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

[homebucket]

Charges fly in dispute over Valley Medical Center project
August 31, 2015



Santa Clara County has issued a second notice of default to Turner Construction Co., putting the construction giant one step closer to potentially losing a $300 million contract to build a 168-bed facility on the Valley Medical Center campus.
In a press release issued Monday, the county states that the project is now more than two years behind schedule, costing more than $36 million in lost patient revenue. As a result, Santa Clara County“may terminate one of the nation’s largest construction concerns for not keeping its promise to safely complete the facility on time.”

Turner refuted the charges, blaming the delays on the county’s “850 change orders, numerous project management team changes and continual failure to control or take responsibility for its architect, inspectors and state regulators.”

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/n...al-center.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci...-contract-over

[CharlesCO]

Does anybody know what's happening to the parking lot on the city center side of the Lafayette BART station? I'm talking about that huge overflow lot behind the Pizza Antica building, not the actual BART lot itself. It's been fenced up, the asphalt in it has been torn up, and it looks like they might be digging. I couldn't find anything about it nor have I heard anything, but are they building something there? It would be a really great place for some apartments or condos.

[cicerone]

Some major changes coming to South City.

"The Cove" Biotech office/retail/hotel (AC Marriott boutique hotel) at Oyster Point, filling one of the last remaining parcels in the business park:

http://www.covessf.com/

Centennial Transit Village, replacing the old Safeway across from See's candy:

http://www.everythingsouthcity.com/c...ng-and-design/

Approval of the downtown plan, which includes a lot of upgrades along the lines of what Burlingame and Redwood City have done, along with a new Caltrain station:




"Pinefino", one of a few large residential developments right in downtown SSF:

http://www.everythingsouthcity.com/a...y-development/

The second Centennial tower (SOM) which could be residential
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...ry-condos.html

[a very long weekend]

great work south city, now build 20k units of housing around the bart and new caltrain stations.

[RST500]

Originally Posted by CharlesCO

Does anybody know what's happening to the parking lot on the city center side of the Lafayette BART station? I'm talking about that huge overflow lot behind the Pizza Antica building, not the actual BART lot itself. It's been fenced up, the asphalt in it has been torn up, and it looks like they might be digging. I couldn't find anything about it nor have I heard anything, but are they building something there? It would be a really great place for some apartments or condos.

http://www.beyondthecreek.com/lafaye...-bart-station/

[CharlesCO]

Originally Posted by RST500

http://www.beyondthecreek.com/lafaye...-bart-station/

Thanks! I only walk along the path from BART to Dewing Ave so I guess I never saw the sign. It's great to see more higher density housing come to Lafayette, though I'm not all that jazzed about that architecture...

[peanut gallery]

Some news on the Lake Merritt tower in Oakland, from the SF Business Times:

Developers UrbanCore and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. have proposed a 360-unit tower and mid-rise structure with 90 affordable units on a controversial public parcel near Oakland's Lake Merritt.

UrbanCore and its nonprofit partner, EBALDC, are competing with four other applicants for the site: PLACE Development, the Oakland Unified School District, a 98-unit affordable housing community plan from the E. 12th Wishlist Design Team and the affordable developer Bridge Housing.

Bridge is partnering with Eric Tao's AGI Avant, a market-rate developer, on 250 to 350 mixed-income units.

The Oakland Unified School District hasn't yet proposed an exact number of units in its plan. Details of the PLACE Development plan weren't immediately available.

There's a lot more plus a new design from UrbanCore at the link above but for some reason image URLs from the Business Times won't display correctly here.

[ElDuderino]

Uber will open East Bay HQ in Oakland’s Sears building
By Carolyn Said Updated 8:07 am, Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Uber has purchased Oakland’s moribund Sears building and will open an East Bay global headquarters there in 2017 after a major rehab, the company said Wednesday.

The imprimatur of the world’s most-valuable private technology company should boost Oakland’s efforts to attract more major employers and add cachet to its burgeoning Uptown neighborhood, experts said.

Uber bought 1955 Broadway from developer Lane Partners, which purchased the seven-story property in late 2014 from Sears for a $24.25 million. Uber’s purchase price was not disclosed. Now known as Uptown Station, the building sits atop the 19th Street BART station.

Uber will partner with Lane and architecture firm Gensler on Lane’s planned $40 million overhaul of the building, which has been sheathed in unsightly concrete and steel reinforcements since it was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Constructed in 1927 as the HC Capwell building, it housed Sears from 1996 until the department store moved out last year, leaving the entire property vacant. The restoration will open up long-closed windows and feature a central atrium allowing natural light to flow throughout the building, Uber said.

