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

[tech12]

Originally Posted by fflint

Berkeley highrise hotel, other downtown towers a go as Measure R fails

Annie Sciacca
San Francisco Business Times
Nov 5, 2014


The developer behind a proposed housing and retail project, the Residences at Berkeley Plaza at 2211 Harold Way, has been awaiting the result of the Measure R vote.

Berkeley voters yesterday rejected Measure R, an initiative that would have gutted carefully laid plans for taller, denser buildings in Berkeley's downtown and potentially killed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development projects.

The measure — which lost with 74 percent of the "no" vote — would have killed plans fora proposed $100 million highrise hotel downtown. It would also have hurt the proposed Berkeley Plaza, at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Kittredge Street, where developers are planning 302 apartments and a retail complex in an 180-foot-tall tower.

These projects are among several projects in downtown Berkeley's pipeline, which is ready to add more than 1,000 new housing units. Some of the projects sprang from the city's decision to allow taller and denser buildings downtown, which was what sparked the fight over Measure R.

The hotel project from developer Jim Didion and Center Street Partners LLC would replace the one-story Bank of America building and parking lot at 2129 Shattuck Ave. It would occupy about 288,000-square-feet and shoot up 180 feet — making it one of only three allowed highrise buildings in the area, following the passage in 2012 of Berkeley's Downtown Area Plan.
....

Originally Posted by fflint

Peninsula cities vote to support development near transit

peninsula transportation alternatives
November 5, 2014

Voters in San Bruno approved a ballot measure to raise height limits in the downtown area near Caltrain and El Camino Real. An earlier ballot measure passed in 1977 required a vote of the people to build buildings taller than 3 stories in those areas, and the downtown has seen little change since.

Voters in Menlo Park opposed Measure M, which would have limited the amount of office space allowed near Caltrain (office workers near transit have the highest likelihood of transit use). Two proposed mixed use developments, with offices, apartments, and a small amount of retail, are now in a position to move forward, although the development on Stanford-owned land will need an environmental study and some traffic reduction.

Voters in Mountain View elected Pat Showalter, Ken Rosenberg, and Lenny Siegel, three candidates who support housing in North Bayshore where Google is, and progress on the city’s jobs housing imbalance, which has been contributing to price spikes and commute traffic increases.

Good news, we need more density all over the place. Despite still having some victories (such as the whole "no wall on the waterfront" thing), the influence NIMBYs have in the Bay Area seems to be fading a bit.

[Folks3000]

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci....html?page=all

"High-rise development is starting to show signs of life in Oakland for the first time since the Great Recession, with a 298-unit apartment building on the brim of Lake Merritt expected to receive entitlements early next year.
Lake Merritt Boulevard Apartments, set to rise 270 feet on a vacant site on 12th Street and 2nd Avenue, needs the City Council to greenlight a redevelopment plan for the surrounding Lake Merrit BART station area this month in order to skate through environmental review."

[peanut gallery]

^Fyi, there's a rendering of that project at the link, but I can't get it to post here.

Oakland is on the verge of several new highrises getting started. That article also mentions:

The Planning Commission approved a 270-foot, 166-unit residential building at 1331 Harrison last month that will add more art-deco flair — and density — to downtown.

Here's a rendering of that (not sure if still current):

Source: Emporis (in case the three watermarks didn't make that obvious)

And I read awhile back that Shorenstein wants to convert 601 City Center from office to residential to get that long-stalled project off the ground.

[Folks3000]

Here is the rendering:


Via: San Francisco Business Times

[fflint]

I look forward to two new 270' apartment towers in Oakland. Seriously, if there's a Bay Area candidate for a massive Vancouver-style residential transformation, it's downtown Oaktown. There's no ambience to ruin, no community to displace, almost limitless potential for vibrancy both day and night, and a wealth of good transit, pedestrian and bike infrastructure such that new residents don't have to drive everywhere all the time.

