This is what the future of the bulk of the Bay Area’s housing development looks like: higher-density multi-family projects near transit. In this case, Developer, BHV CenterStreet Properties LLC, is working on a 178-unit project called the Landing on 1.78 acres adjacent to the Walnut Creek BART Station.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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With much-debated, frequently derided Plan Bay Area now approved, our region is officially on notice that it needs close to 200,000 new housing units over the next few decades. Next question: Who’s going to build it all?

Planning for new housing is great and all, but only time will tell if developers bite and actually build the housing the way the plan advises — high-density and near transit.

Plan Bay Area sets out growth and development guidelines to accommodate a 30 percent population increase, 2.1 million new residents, and 33 percent more or 1.1 million job increase in the Bay Area through 2040. The plan’s goals involve steering away from sprawl, building housing for all income levels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Theoretically, (Plan Bay Area) is a good idea,” said Paul Menzies, founder of Laconia Development, a multi-family developer. “The issue with the plan is that bureaucrats are imposing rules on the rest of us who are trying to be creative and trying to make money.”

Development is a business, he said, but one that involves input from the developer, the community and city officials, so the better the cooperation, the better the project and the better cities and regions become.

Plan Bay Area could be a boon for development, Menzies said, if the policies make it easier and less expensive to develop projects either by streamlining the entitlement process or providing some financing tools.

The plan’s main backers, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments, along with congestion management agencies have about $28 million to fund local planning efforts such as creating specific plans that guide development for a neighborhood or environmental impact reports. In some cases, cities establish plans and zoning to comply up front with California Environmental Quality Act regulations.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/07/plan-bay-area-a-boon-for-housing.html

A years-long effort to build a performing arts and education center at the intersection of Market, Turk and Mason streets could collapse now that an out-of-town property owner has ended talks with the project’s backers and put the lots up for bid.

“I’m hoping that whoever ends up with the property is willing to do an arts component and not just make everything market rate,” said Will Thacher, whose family has owned the rest of the proposed project, the adjoining property at 950-964 Market St., since 1937. “But San Francisco is one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation and Mid-Market now is one of the hottest areas in the city.”

It wasn’t always that way. Just a few years ago, Mid-Market was a seedy urban desert plunked in the middle of the city’s signature boulevard. Then-Mayor Gavin Newsom and current Mayor Ed Lee worked to create tax breaks and incentives to bring in businesses to replace the empty buildings, boarded-up storefronts and cheesy retail shops that contributed to the area’s dangerous, down-at-the-heels vibe.

Against that background, the plan for a mixed-use arts center that would transform three-quarters of one of the sketchiest blocks on Market Street was a gift from above. City officials, the arts community and neighborhood groups from the adjoining Tenderloin quickly embraced the plan.

“Theater groups are getting priced out of the city, even as people are coming to the city for the arts,” said Carmela Gold, president of the Tenderloin Economic Development Project, which has put together the proposed arts project. “If you talk to anyone in the arts, even an organization as big as (the American Conservatory Theater), they’ll say they’re going to be priced out of the city in five years.”

The plan for the 950 Center for Art and Education calls for four small theaters, rehearsal space, meeting rooms and public areas that could be shared by several performing arts groups, along with office space. ACT, which is converting the nearby Strand Theater into another performing space, would also use the new center for administrative and education efforts, according to a January 2013 report on the project.

“We want to provide affordable space for arts groups that are being squeezed out of the city because of what’s happening in the real estate market,” said John Clawson, founder of Equity Community Builders, the development consultant on the project.

With the arts activity on the second and third floors of the proposed development, there would be room in the sprawling building for street-level restaurant and retail space, as well residential or office uses on higher floors, making the project more attractive to a developer.

Ideal for small groups

The shared space idea is perfect for small local theater groups, which wouldn’t be burdened with the day-in, day-out costs of running their own performance spaces, said Steven Anthony Jones, artistic director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.

“We can share office and rehearsal space and put the money we save into the artistic side,” he said.

But, except for Thacher, property owners’ early interest in the arts plan waned as the price tag rose on Mid-Market property. The Lone Star Fund of Dallas, which now owns the other three Market Street parcels earmarked for the arts center, turned down an offer by the project’s backers and opted to put the properties up for bid late last month.

City officials, however, continue to see the arts as a major part of Mid-Market’s revival. On Jan. 30, the mayor and Supervisor Jane Kim sat down with the arts center’s sponsors and potential bidders for the Lone Star property and made it clear the city would work with developers to get the deal done.

“We’re excited about the economic growth we’re seeing,” Kim said. “But the concept also was to recognize the existing community that had always been there … and continue to protect services and the arts who were the area’s original tenants.”

Trying to stay in S.F.

If the arts plan dies, it will be a loss to the city and the artists who make it home.

The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre has been the Bay Area’s signature professional black theater company for 32 years, all of it spent in San Francisco. But after losing their theater a few years back, “we’ve been barnstorming, making plans and then looking for a venue,” said Jones. “This would mean we’d have a permanent home.”

Without the new arts center, “I’m not sure we can stay in San Francisco,” he said.

