SAN FRANCISCO | Mission Bay

[rocketman_95046]

some good news... I wonder who the client is?

Pfizer roping tenant for Mission Bay site
Monday, August 10, 2009, 9:19am PDT | Modified: Monday, August 10, 2009, 10:46am
Pfizer Inc. may be close to filling the high-profile space it abandoned in San Francisco’s Mission Bay biotech enclave.

“They are looking to sublease, and we understand they may be very close to achieving their goal,” Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE: ARE) Chairman and CEO Joel Marcus said during a conference call Thursday with analysts.

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) has a 15-year lease for most of a 105,000 square feet along Third Street. It had planned to build out its Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center — developing small biotech-like innovations — and move Rinat Neuroscience from South San Francisco.

Instead, after it agreed to a $68 billion merger with Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), it opted last month to center its biotech research on the East Coast.

The Mission Bay building, which should be ready for move-in early next year, includes another 105,000-square-foot wing for which Pfizer had a 50,000-square-foot option.

“We are currently marketing (the other half) and we have one significant dialogue or at least proposal going on with the credit tenant,” Marcus said.



Email Ron Leuty at rleuty@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4939.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...l?surround=lfn

[WildCowboy]

Saw a quote from Newsom somewhere where he said that the sublessee is arguably a better get than Pfizer. But that's Gavin-speak, so who knows...

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by WildCowboy

Saw a quote from Newsom somewhere where he said that the sublessee is arguably a better get than Pfizer. But that's Gavin-speak, so who knows...

Almost anyone would be a better "get" than Pfizer these days. As a company, Pfizer has lost its way and it certainly isn't an important player in biotech.

[WildCowboy]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

Almost anyone would be a better "get" than Pfizer these days. As a company, Pfizer has lost its way and it certainly isn't an important player in biotech.

Well, the name carries a ton of weight by itself, and the Mission Bay project was intended to add a significant focus on biotech to the company. Who knows whether it will work out, but at least they appear to be trying...although not in Mission Bay anymore.

Rather than subleasing, they should just redesign the space for use as an expanded Viagra production facility.

[timbad]

after being away for a few weeks, I thought it might be time for a quick status update, in somewhat random order...

here is the state of the CVRB:



South St appears ready to open whenever the garage next to it is...



here is the south side of the garage, fully uncovered, with its neighbor Old Navy:



on the north side of the garage, I had thought they were putting in a small access road, and that might be the case, but I'm not sure, it seems there may be something else going on here:



outside the shadow:



and, to the right (north) of the previous photos, there is this going on, behind the ex-Pfizer/mystery tenant building: is there supposed to be a terraced plaza back there or something? anyone know or can point to plans/renderings?



over on the block between 16th and Mariposa, west of the hospital site, they seem to have constructed a temporary bypass of the sewer line they are relocating, and this has meant partially blocking 16th St:



... and completely blocking Mariposa:



closer view of the latter:



and from the south there is a better view into the activity on the site:



the garage behind Gladstone now has its landscaping and seems about finished. looks like the climbing plants will have to start from the bottom, so their full effect might take a while to notice. this is the west side, by the freeway (they were spraying the building with a high-pressure hose, I assume to clean it off):



oh, and there appeared to be a little digging on the parcel between Gladstone and 1500 Owens (I forget the address there). nothing major, didn't look like the start of construction of the building there, but I'm curious:



other updates:

- Terry Francois Blvd is fully striped and appears finished (northern portion)

- South Commons (Mission Bay Blvd South?) has been paved between Terry Francois and 3rd St, minus about 20 feet on the 3rd St end

- work continues on the outflow channel to the creek; they are filling in the hole they've dug for the pipes, so it seems to be wrapping up

no sign of anything new starting.

[WildCowboy]

Thanks for the shots, timbad...looking great! Some thoughts:

- CVRB is looking terrific so far. Very impressed with it.

- South Street garage: My understanding was that garages need to have 50% of their exterior surface area open to the outside in order for them to be "open air" and not require mechanical ventilation. Doesn't look like this one is open air, which means added expense and more environmental impact. I'm surprised if that's the case. Or maybe it needed to be mechanically ventilated anyway since the entire long west side is going to be a solid wall up against building, so it didn't really matter what they did with the rest of it. I like the look though.