The office tower proposal for 601 City Center appears to be around 300' tall. If they do in fact convert the proposal to residential, that envelope can contain a hell of a lot of housing, right in the heart of downtown Oakland.

I know I'm not alone in wondering, during one of San Francisco's biggest building booms of all time, why downtown Oakland isn't also a sea of cranes. While I understand some timidity on the part of developers--every now and then, Oakland turns into a riot zone--but it won't always be that way, and the easy proximity to SF is unmatched. You can get to downtown SF faster from Oakland than you can from the outer neighborhoods in the Richmond and Sunset.

Oakland can and absolutely should be courting spillover from San Francisco--if you build it, they will come. Hopefully the incoming mayor will be able to deliver a more reassuring development environment and a faster, more predictable planning process. It's simply astounding that Jean Quan's tenure will have been marked by almost no highrise development whatsoever.

[peanut gallery]

^So true. Although in her defense, Brooklyn basin (aka: Oak-to-Ninth) did finally get financing. No cranes under her watch, but she did have a hand in cranes hopefully rising for her successor on that one.

[fflint]

Yes, I forgot about Brooklyn Basin (low- to midrise). It's a solid project that will bring life to a long-dead part of the waterfront. I'm still disappointed in Quan and won't miss her inept 'leadership,' though. She is better than Ron Dellums--but that's not saying anything. A ham sandwich would be a better mayor than Dellums.

The incredible progress made in central Oakland during Jerry Brown's tenure as mayor really raised the bar, really showed what was possible when the city is helmed by a smart, skilled mayor. You can see the impact of those extra 10,000 (or so) new residents in the city's core areas, especially in Uptown and Jack London Square, in all the new bars and restaurants and shops that have opened up. Brown transformed the heart of the city, and in so doing made Oakland a notably better place--and he didn't even have this good a development climate. I feel like Quan has entirely squandered an epic regional boom cycle.

[CharlesCO]

When the media reached out to Jean Quan for comment about her election loss, she reportedly had no comment as she was in the middle of driving on the freeway.

I kid. But yes, Libby Schaaf seems to be a lot more promising, and let's hope she can keep at least the A's in the city. Baseball stadiums have a track record of revitalizing urban areas in ways that no other sport stadiums can, and I really liked the concept of a new stadium in West Oakland. Plus, anyone who drives off in a fire-breathing snail *has* to be a good mayor.

[peanut gallery]

I, too, am excited for Oakland with Schaaf taking over. Athletics Nation did an interview with her before the election and I got the sense she has a much more realistic view of keeping the A's than Quan's dream for Coliseum City with 3 new venues. The Warriors are out the door and the Raiders have no money. Plus, baseball will do a lot more to generate foot traffic for the surrounding area than football. The sooner Oakland kills that fantasy and gives Wolff control of the Coliseum, the sooner something will get built. Something like he proposed for Fremont in that location would be great.

[Folks3000]

From the San Francisco Business Times:

"$200 million project that would bring 300 apartments, 43,000 square feet of retail, a 110-room hotel and 150,000 square feet of office space that could cater to a technology company looking to make a move."

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci....html?page=all

[fflint]

Good for them. I wish they'd add more housing to the mix, though--it seems everyone wants to office space and the apartments/condos for the inevitable workers are just an afterthought. It just keeps the imbalance in place, and we get more supercommuters from places like Tracy.

[minesweeper]

Old Sears building in Oakland will get huge makeover

Tech offices, retail shops and — for the first time in decades — windows will soon be coming to the old Sears building in the heart of Oakland’s booming Uptown district.

...

Plans call for replacing the concrete, windowless facade that was installed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and replacing it with terra-cotta siding and 150 new windows. A large interior light well and roof decks are also in the works. The inside will be gutted, he said.

The project, called Uptown Station, will be complete by mid-2016, he said.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by minesweeper

Old Sears building in Oakland will get huge makeover

With such massive floorplates--rare for downtown Oakland--this is the perfect candidate for a conversion into tech space. I'm really bullish on central Oakland.