For now, there’s not much Gold and other supporters of the arts hub can do.

“We’re just waiting for Lone Star to pick a winner and then talk with whoever gets the bid,” she said.

But Gold remains confident. The arts center has both political and financial backing and is the type of project that could transform the adjoining Tenderloin neighborhood.

“We want the Tenderloin to benefit from the extraordinary growth of business along Mid-Market,” she said. “We want development to increase to where people are happy to walk down Turk Street.”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mid-Market-arts-center-at-risk-amid-boom-4342332.php

The San Francisco Law Library sued the city Wednesday, alleging that officials would be violating the City Charter if they fail to provide it with adequate space to house its 250,000 law books.

The issue has been simmering for years and is coming to a head as the city is preparing to close the War Memorial Veterans Building across from City Hall in May for renovations.

The Veterans Building has housed the law library since 1995, when the library was moved out of City Hall for renovations after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. It was supposed to be a temporary solution, but the law library has remained there ever since.

Now its board of directors fears it will be homeless, despite San Francisco’s charter mandating that the city provide adequate space for the law library near the courthouse.

“For nearly two decades, we have tried to work with city officials to identify the appropriate space and facilities for the San Francisco Law Library,” Kurt Melchior, a partner at Nossaman LLP and president of the law library’s board of directors, said in a statement. “In 2013, it is beyond belief that San Francisco – a city which routinely seeks to protect its most vulnerable populations – is set to abandon such a vital public benefit.”

Melchior in November warned of a lawsuit, saying: “I’m shocked at the way the city has behaved. It’s a plain violation of the City Charter. We need to find a place right now.”

City Attorney Dennis Herrera‘s office declined to comment on the pending litigation, its standard practice.

The library, established in 1865 as the first law library in the state, is allotted 14,310 square feet in a building where sunlight streaming through the skylights has warped some books, Melchior said, and buckets used to catch leaking rain are scattered throughout the stacks. Library officials say two-thirds of their collection is in storage because they don’t have enough space.

Their lawsuit contends the library needs at least 30,000 square feet of space, and it seeks a court order preventing the city from evicting the law library from the Veterans Building until it provides adequate space elsewhere.

- John Coté

An apolitical new job: Last we heard from Christina Olague, she was leaving the Board of Supervisors after losing her bid for a four-year term to London Breed. And frankly, she didn’t sound too devastated about it.

“I’m happy to be going back to a quieter life,” she said shortly after the bruising campaign, though she had no details on what that quieter life would entail. “I want something very low key. A very slip-under-the-radar kind of job. A not-be-noticed-by-anybody-in-the-media kind of job.”

Well, we couldn’t let her off the hook that easily – and when we found out she had a new job, we did take notice. It’s as program assistant at Arriba Juntos, a Mission District nonprofit that promotes economic self-sufficiency through job training.

“It’s been very eye opening, and I’m just learning a lot,” Olague said, sounding downright chatty and upbeat compared with her tenure as supervisor. “I’m happy to be back in the community.”

Olague was appointed by Mayor Ed Lee in January 2012 to fill the District Five seat vacated by Ross Mirkarimi when he became sheriff. But when Olague voted in October to reinstate Mirkarimi as sheriff after the mayor suspended him for pleading guilty to a domestic violence-related misdemeanor, Lee stopped talking to his appointee.

And it doesn’t sound as if making amends with Olague was on Lee’s list of New Year’s resolutions. Asked if they’ve talked since she left office, Olague said, “No. Uh-uh,” and burst out laughing.

After a tough year where she faced a lot of criticism from progressives and moderates alike, Olague doesn’t sound eager to run for political office again anytime soon.

“Who knows?” she said. “In 30 years, when I’m 80, maybe I’ll run for something.”

- Heather Knight

E-mail: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFCityInsider

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-Law-Library-sues-city-over-book-space-4257558.php

Political consultant Jim Stearns, who is representing the labor organizations behind the recount effort, said after reviewing the cost estimates provided by the Department of Elections late Friday, the group decided it was simply too expensive. Elections Director John Arntz estimated that it would cost nearly $80,000 to manually re-tally the 35,140 ballots cast in the race and that a machine recount would cost about $7,000 less. In a Monday letter to Arntz announcing their intent to cancel the recount request, lawyer Jim Sutton wrote that a complete recount could cost as much as $120,000.

A recount has never been done since San Francisco instituted ranked-choice voting eight years ago, and it appears to be two to three times as expensive as in a normal, two-candidate race.

“We still believe that the election was close enough to merit a recount, and believe there was good chance that results could have changed,” Stearns said Monday. “But given the prices from the Department of Elections, we simply can’t afford it. At these costs, it’s hard to see how any individual campaign or organization other than the most wealthy ones could ever afford a recount.”

Considering the costs, Stearns said, city officials may want to consider whether taxpayers should at least partially fund recounts under ranked-choice voting. In the letter, Sutton urged city officials to consider “adopting a rule whereby the city would pay for a recount should the results be within a certain margin, as is done in several states,” or to explore a change in city law, which currently limits the amount a candidate can raise from their existing donor pool to $100 per person. The letter noted that $120,000 is more than many candidates raise during their entire race.

