SAN FRANCISCO | Potrero Power Plant | 29 Acres | 1.6M SF Office | 2600 Housing Units

[homebucket]

Block 7A

The 27-story Block 7A is poised to be the tallest new building in Potrero Power Plant development. The 264-foot structure will contain 433,620 square feet, with 417,420 square feet for residential use, 9,940 square feet for retail, and 6,270 square feet for an on-site childcare facility. The building will contain 325 new apartments.

https://sfyimby.com/2022/03/excavati...aterfront.html

[homebucket]

Block 8

Block 8 will include 339 new units, ranging from studios to three bedrooms. The 156-foot tall structure will yield 400,500 square feet with 382,500 square feet for residential use and 18,000 square feet for retail. Parking will be included for 177 bicycles for residents, nine bikes for retail, and 11 for the restaurant.

Block 7A and 8 are being designed by Foster + Partners, one of the most high-profile architecture firms in the world. Both blocks will have a similar design, with stepped, tapered, and otherwise manipulated facades for a unique skyline profile and generously sized private balconies. The materials will emphasize natural tones of weathered steel and patina, complementing the existing metal-encased Unit 3 power station, located next to the 300-foot smokestack, to be renamed The Stack.

https://sfyimby.com/2022/03/excavati...aterfront.html

[homebucket]

Block 7B

In contrast, Block 7B will rise on an L-shaped lot with just eight floors, creating 98 affordable dwelling units above 1,820 square feet of ground-level retail and parking for 99 bicycles. The 84-foot tall structure will yield 83,000 square feet. Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects is responsible for the design, built to emphasize the relationship with the historical and industrial site by using similar materials that might include natural colors and patina. Four options for the primary cladding include weathered steel, copper, bronze, or terracotta, each offering a unique dynamic texture.

https://sfyimby.com/2022/03/excavati...aterfront.html

[homebucket]

Block 15, also known as Station A

Block 15, also known as Station A, is perhaps the most unique and complex of the proposed structures with planning documents available. The adaptive reuse of the brick structure is being led by Herzog + de Meuron. The project includes repurposing the large concrete structures in the former turbine hall, adapting the brick walls to make room for new windows, and inserting a new structural frame to ensure building safety.

The 205-foot tall proposal rises from the five-story brick building to yield 403,750 square feet of office space. The project includes a mid-block passage connecting Georgia Lane to Louisiana Paseo and the central public space. The roof will be a modified hipped roof, topped with solar panels and sliced to accommodate a viewing platform. The exterior facade will also include fabric awnings, controlled by building management with overrides for tenants, to maximize interior comfort with the added benefit of creating a unique aesthetic transformation to the facade.

The Station’s ground level will include a five-story-high-ceiling lobby, conference center, a multi-functional space, and a lounge within the Turbine Hall, where the building’s past will be on full display. Visible from the building’s public passage between Georgia Lane and the Power Station Park West, the Turbine Hall will display the massive turbine foundation.

The history of the land extends back to 1881, when Claus Spreckels established a sugar refinery on the peninsula land, refining sugar from the American plantations in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Station A was built in 1901 as a power plant to support the refinery. By 1905, the plant was producing most of the city’s power, at which point PG&E acquired it. At one point, the plant was responsible for producing a third of the city’s power before being closed in 2011 to usher in more environmentally friendly sources.

https://sfyimby.com/2022/03/excavati...aterfront.html

[timbad]

too bad they decided not to preserve any of the smaller brick buildings, but nice to see the progress here. aerial views really are what we need for this project, since it is hard to get a camera into a position where one can see well what is going on from the ground. (same for much of Pier 70.) thanks to sfyimby.

[Pedestrian]

Excavation Underway For Potrero Power Station Along San Francisco’s Dogpatch Waterfront
BY: ANDREW NELSON 5:30 AM ON MARCH 8, 2022

Crews have removed several structures while retaining the historic Station A and 300-foot smokestack, both brick structures will serve as focal points in the 29-acre waterfront development in Dogpatch, San Francisco. Associate Capital is responsible for the project.

