Pier 70 Plans in San Francisco Unveiled

The plans for a $242 million mixed-use development at historic Pier 70 in San Francisco were unveiled to the public last night at a Central Waterfront Advisory Group meeting. The project calls for putting shops, restaurants, small manufacturers and a bayfront park, with roughly 1,000 apartments and 2.2 million square feet of office space. The historic shipyard at Potrero Point would begin Phase One construction in 2016, and would include the reuse of two historic shipyard buildings. The 100,000-square-foot Building 2 would become about 100 units of housing, and the 160,000-square-foot Building 12 would be reimagined as a loft-style creative office building with a ground floor marketplace that spills out into the public plaza, according to a San Francisco Business Times article.

In the Spring of 2007, the Port of San Francisco initiated a public planning process to produce a Preferred Master Plan for Pier 70. In 2010, the Port published its Preferred Master Plan for Pier 70 after extensive study and community planning. Last year, Forest City California Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, was selected as the developer by the Port of San Francisco for Pier 70's 25-acre waterfront site. Forest City estimates that the infrastructure alone will cost $152 million and the historic restoration part of the project will come in at $90 million.

"We went out and spent six months working to capture the character of the neighborhood," said Jack Sylvan, a Forest City executive, in a SFGate article. "We want to understand what makes that part of the city tick."

"We think to deliver an office campus of the future, it includes residential," Forest City Senior Vice President Alexa Arena. "The two are intimately connected. If you don't have a 24-hour living place, you are not responding to the talent and the kind of talent companies need to house."

"We believe that Pier 70 can become a new model of how public/private partnership can bring industrial waterfronts back as leading economic growth and innovation drivers. New construction will compliment the historic resources of the site, and new uses, tenants and programs will co-exist symbiotically with existing maritime functions and infrastructure. All of this activity is expected to increase the Port's tax base, spur job creation and deliver significant community benefit," said Kevin Ratner, President of Forest City Development California.

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