Uber described the move as an “expansion” of its headquarters, now located in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood. It will continue with its plans to build a two-building, 423,000-square-foot headquarters campus in San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

Uber said it projects that between 2,000 and 3,000 employees will work at Uptown Station. The company now has about 2,000 full-time Bay Area employees. (Its drivers are independent contractors, not employees, a point currently being disputed in court.)

“We are excited to deepen our roots across the Bay by investing in the revitalization of historic downtown Oakland and to become a permanent part of the fabric of the East Bay community by adding thousands of jobs at our Oakland site,” said Renee Atwood, Uber global head of people and places, in a statement.

Lane’s plans include an upscale speciality market on the ground floor called Newberry Market & Deli. With 330,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, Uptown Station is one of the largest office buildings in Oakland.

Uptown, already home to new restaurants and performance venues, as well as the historic renovated Fox Theatre, appears poised for an economic boom. Developer Seth Hamalian last month won planners’ approval for a 33-story, 345-unit residential tower across the street from Uptown Station at 1900-1944 Broadway.

“We’re proud that Uber was attracted to Oakland’s creative energy, incredible talent, progressive values, prime location and accessibility to the entire region,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf in a statement. “I also look forward helping Uber make other meaningful contributions to Oakland that will make this a more equitable, vibrant city where everyone can thrive.”

http://www.sfgate.com/business/artic...rs-6523178.php

[ElDuderino]

Some North Bay hotel news

Santa Rosa Hyatt Vineyard Creek considers adding up to 100 rooms
BUSINESS JOURNAL STAFF REPORT
September 21, 2015, 6:01AM

Santa Rosa’s Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa said it is exploring an expansion of up to an additional 100 rooms.

The plan comes amid a string of new hotels and lodging expansions in Sonoma County, including the 200-room hotel under construction at the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park. Other hotels under construction or planned are a 163-room Oxford Suites Hotel just down the street from the casino, a 100-room Holiday Inn in Windsor, a 64-room hotel at The Barlow development in Sebastopol and a 39-room H3 Guesthouse in Healdsburg. In addition, a 200-room hotel could be part of a planned housing development by the Lytton Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians in Windsor.

The Vineyard Creek hotel was built in Railroad Square in 2002 for $36 million. It has 40,000 square feet of meeting space and a 22,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard. In March, Thayer Lodging Group of Annapolis, Md., bought the hotel and spa and is continuing to run it under the Hyatt franchise. Thayer also recently purchased the eight-acres the hotel sits on, which had been leased from the city for more than a decade.

Currently at 155-rooms, the addition of 100 rooms at Vineyard Creek would make it the largest hotel in Sonoma County, larger than the Graton Casino facility by 55 rooms and slightly larger than the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa and the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel also in Rohnert Park.

Plans for the hotel’s expansion are to be finalized soon, according to Martijn Sax, general manager.

http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.c...cGxAR7jr0vT.97

Graton breaks ground on $175M expansion
BY CYNTHIA SWEENEY
BUSINESS JOURNAL STAFF REPORTER
September 2, 2015, 11:41AM


Architectural rendering of the Graton Resort & Casino expansion, seen at left, which will connect to the south side of the casino, at right, when completed in fall 2016. (Graton Resort & Casino)

ROHNERT PARK — Visitors to Graton Resort & Casino just to the northwest of Rohnert Park will soon have a place to stay and relax by the pool in a major expansion unveiled last week.

Groundbreaking for a much-anticipated hotel at Graton Resort & Casino took place today on a 342,000-square-foot resort addition with a six-story, 200-room hotel, making it the fourth-largest hotel in Sonoma County. It will also feature a spa, pool and 20,000 square feet of more convention and meeting room space, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria said at a press conference this morning at the site.

“This is needed; it’s the icing on the cake," said Greg Sarris, chairman.
He said that the casino in two years has become highly successful. The casino's Facebook page is said to have the fifth-highest number of "likes" for such a facility.

Construction of the $175 million expansion will take place on the south side of the casino and connect to it via a passage next to the existing Daily Grill restaurant. The project is set to employ 1,000-plus during the job, which is set to be complete in fall 2016, and involve nearly 100 California companies...