- North of South Street Garage: My recollection is that this is supposed to be a pedestrian plaza, but almost certainly will also have to provide a fire lane. Can't tell what they're doing right now though.

- Behind Pfizer: Yes, this is supposed to be a public plaza in that corner. I don't recall having ever seen a specific landscape plan for it though.

- Area between Gladstone and 1500: This is 1600 Owens. The piles for it were drilled along with the garage there, but I haven't heard anything about plans for starting full construction.

[peanut gallery]

Another excellent update, timbad. Thanks. I, too, am very impressed with CVRB. It's beautiful.

[BTinSF]

Mission Bay becoming a real neighborhood
Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

It's a Wednesday morning in San Francisco's newest neighborhood.

As construction workers raise steel into place on emerging high-rises, a man blasts a serve on the beach volleyball court under the Interstate 280 overpass.

Biotech workers and suited professionals crowd the bar at Philz Coffee, where tattooed baristas place mint leaves on steaming cups of individually filtered coffee.

Retiree Toby Levine surveys the Mission Bay morning from her high-rise terrace, where signs of a community are finally starting to emerge.

It's taken four mayors and three planning directors to create what is now the last swath of San Francisco land where planners can create a neighborhood from scratch. So far, 3,000 people have moved into the 300-acre rail yard south of the Giants baseball park. The neighborhood is 35 percent built, and 15 years from now, it's expected to have 11,000 residents.

Mission Bay feels as if it escaped the economic downturn - stores are opening, buildings are going up, and young professionals are zipping out of $700,000 condos to get to work. Most live in a six-block area north of Mission Bay Creek. These pioneers say it's now starting to feel like a place worth staying in on the weekends.

More crowded

"It's changed a lot. It's way more crowded now," said Claudia Arrenberg, 27, who shopped for pasta and fruit with her 2-year-old daughter at the new Mission Bay Farmers' Market.

She moved into UCSF student housing with her husband in 2005 so he could study neuroscience. But it was such a ghost town that they moved to Alamo Square, even though it was more expensive. They returned in 2008.

There's a public library, senior housing, a Safeway beneath the offices of the California stem cell research headquarters.

Half of UCSF's 12 buildings are completed, and dog walkers and parents are beginning to draw battle lines over the patches of park.

"We got more families than we expected, many couples with kids who commute to the South Bay on Caltrain," said Kelley Kahn, who manages the Mission Bay project for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

"We thought we'd see more people in their late 20s, but it's older parents starting families and retirees wanting to leave the hassle of owning a house."

Levine is one of those retirees, who, after 40 years in the Mission District moved to a Mission Bay apartment in 2007 with her husband.

She began pushing for a tot lot after she discovered that there are 300 children in Mission Bay, but there's no playground.

"I like the adventurousness of starting something new at my age, and being in the middle of a tremendously important development for the future of the city," said Levine, 75.

Mission Bay is expected to create 31,000 new permanent jobs that range from retailers to biomedical researchers.

Levine has found it difficult to create community in Mission Bay, and she figures that's because the young professionals who work so hard to afford to live there just want to close their doors and relax at the end of the workday.

It's an investment to move to Mission Bay - condos start at $600,000 and go up to more than $1 million.

Nearly one-third of Mission Bay's homes will be reserved for low-income families, more than is required by law, Kahn said.

Below-market rate

Mission Walk - a two-building development with the first below-market-rate homes in the neighborhood - is set to open in September. Nearly 650 people applied for one of the 131 townhomes and condos, which were priced from $149,000 to $302,000.

The Mission Bay of the future will have 6,000 homes, a 43-acre UCSF campus that includes a 550-bed hospital, 41 acres of new parkland, 4.4 million square feet of biotech and lab space, and 500,000 square feet of retail shops. It will have a 500-room hotel and a public school.

Residential construction south of the creek has slowed, Kahn said, because developers can't get financing.

"If the economy is worse than we thought, and it stays this way for five or seven more years, we'll be in trouble, but right now we are OK. We have money in the bank," she said.


Reminders of the neighborhood as it was, houseboats remain on nearby Mission Creek.

