THE BAY AREA | Projects from San Francisco's Surrounding 8 Counties

[timbad]

and even more on Mare Island from Dineen and the Chron

Developer and winemaker Dave Phinney imagines that Vallejo’s Mare Island will one day have as much bustle and busyness as it did during World War II.

Phinney, a partner in the Nimitz Group, which is charged with redeveloping Mare Island, envisions an island with “tens of thousands” of new housing units and upward of 1,000 businesses. There will be schools — possibly a college campus — and copious waterfront parkland. As many as 60 historic buildings will be lovingly restored. It will be bike- and pedestrian-friendly. Water taxis and ferries — the island already has ferry service — will whisk residents and workers to San Francisco and elsewhere.

...

Phinney said that he wants to create a “heterogeneous community,” rather than a “mono-culture.” The goal is to “create a community that’s sustainable at multiple levels, not just environmentally sustainable.” He said the development would be half housing, half other uses.

It’s unclear when the group’s first foray into housing development will start — Nimitz Chief Operating Officer Nathan Bergeron said it could be anywhere within “12 to 24 months.” ...

... Nimitz is focused on denser development. Bergeron said that the relatively low-density Lennar plan is not something his company would have proposed. .... Bergeron said. “Lennar was creating almost a commuter island, whereas our long-term vision is more of a live-work situation.”

... Lennar had completed remediation on most of the island — out of 854 parcels, just 10 still need to be cleaned up. He hopes to have the cleanup completed and signed off on by regulatory agencies by late next year.

Mare Island has a history of being used for filmmaking, ...Phinney said he is focused on creating a place that attracts the movie industry. ...

The federal government has also designated the island as an “opportunity zone,” ... allows investors to get a reduction in the capital gains tax if those gains are invested into low-income neighborhoods.

Phinney said opportunity fund investors have shown interest. He said “some of the biggest names in Wall Street have identified Mare Island as the No. 1 opportunity zone in America.”...

Mare Island has advantages that other former military properties around the Bay Area lack. It’s already got a vibrant business community and dozens of historic brick buildings that could be used for hotels, residential lofts or other kinds of uses, Matzke said.

[Busy Bee]

^Awesome and all the more reason for a BART extention to DT Vallejo via San Pablo Ave and I-80 north of Hercules.

[timbad]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^Awesome and all the more reason for a BART extention to DT Vallejo via San Pablo Ave and I-80 north of Hercules.

I somewhat edited out the part of the article that emphasized that the idea is not to make this a place that most people would have to commute to or from - it would contain both housing and office and other things so that it would be self-contained to as much of an extent as they can make it.

(in general, I am not for extending BART almost anywhere - it is too expensive. we should concentrate development around the stations that are already there.)

there is already-existing ferry service to Mare Island (and Vallejo, of course) - I imagine this could be ramped up at least to a degree if needed.

[Busy Bee]

Are you really claiming that Vallejo wouldn't benefit from an Vallejo-->East Bay-->DTSF BART connection? That a ferry is sufficient?

[timbad]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Are you really claiming that Vallejo wouldn't benefit from an Vallejo-->East Bay-->DTSF BART connection? That a ferry is sufficient?

it might benefit, I'm just not sure it would be enough to justify the high cost.

[patriotizzy]

Originally Posted by timbad

it might benefit, I'm just not sure it would be enough to justify the high cost.

Lol. This kind of mentality is the exact reason why our public transit infrastructure is garbage. Just let the public transit authorities to sit on their laurels, collecting public funds (that are supposed to be used for projects like these). Right?

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^Awesome and all the more reason for a BART extention to DT Vallejo via San Pablo Ave and I-80 north of Hercules.

I would love to see BART go to Fairfield.

[viewguysf]

As has been discussed for a long time, BART needs to upgrade and strengthen its existing system before expanding more (other than to San Jose). This includes tracks, control systems, and current infrastructure. A second tunnel should also be a top priority, one that will be shared with another rail system, of which there are several possibilities. Note that BART is not proceeding with a Livermore extension now. Yes, the Richmond line is ripe for extension in the future, but not to Fairfield with the traditional BART structure.

[timbad]

Originally Posted by patriotizzy

... Just let the public transit authorities [to] sit on their laurels, collecting public funds (that are supposed to be used for projects like these). Right?

that's not what I'm suggesting at all, not sure how you read that into the comment.

don't want to get too far off-topic here, but briefly: I'm more than all for increased investment in transit, but there are smart ways to do it, and other things related to land-use that need to happen at the same time. in most cases, given its costs, 'build BART to there' is not the best solution. BART itself recognizes this.

sometimes transit is 'garbage' because we spent billions of dollars on something that got us a paltry number of new riders, which meant those dollars were not spent on a more effective piece of the transit puzzle.

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/archiv...n-into-county/

there is currently a bus route from Vallejo Transit Center to El Cerrito del Norte BART with 15-20-min frequency that takes just under 30 mins.