Full article: http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.c...foKfktuCzvz.97

[minesweeper]

Originally Posted by ElDuderino

Uber will open East Bay HQ in Oakland’s Sears building

http://www.sfgate.com/business/artic...rs-6523178.php

Wow, this has to be one of the biggest deals in Oakland in years. Hopefully this is the catalyst that gets the proposed 33-story tower across the street financed, among others, similar to NEMA and the Twitter building in SF.

A few months ago, the scaffolding came down from the Sears building and it looked like they stopped working on it. I guess they paused the remodel until this deal went through.

Here's what the building looks like as of this morning:

[peanut gallery]

^Great news for Oakland. I hope Uber isn't biting off more than they can chew between buying this (not leasing) and building from scratch in Mission Bay.

Downtown Redwood City is stretching north with one new residential building at the corner of Jefferson and Bradford and another perhaps on the way. From Bisnow:

Pauls Corp has proposed building an eight-story mixed-use in downtown Redwood City. The building would be at 603 Jefferson Ave and include 92 condos.

Plans from the Denver-based developer call for 4,500 SF of ground-floor retail space and a residential lounge area that would sit on about a half acre at the corner of Jefferson and Bradford. The condos would range from studios up to three-bedrooms.

There is no timeline for the project, but the Redwood City planning department is reviewing the plan. San Francisco-based BDE Architecture is working on the project.

[peanut gallery]

News out of San Jose about a potentially huge and transformative project next to Diridon. The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports:

On Wednesday, a major real estate developer acquired two massive parking lots at the gateway to downtown San Jose from Adobe Systems Inc. At 8.5 acres, it’s one of the largest single development plays in the central business district, and among the most capacious building sites adjacent to the popular commuter rail service (my note: they are referring to CalTrain).

Developer Trammell Crow Co. and a capital partner paid $58.5 million for the site, according to public records. The big idea: Create a large-format tech campus within an urban context — office, homes and retail, linked together by public plazas.

--------------

Trammell’s designs for the land are still being refined, but executives anticipate developing about 800,000 square feet of office in two buildings rising 10 to 12 stories, and 325 apartment units in a nine-story building. The site, which fronts West Santa Clara Street kitty corner from SAP Center, would be sprinkled with shops and restaurants and include a large public plaza along West Santa Clara Street. The historic San Jose Water Company building would be renovated and repurposed, possibly as an entertainment-focused retail space.

Don't worry about parking. Trammell would build about 2,400 spaces, most of it underground, and spots would be available to the public for events at SAP Center, Little said. (There are about 800 spaces now on the surface lot.)

From a market perspective, Trammell’s plans are hugely significant because executives say they will build at least the first office building — about 400,000 square feet — “on spec,” or without a tenant signed. The downtown area has not seen any new office construction since Riverpark II, a 300,000-square-foot tower completed in 2010. Trammell is being backed in the deal by Bentall Kennedy, the massive Seattle-based investment firm, through its Multi-Employer Property Trust, which invests on behalf of pension funds.

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Trammell's Little said he expected to obtain planning permits by the first quarter of 2016, with early site work starting in the summer. The first phase of the office component would be complete by the end of 2017, with the apartments following in early 2018. A general contractor is not yet signed. The architect is San Francisco-based HKS.

Drawings were not yet ready for prime time, Little said, but he promised a signature look that would be in keeping with the site's high-profile location.

"We’ve committed ourselves to making it iconic," he said. "We think it will be a landmark in the South Bay."

It's a long article and there is a lot more information at the link.

[peanut gallery]

A nice little piece of infill is has started in Oakland's Uptown:

Link to rendering.

Construction has started on a 25-unit housing project in Oakland's Uptown neighborhood less than a block away from Uber's future headquarters, more evidence that a wave of new market-rate residential development is coming to the city.

Oakland-based CRC Development LLC broke ground on a former parking lot at 528 Thomas L. Berkley Way. The site is about three doors away from Uber's Uptown Station office at 19th Street and Broadway. It is also across the street from Forest City Enterprises Inc (NYSE: FCE)'s 665-unit project The Uptown.

The project's budget will be around $450,000 per unit, or $11.2 million total. Construction is slated to finish in early 2017. The project will be either rental or condo. Rents would be around $3.50 per square foot, or starting at $2,000 per month, said John Cappiello, principal of CRC Development.

The project will have 32 one-bedroom units, three two-bedroom units and one live-work unit on the ground floor.