. . . the design review applications for Blocks 7A, 7B, 8, and 15 [were] approved by the San Francisco Planning Department just a few days ago. The approvals cover three residential apartment blocks and the adaptive reuse of Station A into a modernized office building.

Permits filed to the Planning Department by Associate Capital show that phase one of construction will include all of the above blocks, as well as Blocks 11 and 12. The design review process has been started for the two office/life sciences blocks, with project-specific details not yet published.

The Potrero Power Station project is poised to create 5.3 million square feet across several new buildings, including around 2,600 new homes, over a million square feet of offices and R&D space, retail, a boutique hotel, and nearly seven acres of public amenities and parks.

Perkins+Will is responsible for the project’s master plan. The 130-foot steel Unit 3 power station will be converted into a modern hotel. As the firm writes, “The site will be bookended by two power stations—one built in 1889, the other in 1964…In a complete turnaround, the site will be transformed from a polluting power plant to a sustainable, resilient neighborhood that embraces wellness.”

Various garages across the project will create a capacity for 2,622 cars for residents and office employees . . . .

The 27-story Block 7A is poised to be the tallest new building in Potrero Power Plant development. The 264-foot structure will contain 433,620 square feet, with 417,420 square feet for residential use, 9,940 square feet for retail, and 6,270 square feet for an on-site childcare facility. The building will contain 325 new apartments.

Block 8 will include 339 new units, ranging from studios to three bedrooms. The 156-foot tall structure will yield 400,500 square feet with 382,500 square feet for residential use and 18,000 square feet for retail. Parking will be included for 177 bicycles for residents, nine bikes for retail, and 11 for the restaurant.

Block 7A and 8 are being designed by Foster + Partners . . . . Both blocks will have a similar design, with stepped, tapered, and otherwise manipulated facades for a unique skyline profile and generously sized private balconies. The materials will emphasize natural tones of weathered steel and patina, complementing the existing metal-encased Unit 3 power station, located next to the 300-foot smokestack, to be renamed The Stack.

In contrast, Block 7B will rise on an L-shaped lot with just eight floors, creating 98 affordable dwelling units above 1,820 square feet of ground-level retail and parking for 99 bicycles. The 84-foot tall structure will yield 83,000 square feet. Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects is responsible for the design, built to emphasize the relationship with the historical and industrial site by using similar materials that might include natural colors and patina. Four options for the primary cladding include weathered steel, copper, bronze, or terracotta, each offering a unique dynamic texture.

Block 15, also known as Station A, is perhaps the most unique and complex of the proposed structures with planning documents available. The adaptive reuse of the brick structure is being led by Herzog + de Meuron. The project includes repurposing the large concrete structures in the former turbine hall, adapting the brick walls to make room for new windows, and inserting a new structural frame to ensure building safety.

The 205-foot tall proposal rises from the five-story brick building to yield 403,750 square feet of office space. The project includes a mid-block passage connecting Georgia Lane to Louisiana Paseo and the central public space. The roof will be a modified hipped roof, topped with solar panels and sliced to accommodate a viewing platform. The exterior facade will also include fabric awnings, controlled by building management with overrides for tenants, to maximize interior comfort with the added benefit of creating a unique aesthetic transformation to the facade.

The Station’s ground level will include a five-story-high-ceiling lobby, conference center, a multi-functional space, and a lounge within the Turbine Hall, where the building’s past will be on full display. Visible from the building’s public passage between Georgia Lane and the Power Station Park West, the Turbine Hall will display the massive turbine foundation.

The history of the land extends back to 1881, when Claus Spreckels established a sugar refinery on the peninsula land, refining sugar from the American plantations in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Station A was built in 1901 as a power plant to support the refinery. By 1905, the plant was producing most of the city’s power, at which point PG&E acquired it. At one point, the plant was responsible for producing a third of the city’s power before being closed in 2011 to usher in more environmentally friendly sources.

MEYERS+ is the engineer for blocks 11, 12, and 15, with design by Herzog + de Meuron and Adamson Associates. Plant Construction is the general contractor for Block 15, with Hathaway Dinwiddie for Blocks 11 and 12. The projects are seeking to achieve LEED Gold Certification.

