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  #401  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2008, 6:23 PM
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So, which two are they delaying? Or did I miss it somehow?
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  #402  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2008, 6:33 PM
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They haven't said which two buildings they were.

I just don't understand why they're delaying things. It seems like the prospective tenants are on good footing, and Alexandria is in pretty good shape all things considered, so why aren't the banks willing to lend? It seems like these would be situations banks would be preferring to lend into these days. It almost seems like Alexandria isn't even trying to find financing.

Edit: BTW, the pile caster for 1600 Owens was hauled away yesterday afternoon, so it looks they're done with that. As I previously mentioned, I've heard nothing about continued construction on this, so I think it's going to be on hold for a while.
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  #403  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2008, 7:04 PM
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All companies are hoarding cash these days. REITs in general have substantial debt that has to be rolled over periodically (typically equal to about 50% of equity) and, in an era where the ability to borrow when needed is uncertain, having plenty of cash on hand is wise. The problem is not so much that Alexandria isn't doing OK (see below) but that the companies that lend to commercial real estate are doing far from OK--many of them are on the verge of going out of business.

Concerning Alexandria:

Quote:
Alexandria Real Estate lowers 2008 FFO forecast
Thursday October 30, 3:31 pm ET
Alexandria Real Estate Equities reduces full year FFO guidance by a penny

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. gave updated guidance for 2008 funds from operations on Thursday, lowering its outlook by a penny.

The company updated its full-year 2008 outlook to $5.85 per share, down from guidance of $5.86 given in August. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect funds from operations, or FFO, of $5.87 per share.

The company, which owns and operates properties in the science industry, reported Thursday that funds from operations increased 6 percent on a per share basis in the third quarter, matching analysts' estimates.

Funds from operations was $48.8 million, or $1.53 per share, compared to $42.7 million, or $1.45 per share, for the third quarter of 2007.

FFO, which adds such items as amortization and depreciation back into net income, is considered a key measure of REIT strength because it gives a more accurate picture of cash performance.

On Wednesday, a J.P. Morgan analyst report reduced its rating on Alexandria Real Estate Equities to "Neutral" from "Overweight."

Analyst Anthony Paolone wrote that the neutral rating was due to earnings challenges in 2009 "from rising interest rates and deteriorating fundamentals in the labspace business."

Shares were down 64 cents to $66.51 in afternoon trading.
Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081030/alexa....v=2&printer=1

So it has its own issues but so far they seem manageable. Restricting building and borrowing is one way to manage them.
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  #404  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2008, 6:37 PM
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Thanks for the info, BT.

Another week, another leap forward on the steel on UCSF's CVRB (webcam). They may be able to wrap up the steel by Thanksgiving if they keep the pedal to the metal.

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  #405  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2008, 4:54 AM
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They certainly don't seem to be slowing down. Thanks for the updates.

North of the channel, Avalon's skin is getting close to completion and the taller tower crane is gone. I hope to make it over there Thursday or Friday to get a visual update.
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  #406  
Old Posted Nov 24, 2008, 11:14 PM
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The CVRB building's steel is done in time for Turkey Day, and the crane is down. From the webcam:

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  #407  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2008, 2:46 AM
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From today's Chronicle:

Quote:



Yes. Mission Bay is still a work in progress.
John King
Tuesday, December 2, 2008


As soon as the first block of Mission Bay Commons was landscaped in 2002, the sloping lawn and redwood trees were encased by a chain-link fence. The park had empty lots for neighbors on three sides. One lot was studded with steel piles driven into the ground - an office building put on hold.

Today that six-story structure is finished, as is a nine-story condominium project across the way. But to the west are more fences, more empty lots and another set of rusting piles left by another development firm biding its time.

This is San Francisco's newest frontier: the east edge of Mission Bay, a redevelopment district that has advanced in fits and starts for 20 years. The gap-toothed topography doesn't signal failure. Rather, it demonstrates how economic cycles move at their own pace, no matter what planners or politicians might want.

Certainly that's the case where I sit the day after Thanksgiving, far from the shopping throngs of Union Square.

Traffic is light, parking's a breeze, and I'm the only person using one of the 12 benches in this first piece of the Commons, which eventually will march across the 303-acre district. Because of this first block's age, the wooden benches are weathered and the shrubs have filled in.

To the west, the remaining five blocks of the common are dirt. But streetlights have been installed, the sidewalks are paved, shade trees are taking root.

The infrastructure signals the future waiting to happen. Just beyond where I sit, a developer is poised to build a laboratory for drugmaker Pfizer Inc. Across from that site, Bosa Development drove the piles now on view in anticipation of erecting 318 condominiums to accompany the nine-story complex dubbed Radiance that faces my bench.

But things may not happen as fast as planners expected. Bosa stopped work because the housing market is so soft, and the Pfizer building isn't even piles yet. As for that new six-story office building behind my bench, 500 Terry Francois Blvd., it's waiting for somebody to sign a lease.

If this were all I knew, what I see up close, I'd be ranking Mission Bay as a development folly on par with Ralph Nader's latest presidential bid. After all, why would anyone pour money into landfill south of South of Market, south of the parking lots for the Giants' ballpark that itself seemed off the map when it opened in 2000?

The answer can be gleaned from other buildings nearby - the ones that sprang up between the Dot-com Bust 0f 2001 and the Economic Meltdown of 2008.

One block to my west stands UCSF's Mission Bay campus, a 45-acre facility devoted to biomedical research and the reason that companies such as Pfizer are looking this way. The first laboratory building opened in 2002; now there are nine large structures finished, and another should be open next summer.

