weiner said at the time. “We like world-class cities and San Francisco is certainly one of them.”

Since then housing values have plummeted an estimated 30 to 40 percent in San Francisco and downtown developments like Tishman Speyer’s Infinity and Lennar’s Blu have slashed prices in an effort to move inventory. Highrise construction has been put on hold across the city and developers like Fifield and Crescent Heights have unsuccessfully attempted to sell off land approved for highrise condos.

Assistant Planning Director Larry Badiner said Turnberry is entitled to the $8.4 million refund. Turnberry paid the fee under the city’s inclusionary housing code that requires developers to either include below market rate units as part of the project or pay a in lieu of fee equivalent to 17 percent of the market rate. “If they are not proceeding with the project the city needs to return their money,” said Badiner.

The fee went to the Mayor’s Office On Housing for the purpose of funding affordable housing projects. Mayor’s Officer On Housing Director Douglas Shoemaker could not be reached for comment.

Badiner said any developer who wanted to apply for a new permit to develop 45 Lansing St. “would have to start from scratch.”

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

Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...l?surround=lfn

[peanut gallery]

Definitely time to move this into the "never built" category. What a shame. I'm sure something will get built here someday, but it doesn't look like it will be this particular proposal. ORH will be a lonely tower for quite some time.

[BTinSF]

Weeeellllllllllll . . .

Rincon Hill's Turnberry Promises a Comeback



There's little doubt that the 40-story luxe condo tower slated for 45 Lansing in Rincon Hill has been decisively axed. Their entitlement's expired, which generally means Florida-based developer Turnberry Associates can't sell the parcel to anyone with the phantom building intact— and they've gone on record to say it's over. Anyone who wants to build there will have to start from square one on the normally three- to five-year entitlement process. But then there are choice quotes like this from the company's president: "We remain bullish on Rincon Hill, and San Francisco overall, and fully intend to build this landmark tower. We must request a refund of these fees in order to address the costs associated with carrying the project for the foreseeable future." Guess we'll see you in a few years, then?

Source: http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2009/0...eader_comments

GIVE ME A BREAK!

• Video Link

[BTinSF]

"their entitlement's expired" . . . NOT!

Efforts to turn empty lots to a glass half full
John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer
Thursday, September 3, 2009

(09-02) 20:47 PDT -- Even as San Francisco's development scene continues to languish, city officials and at least one private landowner are exploring how to fill empty sites in creative ways - including art installations and a working farm.

"If you leave a blank landscape, that's an invitation to blight," said Matt Jacobs of Turnberry Lansing, the owner of 45 Lansing St., a Rincon Hill lot that also fronts Harrison Street. "It's better to do something that's interesting and that the neighbors like."

The Turnberry site is the type of scar left when a boom goes bust. A small structure was razed in 2007 to make way for a 40-story residential tower. As the housing market weakened, groundbreaking was delayed, and this June, Turnberry received an extension on its development entitlements.

Though they gave the developer extra time, planning commissioners complained about the site's motley look, with a fence holding a graffiti-covered screen. Within weeks, that should change: A new fence will serve as a sort of extended easel holding a patterned artwork by Rebar Group, a San Francisco design collective.

"We're trying to get the effect of a supergraphic," said John Bela of Rebar Group. "We want one large image legible from across the street or up in towers, but pixelated" so up-close study reveals multiple images.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNKB19DH3L.DTL

It's a thin reed to cling to but . . . .

[peanut gallery]

That reed has at least two of us clinging to it, BT. I hope it holds up!

[tommaso]

What is the verdict on this project?