The property is next to Pier 70, or the Union Iron Works Historic District. Plans led by Brookfield are also looking to reshape the waterfront area into a new mixed-use district. The plans by Brookfield and Associate Capital hope to establish the former industrial properties as a new destination in the city, both buoyed by public open space . . . .





Blocks &A and 8 (tallest structure)


Block 7B


Station A Office




(Current status photo)

https://sfyimby.com/2022/03/excavati...aterfront.html

[WildCowboy]

There's an existing thread in the General Development forum...

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=247166

[homebucket]

I guess the question is should we have a separate thread for the general development and one for the high rise towers?

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by homebucket

I guess the question is should we have a separate thread for the general development and one for the high rise towers?

No. We only need one thread but I think it belongs in the high-rise section because it meets the height criteria. I searched for ANY thread on the project in
"Proposals" before starting this and didn't see anything. Didn't think to look in General Development because of the height. It's always a quandary to determine what to title projects with multiple buildings so people will recognize them and, I suppose, where to put them if some buildings are tall, others not. My recollection was we'd been discussing this in the Compliations section but I guess that was wrong.

In any case, I'm going to ask a mod to merge the threads. I'll leave it to him in which section.

[timbad]

SF Chron today

S.F. may have found a way to help fund the city’s stalled housing projects
J.K. Dineen
Feb. 9, 2023


Shoring towers are seen on the outside of station A at the old Potrero Power Station development site in San Francisco.


The redevelopment of San Francisco’s Potrero Power Station will be the prototype for a new citywide infrastructure initiative designed to jump-start stalled housing projects that have the potential to add tens of thousands of units to the city’s housing supply.

Next week Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton plan to introduce legislation that will create an “infrastructure financing district” at the 2,600 unit waterfront project just south of Pier 70. The district, known as an IFD, will allow the developer to raise the $150 million needed to finish building out the streets, sidewalks, seawalls and underground utilities that will provide the foundation of the new waterfront neighborhood — which will include 800 affordable homes, seven acres of parks and a mix of commercial buildings.

Once the IFD is created, the developer will be able to borrow against future tax revenues in order to help pay for the $400 million in public infrastructure that the power station requires. IFDs can finance everything from highways to transit, water systems to sewer projects, flood control to libraries.

The site preparation for the redevelopment of the former, notoriously dirty power plant — which closed in 2011 — has been under construction for several years. But even though developer Associate Capital had already invested $70 million in preparing the site for redevelopment, it faced the reality that it could not raise the money to keep going, according to Enrique Landa, managing partner of Associate Capital, the project developer.

The IFD will generate more than 500 jobs and allow construction to start this year on the first 105 units, which will be affordable to low- and moderate-income families.

...

In addition to the Potrero project, IFDs could potentially be created to finance the infrastructure for a slew of stalled San Francisco redevelopments — including the 6,000 unit expansion of ParkMerced, the 1,700-unit redevelopment of Schlage Lock, the 1,500 units at India Basin and 1,100 units at Balboa Reservoir.

...
He said the Power Station, which will have one-third of its units in the affordable category and has an agreement with the building trades, is a good poster child for the IFD concept.

“If you are going to bond against future revenue you want to do it for a project that is going to deliver at the highest standards,” he said.

...

The silhouettes of laborers are cast on the ground as they work in an area that will eventually be a sidewalk for a development on the site at the old Potrero Power Station in San Francisco.


Steve DeWees, director of construction on the Power Plant project, said some of the most difficult work thus far has consisted of digging out the foundations of buildings that were buried deep within the property, including one that had been supported with 1,000 wood piles.

...

When the first affordable housing building opens in 2025, it will have been less than 15 years to go from a dirty power plant to a new neighborhood. But that would not be possible without the IFD.

“The thing about infrastructure is until you finish it you can’t open a single building,” he said. “You need a water system. You need electricity. There isn’t a way to do a little bit of infrastructure.”

[homebucket]

The specs for 1212 Maryland (Block 7B):
- 8 floors, 84 ft
- 105 units (25 studios, 20 1BR, 20 2BR)
- All of the units will be affordable
- Retail
- Bicycle parking

Construction Starts For Housing In Potrero Power Station



BY: ANDREW NELSON 5:30 AM ON OCTOBER 13, 2023

Construction officially started yesterday morning on the first apartment complex in the ambitious Potrero Power Station masterplan on San Francisco’s formerly industrial waterfront. The first structure to rise will be an affordable workforce housing complex named the Sophie Maxwell Building, with expectations of over seven hundred units to rise with it during the first phase of development. Associate Capital is the project developer.