[timbad]

sfgate article mentions a few recent, ongoing, and potential projects in San Mateo County. the first of the office buildings is to break ground this month at Bay Meadows



and a quick rundown of some other highlighted projects:

Last month, Google, headquartered in Mountain View, leased 1 million square feet of office space (reported price, $600 million) in Redwood City. Cloud storage company Box is taking a 334,000-square-foot office building going up on the former Malibu Grand Prix site in Redwood City as its new headquarters and subleasing its old headquarters in Los Altos. RingCentral, a cloud phone vendor, is moving into an 84,000-square-foot space in Belmont, and Rakuten, a fast-growing Japanese e-commerce company, just signed a lease for 57,000 square feet in the city of San Mateo.

the article also reminds us that SFO is considering building a 4- or 5-star hotel adjacent to the terminals "by 2018"

nice to see the area between the bookends of Silicon Valley and SF fill in. hope they make the effort to cluster around Caltrain stops (with housing) and make sure the line's electrification does not get derailed. Bay Meadows was not ambitious enough - should have been denser and better connected to its surroundings - but it's a start.

[Folks3000]

From the San Francisco Business Times:

"SRM Development LLC is diving into the Oakland housing market with plans to build a multi-family complex on the border of the Temescal and Rockridge neighborhoods. Temescal Apartments, a 130-unit proposed project, will come with 8,000 square feet of retail space and some of the trendy amenities found in San Francisco's new rental projects, such as a rooftop courtyard, theater room, fitness facility and a bike repair and maintenance shop."


http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...-temescal.html

[Folks3000]

From the San Francisco Business Times:

"After years of city and developer community planning, the Philadelphia-based sponsor of a large apartment complex and two developers of nearby office buildings all indicate that they intend to break ground in the first months of next year."

"The Peninsula is ripe. It is served by Caltrain. It has good access to the East Bay. You have pressure on both sides (from San Francisco and Silicon Valley), and the overspill is starting. The market is ready for this new supply."


http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci....html?page=all

[minesweeper]

A preliminary rendering of Uptown Station, formerly the Sears building. The rendering's production is by Steelblue LLC and Gensler is the architect.

Two big things you'll notice: more windows and a much more inviting ground-floor space, harkening back to the 85-year-old building's initial design. Dozens of windows had been covered to seismically retrofit the building after the 1989 earthquake.

"It's exactly the look, feel and finishes that today's tech tenants are looking for," Smithers told me last month. "There'll be glass everywhere, from ground to floor for 25 feet. The amount of natural light will be unbelievable."

The 400,000-square-foot building, which sits on top of the 19th Street BART station, will also include ground-floor retail and restaurants that will be set up side-by-side in a "market-hall type concept."

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...the-sears.html

[fflint]

Eight developers fight for coveted Uptown Oakland site for housing, hotel

Cory Weinberg
San Francisco Business Times
Dec 30, 2014

A stacked roster of eight developers will compete to turn a vacant Oakland property next to the Fox Theatre into a retail, residential and hotel hot spot that can anchor the Uptown neighborhood.

This is the hottest available property in Oakland and the city just shared the list of developers vying to own the 1911 Telegraph Ave. site....It's a diverse lineup of affordable housing nonprofits, hotel owners and successful San Francisco housing developers. By the spring, a group of planners and experts will recommend a developer to the City Council and then the terms of a sale will be negotiated.

...What's interesting though is that City-Core is proposing a 22-story building with 260 residential units and an undisclosed number of hotel rooms....

[dimondpark]

Wow. This is interesting. Guess we'll find out today if the USOC will pick the Bay Area.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...ea-6000609.php

[timbad]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Wow. This is interesting. Guess we'll find out today if the USOC will pick the Bay Area.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...ea-6000609.php

think I saw a headline on cnn that they picked Boston?

anyway, here was a good article on Redwood City's growth boom