South of where I sit, along Terry Francois Boulevard facing the bay, an office building that stood empty for several years now houses Old Navy's headquarters. Keep walking and you encounter a pair of granite-and-glass structures across from the raffish Mission Rock Cafe. The life science firm Fibrogen is moving this week into one of the buildings, with an option to lease the other.

Cities evolve by their own set of rhythms, to a variety of tempos at any given time. A place like Mission Bay - where the slate is blank and every physical change comes in large-scale increments - reflects this more than most.

"There's such a diversity of land uses built into Mission Bay that there's a flexibility. Things keep moving," says Kelley Kahn, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's project manager. "Housing may be dormant, but biotech comes alive."

Remember: The residential buildings north of Mission Creek along King Street seemed to spring up overnight, sparked by the housing boom that now has run its course. At some point down the road - perhaps sooner than we expect - the holes in the map south of the creek will "suddenly" fill in. More lab space, more offices, more housing.

Urbanistically, the danger is that this new neighborhood will look as though it was shipped in from the suburbs, albeit with more sophisticated plantings and public art. It's fair to say that nothing built so far is likely to dislodge City Hall from the list of beloved local buildings.

But we'll also get well-paying jobs, housing at all price ranges, and well-maintained parks and trails. Mission Bay Commons won't be an attractive one-block oddity; it will tie a Marina Green-like bayside park to the open space along Mission Creek that already exists.

"What's down there now is a little snapshot," Kahn says. "You get an inkling of what's going to be, but that's it."

In the meantime, if you're looking for a quiet vantage point from which to contemplate the city, I know just the spot.
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  #408  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2008, 6:18 PM
WildCowboy WildCowboy is offline
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Nice article, although additional pictures would have been nice.

Couple of errors I spotted:

1. King mentions that the piles haven't yet been driven for the Pfizer building. That's incorrect...they were driven a year ago, well before the Pfizer announcement. They are nearing completion of the grade beams, so I expect it should start rising above ground level in the near future.

2. The map shows the two "not completed" park areas directly north of the single completed block of Mission Bay Commons, where King mentions sitting. The left of those two "park" areas is actually Radiance Phase I, not a park.

3. Also on the map, "south" of Channel Street (to the right of the "Channel St." label), it shows a long park extending up to Fourth St. Only a very small section of that is actually park, and you can just barely make out the future road that will delineate the park boundary. They mistakenly shaded everything else up to Fourth St., which is actually Block 13. Bosa has the western part of the block, while the eastern half is slated for affordable housing through the redevelopment agency.
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  #409  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2008, 6:21 PM
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I noticed error #2, but not the others. Thanks for the info. I agree about the pix. Surely they shot more than that. Why not stick them on the website?
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  #410  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2008, 10:12 PM
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I should also note that the eastern portion of Block 13 that I mentioned as redevelopment agency affordable housing is starting to get the planning process underway, and Mercy Housing has been selected as the developer. The address of the project is 1000 Fourth St., and it is slated for 134 rental units. The proposed design is an 8-story component at the Fourth St. end of the project and a 5-story component to the west.

The current schedule (financing pending) is for construction to begin in January 2011 and run through mid-2012.
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  #411  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2008, 6:16 PM
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The Latest Rendering For UCSF’s Medical Center at Mission Bay


Source: http://www.socketsite.com/
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  #412  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2008, 10:56 PM
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While I find much of Mission Bay a bit too homogenous and uninteresting, this one actually stands out a little thanks to the wings to the east and non-uniform surface to the west. Plus it provides the added benefit of blocking 409/499 Illinois from view.
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  #413  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2008, 6:25 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by peanut gallery View Post
While I find much of Mission Bay a bit too homogenous and uninteresting, this one actually stands out a little thanks to the wings to the east and non-uniform surface to the west. Plus it provides the added benefit of blocking 409/499 Illinois from view.
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  #414  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2008, 10:47 PM
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The old USave rental shop and the Sno-Drift dance club at the southwest corner of 3rd and 16th were torn down over the past couple of days. Sno-Drift in particular looked to have been broken into a couple of times in recent weeks, so I don't know if that drove the demolition of the buildings or if it was already in process.

All that's left on UCSF's hospital site now are the giant warehouse along Third/Mariposa and the small attached office building on Third that houses Burning Man's HQ.
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  #415  
Old Posted Jan 7, 2009, 5:23 PM
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This sucks without pictures, but the facade on Avalon is nearing completion. A few more panels were delivered yesterday and it looked to me like the King side is done with the exception of some sections on the first floor. The shorter portion of the building has a circular housing around the roof mechanicals, very similar to its fellow Arquitectonica-designed neighbor, Infinity.
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  #416  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2009, 3:58 AM
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I walked down to Mission Bay today and took some progress shots of Avalon Bay.

Here is Avalon Bay and its neighbor Arterra:


Avalon stretches along King quite a bit:




Looking north from the edge of the channel:




I love these zig-zag cutouts:


Another element that reminds me of Infinity are these stairs which lead to a central courtyard area:
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  #417  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2009, 4:00 AM
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I almost forgot. I also took a shot of UCSF's CVRB, on which WildCowboy has been keeping us updated:

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  #418  
Old Posted Jan 10, 2009, 5:10 PM
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PG,
Thanks for the great shots.
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  #419  
Old Posted Jan 12, 2009, 2:43 AM
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You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed them.
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  #420  
Old Posted Jan 12, 2009, 5:38 PM
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Nice shots, p.g.

My on-location updates will be coming to an end, as I'm moving to North Carolina in early February. I'll try to keep on top of projects virtually though!
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