The construction site is located on Block 7B, which will be addressed as 1212 Maryland Street upon opening. The 84-foot tall structure will rise from an L-shaped floor plan with 83,000 square feet. The project will have 105 units, an increase from initial plans for 98 units, alongside retail and bicycle parking. The development will rise over Maryland and Humboldt Street, producing a shared inner-block courtyard space between Blocks 7A and 7B.

Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects is responsible for the design, built to emphasize the relationship with the historical and industrial site by using similar materials that might include natural colors and patina. The design was built in communication with Foster + Partners, the architect for Block 7A and Block 8, to ensure a complementary architectural vocabulary, including a mid-block passageway to increase pedestrian access.

The development has been moving at a steady pace over the years. Final approval of the master plan was given to Associate Capital by the city in 2020, and permit activity has been spotted in the meantime. Construction started in 2021, and by 2022, excavation work removed several ancillary structures from the site. Earlier this year, the city proposed creating an Infrastructure Financing District to support the development by raising an estimated $200 million.

Alongside the Maxwell Building, phase one will complete Blocks 7A, 7B, 8, 11, 12, and Station A. The developer is on track for the first phase of the 29-acre development. At full build-out, the former power station is expected to create around 5.3 million square feet with around 2,600 units of housing, 1.6 million square feet of offices, lab space, retail, and a 250-key hotel in the Unit 3 Power Block, connected with the 300-foot smokestack. Perkins+Will designed the master plan.

The famed international architecture firm Foster + Partners is responsible for designing Block 7A and Block 8, which includes a 240-foot apartment tower with 277 units, both to be delivered in phase one of construction. Arguably, the most substantial architectural feature for phase one will be the adaptive reuse of the existing turbine hall, Station A, by the renowned Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron.

The Sophie Maxwell Building is expected to open by 2025, with management from the John Stewart Company. A timeline for the other projects in phase one has yet to be revealed. Associate Capital has yet to reply to a request for comment from YIMBY.

https://sfyimby.com/2023/10/construc...r-station.html

[homebucket]

And the renderings:







https://sfyimby.com/2023/10/construc...r-station.html

[AndrewK]

From the Chronicle today, article by J.K. Dineen:

Exclusive: UCSF could expand to massive redevelopment of S.F. power plant

UCSF is in advanced talks to become the anchor tenant in the redevelopment of the Potrero Power Station, the ambitious mixed-use expansion of San Francisco’s Dogpatch onto 21 acres of formerly industrial land on the waterfront.

While any deal has to be signed off by the University of California Board of Regents, UCSF is looking at opening a clinic, precision cancer center and heath tech incubator on block 2, a 50,000-square-foot parcel directly across a paseo from the first building to break ground at the defunct power plant, a 105-unit affordable housing complex.

“There is more due diligence to complete and approvals from the UC regents to obtain, but we are hopeful that we can move forward with this unique opportunity at Power Station,” said Brian Newman, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of UCSF Real Estate.

Although the details are still in flux, the building would likely be upwards of 130 feet and about 300,000 square feet. It would be designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the international architecture firm based in Switzerland, which is designing several of the buildings slated for the former power station redevelopment.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/artic...t-18981772.php

[OneRinconHill]

How much progress has this project made?

[unpermitted_variance]

Originally Posted by OneRinconHill

How much progress has this project made?

I think a lot of the site work has been ongoing (demo, grading, stabilization of preserved structures, roads, sewer, etc). These articles state that they broke ground on an affordable building on the site in October:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/realesta...n-18420028.php
https://sfyimby.com/2023/10/construc...r-station.html

Notably, affordable housing is the only type of development that can get financing in SF right now, so probably no coincidence that that's the structure that's breaking ground. I think with the developer's statements in the October article and the UCSF interest, this project has pretty good odds of making it all the way through to completion, although it may take some time.