[timbad]

along the Caltrain line, Menlo Park is another station that has some significant development occurring around it.

approaching from the south, on the west side of the tracks there is excavation for 'Middle Plaza' that looks like it's something like a football field in length. this is just one part



right across the street from the station itself, also on the west side, is a smaller project



(on the east side, a similarly-sized project has also recently gone up.)

approaching from the north, also on the west side of the tracks, is another large development, Station 1300. another link

[timbad]

as a general reminder, Redwood City has a great website for its development projects

in Redwood City, a new project, which I think must be 1180 Main St, has broken ground a bit south of the Caltrain station. (the crane in the distance is for Greystar IV)



up the street, but feeling like a different world across the tracks, is 851 Main. I haven't been by in a while, and thought it would have been further along by now



this is Broadway, which has a major new addition just barely seen here...



in its fuller glory, at the corner of Jefferson







this is looking past the old courthouse on the right toward the Box office building, recently constructed next to the Caltrain station



another sizable parcel under construction along Marshall, one block parallel to Broadway. (next to some fairly grim government buildings that look like they went up in the 1970s)



its relationship to 601 Marshall, also recently constructed



on that block used to sit the Lathrop House, which was moved across the street and set up behind the old courthouse

[bossabreezes]

Nice to see a nice, urban core forming in Redwood City. That new building on the corner of Jefferson is outstanding quality.

It amazes me sometimes how some places in the Bay look so East Coast. Take out the palm trees and you could easily be in suburban Connecticut or New Jersey.

[craigs]

Great photos and also thanks for providing the link to Redwood City's development website. So much going on down there.

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

Yes, the Richmond line is ripe for extension in the future, but not to Fairfield with the traditional BART structure.

There are almost 80,000 commuters from Sacramento into the Bay Area that primarily depend on I-80, the Capitol Corridor and Solano Transit. I’m sure many would love the option of driving to Vallejo or Fairfield and hopping on BART. I’ve had a couple of friends who worked for Wells Fargo, Blue Shield and Brown & Toland who commuted ino the Bay Area aboard the Capitol Corridor. The rail connection between Sacramento and SF are going to have to be improved as more people commute into the Bay for higher paying jobs. Whether that’s BART in its current form or an electrified Capitol Corridor with a dedicated right of way remains to be seen.

[Busy Bee]

^^

BART to Vallejo.

Fully electrified and frequent CC commuter trains stopping in Fairfield. Eventual extension to Reno. Eventual 2nd Bay tube connection to Transbay.

And as long as we're talking vision, BART Orange (Fremont) Line extension splitting before the Richmond station (following the Richmond Greenway trail) to San Rafael facilitated by I-580 R-SR bridge replacement in the future.

[timbad]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

There are almost 80,000 commuters from Sacramento into the Bay Area that primarily depend on I-80, the Capitol Corridor and Solano Transit. ... The rail connection between Sacramento and SF is going to have to be improved as more people commute into the Bay for higher paying jobs. Whether that’s BART in its current form or an electrified Capitol Corridor with a dedicated right of way remains to be seen.

I've long wished for the option in bold - seems you get much more bang for the buck with that than extending BART a few miles.

[fimiak]

I also believe that if they didn't terminate the impending trains at Salesforce Transit Center, and instead went underground over to Oakland, people could either head north to West Berkeley and Sacramento, or head to Jack London / Oakland As stadium. There could easily be a two-way train loop around the bay, and it would not require the expense of a Silicon Valley BART. This would also help with convincing the state to help pay for downtown extension, since its construction impacts far more people, including those in Sacramento. If I am regurgitating what was said above, it is because the idea is so damn good and obvious.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by timbad

I've long wished for the option in bold - seems you get much more bang for the buck with that than extending BART a few miles.

Coupled with easy cross-platforming to BART at Richmond Station so you don't have to take the AMTRAK busses into the city from Emeryville.

I'm not sure what the status of things are in Richmond. It used to be easy to do but years ago I read AMTRAK had eliminated it. I don't know whether that ever applied to the Capital Corridor which AMTRAK operates under contract with the state and I don't know what "elimination" ever meant in physical terms. The two stations, which are adjacent, haven't moved.

Addendum: Note that quick and easy to transfers between BART and CC/AMTRAK at Richmond IMHO would eliminate any need for the massive expense of extending peninsula trains to Oakland (how? a new transbay tunnel? The cost of that boggles the mind when we can't seem to find funding just to get the trains to the TransBay Terminal).




Images: https://www.google.com/search?rls=en...Ps0P3EnV3aTlM:

[Pedestrian]

Labor union dispute threatens to kill $5 billion Concord Naval Weapons Station redevelopment
By Blanca Torres – Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Jan 3, 2020, 1:41pm PST Updated 36 minutes ago

Lennar Corp. has halted planning work on the Concord Naval Weapons Station reuse project amid a labor dispute that threatens to kill the $5 billion development.

For the past two years, master developer Lennar has been negotiating with the Contra Costa Building Trades Council on a project labor agreement that would specify how much of the project would be done by union workers, but documents from the city of Concord say the two sides have reached an impasse.

The developer has agreed to use union labor on infrastructure and site preparation, but union leaders want a commitment that Lennar will use union labor on all construction over the two or three decades it will take to build the project.

Concord’s City Council is set to vote Tuesday whether to give Lennar clearance to proceed at the lower level or require the developer to commit to using more union labor — a move the developer and city staff say will make the project financially infeasible.

Analysis by city staff found that the developer’s proposed commitment would generate $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion in union contracts while the union’s preferred commitment would result in $8.4 billion worth of union contracts. The developer estimates the entire project will generate up to $6.7 billion in total revenue, city documents show.

“If the council says, ‘No, we want more union labor,’ then Lennar is saying this project won’t move forward,” . . . .

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...RrcGlSaWZ1ZSJ9

Nobody should wonder why CA can't build enough housing.

[patriotizzy]

It costs double for union labor. Why would a city, that is trying to keep their budge afloat, ever do that? Union labor is a fraud, not for the employed union laborer, but the state.