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

[mchoey]

I heard from a resident on Lansing St that they had found some archaeologically significant artifacts at the site? Anyone else here this?

[peanut gallery]

Seems strange since there is no sign of digging to unearth them, or fencing around a specific area (as opposed to the temporary fencing around the entire site) to protect them. Or was it something they already removed during demo? There are remnants of old brickwork here and there, but I doubt any of that is archeologically significant.

[BTinSF]

Friday, January 25, 2008
Dallas-based HKS corrals more San Francisco space
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

With new projects heating up from San Jose to India to Rincon Hill, Dallas-based HKS Architects is putting a Texas-sized stamp on the Bay Area.

Since opening a San Francisco office in 2005, the firm has grown to 29 people and has recently grabbed 11,000 square feet at 500 Howard St., according to Brendan Dunnigan, vice president and manager of the San Francisco office. The lease is a 4,000-square-foot increase over the lease at 650 California St.

The new hires include two high-profile designers. Tom Harry, the former design director for Patri Merker will head up the hospitality group for the HKS Hill Glazier Architects division, which focuses on hospitality. And Tom Hoos, a former associate of Frank Gehry and Associates and architect for Richard Meier, has also joined HKS.

The firm is working in collaboration with Turnberry to redesign 45 Lansing St., a 40-story Rincon Hill condominium set to begin construction this winter. In addition, HKS is providing architectural services for a slew of San Jose developments, including Orchard Parkway, Wilson Meany Sullivan's 88 condo development, and Tishman Speyer's Campus at North First Street.

In the past decade, the firm has been responsible for completing work throughout the Bay Area at the Beacon, the Potrero, Portside, 55 Second St., Pacific Place, Avalon Mission Bay, Mission Place, the Metropolitan and Bridgeview in San Francisco.

To further the firm's presence in the Bay Area, Hill Glazier Architects and HKS merged to form HKS Hill Glazier Studio in Palo Alto in 2007.

Today, the combined firms have more than $14 billion in construction under way in California including the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park; Montage Hotel Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills; and W Hollywood Hotel & Residences in Hollywood.

Jack Churton and Shap Roder of CB Richard Ellis represented HOK in the sublease at 500 Howard St.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...ml?t=printable

[peanut gallery]

More confirmation that this will start very soon. First and Harrison will continue to be a hotbed of activity for the foreseeable future, which is great for me!.

HKS must be going in one of the ground floor spaces here. I'm pretty sure everything from 2 up is occupied. I'll have to do some shmoozing when they move in -- try to get some inside scoop.

[northbay]

good news. of course more waiting tho

i wonder what the redesign will look like?

[peanut gallery]

Not much of an update, but just a few minutes ago I saw the door to the mobile storage shed open and got excited. However, it was just a small Cannon crew installing new meshing on the chain link fence that surrounds the site. I asked one of the guys when they'd start and he said "soon." He couldn't get any more specific than that.

[SFView]

"Soon," is good!

[peanut gallery]

To quote a line from Blame it on Rio: It's better than "later."

[peanut gallery]

The water company has posted a no parking sign in front of this lot through the end of the month. It could be unrelated, or it could be that they are connecting a water line to the site in preparation for construction. I hope it's the latter.

[BTinSF]

Friday, February 29, 2008
One Rincon Hill office welcomes glitzy neighbor
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

One Rincon Hill's sales office will soon have some posh company.

Turnberry Associates, the glitzy Miami-based condo developer, has leased the defunct 25,000-square-foot Sound Factory nightclub at 525 Harrison St., directly next door to the One Rincon Hill sales center at 511 Harrison St. The space will be converted into a sales and marketing center for the tower Turnberry plans to start work on this summer.

Turnberry spokesman Matt Levinson said work on the space, which will also house Turnberry's construction offices, would start shortly. He said the sales office would open in "six to eight months."

Turnberry acquired 45 Lansing St, a dirt lot next to the 76 gas station, in September 2006 for $30 million. The developer then tapped HKS to redesign the fully entitled building, reflecting demand for larger three- and four-bedroom units in deluxe projects. Cannon is the contractor of the project.

Turnberry President Bruce Weiner has estimated the project would cost $230 million to $240 million, including land. Turnberry has developed or owns more than $5 billion worth of hotels, resorts, and condos, including the Residences at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and Fontainebleau in Miami Beach.

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

[peanut gallery]

At least I can stop getting my hopes up for signs of activity until summer.

[Reminiscence]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

At least I can stop getting my hopes up for signs of activity until summer.

Yeah, now you can rest at night ... at least until summer

I was hoping to see activity on this building in the spring, but knowing that the office is going to open up soon in good news. I wonder where we'll see renderings first, in the office or online.

[peanut gallery]

Well, it's something...

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

Well, it's something...

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.