E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...BAGK198O7F.DTL

[BTinSF]

Friday, August 28, 2009
Big Mission Bay complex fills up faster than expected
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

Urban Housing Group’s new 192-unit Strata apartment complex in Mission Bay is fully leased, a milestone that was reached 45 days ahead of schedule, according to the developer.

Rents on the complex averaged $3.02 a square foot, about 15 percent less than the $3.50 a square foot the developer had originally hoped to collect, said Dan Diebel, vice president of development for Palo Alto-based Urban Housing. Strata opened in mid-March.

“We are very pleased that we leased up that rapidly in this economy,” said Diebel. “We had a lot of science people and tech people and 15 percent of our renters came from out of state and were moving to San Francisco for work.”

San Francisco rents dropped 2.7 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to RealFacts. James Devincenti, a multi-family specialist with Marcus & Millichap, said rents declined 10 to 15 percent since the height of the market. He said tenants who signed deals in 2007 and 2008 are still seeking and receiving rent reductions. He pointed to a tenant in a Russian Hill studio who recently had his rent chopped from $1850 to $1650.

“It feels like rents have stabilized, but I can’t say we have had a full-blown reversal,” he said.

The Strata was one of two significant new apartment complexes to open last spring in Mission Bay. The other, the 260-unit Avalon Mission Bay III at 355 King St., is 60 percent leased, according to Senior Vice President for Development Stephen Wilson.

“It’s been very well received in the marketplace,” said Wilson.

Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...31/story5.html

[WildCowboy]

^^^That's excellent news for Mission Bay South. I know that the vast majority of the units slated for there are condos, not rentals, but it clearly shows pent-up demand.

Maybe Bosa will see fit to change gears and build some rental housing there or find someone else who can.

[peanut gallery]

Does Bosa have other entitlements besides Radiance? For that one, I guess it's possible if condo prices continue to sag and/or construction costs rise again. From the article BT posted last month, we might know by spring.

[WildCowboy]

Bosa basically owns all residential entitlements south of the channel except for those controlled by the redevelopment agency. I believe Bosa has entitlements for 1,700 units.

[timbad]

just a quick update with some pics from a gloomy last Saturday...

first, they have been working on the exterior of the 'back' section of the CVRB. here is a shot of the Fourth St side of the building:



and here a shot that I think shows something that wasn't so clear to me until I saw it from this angle: the CVRB seems to be designed so its eastern section blends into the blocking and color scheme of the HD Cancer Center next door. from this perspective, it's actually hard to tell there are two separate facilities there:



and, north of the South St garage, a lane of trees is going in where that mystery construction was going on (looking west):



from a very slightly different angle (HD Cancer Center in background), with part of the plaza-with-hill off to the right side:



... plaza better seen here:



should end up being a pretty sunny spot (these pics notwithstanding! and even though there will be a tall building to its west one of these days soon, should only cast evening shadows) - I can imagine some enjoyable lunch hours spent there already.

South St isn't open yet, but it and the garage seem done, as soon as all that landscaping is finished.

due to the gloom, I didn't make it over to the Owens or freeway/Mariposa side of MB to see how things were going either of those places.

didn't see any new activity of note.

[timbad]

ah, one other little thing I forgot: over the last few weeks, street signs (i.e., the ones with the names of the streets) have been installed for all these newly-created thruways. makes them seem a bit more real, and helps with navigation, or at least descriptions.

[BTinSF]

How many vehicles have crashed into the giant pipe crossing 16th St so far?

[Busy Bee]

Are they those awesome looking standard white SF streetsigns????

[timbad]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

How many vehicles have crashed into the giant pipe crossing 16th St so far?

ha, good question! this coming weekend I'll wander over that way and report any evidence!!

[timbad]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Are they those awesome looking standard white SF streetsigns????

yep, black letters on white. I'll get a shot and post

[peanut gallery]

Thanks for the continuing updates, timbad.

[WildCowboy]

Looks like 500 Terry Francois is getting its first tenant, and they're taking a good chunk of the building. Zynga is maker of the popular Mafia Wars game on Facebook and a number of other games available on the iPhone.

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...21/story1.html