---------------

CRC acquired the property in April 2014. The project was approved in August 2014. Kotas/Pantaleoni Architects is the designer of the project, and Proforma Construction is the general contractor.

[peanut gallery]

Apple is on an expansion tear. Now they have entered into a lease agreement for a large futuristic campus in Sunnyvale, not far from their new HQ building going up in Cupertino. This is in addition to a land purchase in North San Jose, which can hold an even larger campus. From the San Jose Mercury News:

Apple has agreed to lease a 777,000-square-foot building in Sunnyvale where it could have 4,000 workers just four miles from the "spaceship" headquarters the company is building in Cupertino. The new Sunnyvale complex at the corner of Wolfe Road and Central Expressway has its own futuristic flavor, with a curving outline, interior courtyards and rooftop gardens.

Sources who are familiar with the deal say that Apple has agreed to lease the entire site from developer Landbank Investments. Apple declined to comment.

In addition, Apple is scouting for even more office sites in north San Jose. These offices would be in addition to what Apple had previously agreed to purchase or lease there. These maneuvers would create a third campus for the company besides Cupertino and Sunnyvale.

----------------

Industry insiders also point out that Apple is undertaking lease and purchase deals that suggest it will retain nearly all of these offices and sites even after the company completes the spaceship campus.

"This expansion exceeds anything that the spaceship was meant to accommodate," said Terry Bell, a senior vice president with Colliers International, a commercial realty brokerage. "This is a mindset for permanent growth, because Apple is purchasing properties."

In recent days, Apple took a major step forward in solidifying its presence in north San Jose with the purchase of land parcels and a building that together could accommodate 18,000 workers for the tech titan. The various north San Jose sites could eventually contain 3.77 million square feet, space equivalent to a pair of major regional shopping centers.

HOK Architects are the architects for the Sunnyvale campus, and Landbank, Cassidy Turley and CB Richard Ellis are the developers. They have filed the application to redevelop the property, which Apple will then lease.

[peanut gallery]

At the risk of turning this into my own personal thread (5 posts in a row?)...

Oakland's long dormant 601 City Center project may come back to life. The SF Business Times reports:

In the wake of Uber Technologies Inc.'s arrival in Oakland, developer Shorenstein Properties is taking steps to revive its long-dormant office project at 601 City Center to capture rising tenant demand, said multiple sources familiar with the property.

Shorenstein officials met with city staff this week about the project and the developer is seeking to secure final project approvals, which have expired because of a seven-year delay since the project was active, said Rachel Flynn, Oakland's planning director.

Shorenstein needs to renew its final development plan and file for building permits before beginning construction on the project. The developer told the city it is hoping to go to the Planning Commission's design review hearings in November, said Flynn.

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The city approved the project back in 2000. The original 2000 entitlements call for 588,000 square feet of office space, 9,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 170 parking spaces on the site. But the last two recessions have delayed construction for more than 15 years.

If built, 601 City Center — bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, 11th, 12th and Jefferson streets near the 12th Street BART station — would be the first new office building in Oakland since 2008.

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Shorenstein broke ground on the tower in October 2008 after acquiring the site for $5.2 million from the city's Redevelopment Agency in December 2007. But the developer soon stopped construction amid the global financial meltdown. At the time, the project had a budget over $250 million, but rising construction costs would mean the tower could cost more now. If Shorenstein fully leased the property for around $50 a square foot, it would bring in nearly $30 million a year in rent.

In case you've forgotten what it looks like:






Source: Shorentstein's Flickr account for the project.

I actually hope they revisit the design somewhat. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it feels like it's missing something.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

I actually hope they revisit the design somewhat. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it feels like it's missing something.

That's because it looks like a slightly taller version of Irvine; if Oakland is ever going to get with the program, it deserves better.

[mbb]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

I actually hope they revisit the design somewhat. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it feels like it's missing something.

It's missing a ground floor restaurant.

[ElDuderino]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

At the risk of turning this into my own personal thread

Haha...don't worry about that. I enjoy the updates. It's too bad this thread isn't as active as the others since there is so much going on in the greater bay area.

Yes, this tower is boring and hopefully will be redesigned, but it will be good to see that empty block finally developed.

[patriotizzy]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

At the risk of turning this into my own personal thread (5 posts in a row?)...

I actually hope they revisit the design somewhat. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it feels like it's missing something.

It's missing creativity. That's what. I'll design something for a fraction of the price lol.

[fflint]

Call it a hunch, but I expect the design will be tweaked a bit.