[BTinSF]

^^^I follow financial markets pretty closely and I'm going to bet you are wrong. I'll remind you that both the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings went up during the Great Depression. What matters in this case is whether Turnberry, the folks at One Rincon Hill and 350 Bush etc have their financing locked in by now or not. I'm betting they do with the scheduled start of construction so imminent. You are certainly correct that it would be very difficult to find a new lender right now. But it's a decent bet that by the time a building started this summer is ready for occupancy things will be much better and so if they have the money, a smart outfit like Turnberry is quite likely to go ahead. Besides, as the BizTimes reported, they are moving ahead with a sales office which I doubt they'd be doing unless they planned to go ahead.

On the other hand, there are a few projects like the PUC building on Golden Gate that are using public money and don't depend on loans. A lot of public construction (including a good bit of downtown Washington DC) and private non-profit construction ( such as my alma mater, Duke University) got built during the Depression.

PS: The sudden realization by "notable experts" how bad things are is a little belated. This was last summer (note the price of Bear Stearns stock which closed Friday at 30.85):

• Video Link

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

^^^I follow financial markets pretty closely and I'm going to bet you are wrong. I'll remind you that both the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings went up during the Great Depression. What matters in this case is whether Turnberry, the folks at One Rincon Hill and 350 Bush etc have their financing locked in by now or not. I'm betting they do with the scheduled start of construction so imminent. You are certainly correct that it would be very difficult to find a new lender right now. But it's a decent bet that by the time a building started this summer is ready for occupancy things will be much better and so if they have the money, a smart outfit like Turnberry is quite likely to go ahead. Besides, as the BizTimes reported, they are moving ahead with a sales office which I doubt they'd be doing unless they planned to go ahead.

On the other hand, there are a few projects like the PUC building on Golden Gate that are using public money and don't depend on loans. A lot of public construction (including a good bit of downtown Washington DC) and private non-profit construction ( such as my alma mater, Duke University) got built during the Depression.

PS: The sudden realization by "notable experts" how bad things are is a little belated. This was last summer (note the price of Bear Stearns stock which closed Friday at 30.85)

I hope that you are right BT, and you may well be. What do you see looking forward, beyond construction of any private building that has already locked in financing? Do you foresee a long downturn?

[peanut gallery]

We're definitely heading into darker times, but I think this one will get built. As BT said, they're already preparing a sales and construction office across the street. And Cannon is still getting paid apparently, since they'll be doing something onsite for the next few weeks.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

I hope that you are right BT, and you may well be. What do you see looking forward, beyond construction of any private building that has already locked in financing? Do you foresee a long downturn?

I generally agree with what you said except in the case of buildings that are ready to turn dirt like I assume ORH #2 and 45 Lansing are. It's also harder to predict in SF because it's so hard to entitle a project and the artificial shortage of housing is so great that there's a lot of incentive to build when and if you can. I do think 555 Mission (or, if we are lucky, 535 Mission) may be the last "spec" office building put up for a couple of years--that is, one without at least an anchor tenant signed up before construction begins. Which, of course, brings up the matter of the TransBay Tower--I just don't know what to expect there.

But construction fans here are lucky in that some projects will go forward. I was remembering after I posted above that both the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were also built during the Depression and let us not forget that the Eastern Span replacement for the Bay bridge will certainly move forward. So will UC projects at Mission Bay (I'm not so sure about some of the housing and independent commercial buildings). The "seawall lot" across from AT&T Park is a question mark, I think.

But let me make a prediction: I think we are getting near the denouement of this financial crisis. There IS a solution: The government could make the "implicit" guarantee of Fannie/Freddie bonds explicit and empower the FHA to begin a massive program of refinancing ARMs into fixed rate mortgages for those who can qualify. And I think there's a pretty good chance they will do something like that before the November election because I think things are going to get worse and worse until they wake up in Washington. There is so much in our financial system that is collateralized with agency bonds like those of Fannie and Freddie (and others including The Federal Farm Credit Banks, Federal Home Loan Banks and Tennessee Valley Authority) and with high quality (meaning "prime") residential and commercial mortgage bonds and if the market for those gets back on the tracks, I think lending for solid projects will resume.

Personally, I hope they don't bail out the people who got "liar loans" by telling lies and who never could afford the properties they bought or the people who qualified for loans only at the low "teaser" rate but not at the eventual rate. And I think the markets can absorb the losses tied to those people as long as the paper that will eventually be good--like Fannie Mae bonds--is priced appropriately.

[nequidnimis]

Your program is generous but fails to address the problem of the increasing number who owe more than their houses are worth... A moratorium on new construction until supply and demand are in equilibrium would help stabilize house prices. Hopefully, developers who persist on building in the current environment will carefully asses the numbers. Although they too can always walk away if they owe more than their developments are worth...

[briankendall]

My friend who lives across the street gave me what might be a bit of good news. He saw two men who were well dressed get out of a red mazaratti (sp?). The were able to unlock the gates and looked like "developers". He said they were there for over an hour gesturing toward the sky, One Rincon Hill, etc.as if describing how it was all going to look together as well as looking at carefully at the site.