- Marisa Lagos

On the move: Mayor Ed Lee is focusing on former Building Inspection Commissioner Mel Murphy as he looks to fill an open seat on the city’s Port Commission, an influential panel that will consider major developments planned for the waterfront, including a proposed arena.

Lee on Monday took a break from holding up his end of the bargain on his World Series bet with Detroit’s Mayor David Bing to tell the Insider he was waiting for a completed background check of Murphy before making an appointment.

“He’s a contender for sure,” Lee said.

Murphy, co-owner of Murphy O’Brien Real Estate Investments, is also a director of the Coalition for Responsible Growth, a political advocacy group funded largely by developers and others with real estate interests.

If appointed, his confirmation could face opposition from some on the Board of Supervisors’ left flank who consider the group too conservative.

Last year, Lee’s election campaign said it had returned seven contributions from Department of Building Inspection employees totaling $2,150 that were donated at a fundraiser at Murphy’s home. City law prohibits commissioners from soliciting city employees for campaign contributions.

- John Coté

E-mail: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFCityInsider.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-election-loser-drops-recount-request-4088402.php

“It’s terribly important in these rather depressing times,” said Walter Ruehlig, a school board member in Antioch, which hasn’t seen a fireworks display for Independence Day since 2009, when the city paid more than $80,000 for pyrotechnics, police overtime, and a management consultant firm to run the whole thing.

That didn’t happen again.

But this year, Antioch, Redwood City, Livermore and some other cities that quit paying for such celebrations are suddenly seeing businesses and fireworks aficionados collecting tens of thousands of dollars to make it happen.

“I’m an inveterate Fourth of July person. I love a parade,” said Ruehlig, who, with his wife, Cynthia, don clever costumes each year. Sonny and Cher. Popeye and Olive Oil. Clinton and Lewinsky.

So it was natural that people in Antioch turned to Ruehlig when they again felt the need for some colorful combustion. At a time when the city shuts down municipal offices each Friday to save money, Ruehlig and a team of volunteers managed to raise $65,000 from businesses and other donors to put on “the whole shebang.”

Morale booster

“The question is, why the devil would we do it?” Ruehlig asked. “Why not donate to the animal shelter or the Police Department,” which has lost 34 officers – a quarter of its force.

“Because,” Ruehlig said, “it’s a tremendous morale booster. I’m convinced it’s worth the money.”

So are the volunteers in other pyrotechnic-appreciating places.

Redwood City hosted a splashy bay-front spectacular as part of its July Fourth celebration for the better part of seven decades. Yet that ended in 2009, as costs spiraled to nearly $75,000.

Just as city officials were considering whether to offer a cheap, low-aerial show, a Redwood City company called Sims Metal Management decided to pass the hat for a real, sky-high display. In less than two months, Sims collected $50,000 from a dozen businesses and a pair of anonymous donors.

“People have had this tradition for 74 years, and they missed it,” said Chris Beth, the city’s parks director. “For the city to do this alone isn’t possible anymore. It takes all these groups together, and that’s the magic.”

Kenny Chee, the proprietor of Devastating Pyrotechnics in San Francisco, which will run the Redwood City show, is happy, too. He’s hoping the slow sales he’s seen for the past few years are over.

“I’m sold out!” he enthused. “I’m turning people away, buying new equipment. It’s awesome!”

Police costs met

One costly component of a Fourth of July spectacular is police overtime and holiday pay – sometimes as expensive as the fireworks themselves.

In Livermore, when a group of residents told the city they would raise the money to resurrect the fireworks, the city found a way around the holiday pay and overtime problem, said Troy Brown, the assistant city manager.

It turns out that Livermore police owe the city five days a year to make up for reduced schedules at other times, Brown said, and for the first time this year they will provide the time over July Fourth.

“We’re saving probably $25,000,” he said. “It’s phenomenal.”

Troubles set aside

Although cities are still struggling economically, residents and city officials say that this year, Independence Day will be a chance to set aside their troubles and experience joy for the nation that is as resilient as they are.

“You should hear the phone calls I’m getting!” said Carrie Baulwin at the Convention and Visitors Bureau in Vallejo, which emerged from bankruptcy this year.

Although volunteers provided a fireworks show last year, no one was certain it would happen again. And Baulwin said she is delighted to tell them it will.

“People say, ‘That’s wonderful, and we’re coming down early,’ ” Baulwin said. “And why not have a celebration? It’s time. And fireworks make you feel good.”

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @nanetteasimov

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Fireworks-return-to-some-Bay-Area-towns-3680028.php

San Francisco’s effort to transform an abandoned rail yard on its eastern shore in Mission Bay into an urban center is poised for a serious boost from plans by Salesforce.com Inc. to build a sprawling corporate campus in the area.

Urban-planning experts say the arrival of Salesforce will provide a vital stimulus for a once-neglected part of the city. But the bold design for the campus is just beginning a monthslong approval process, and Chief Executive Marc Benioff is leaving open the possibility that the company could simply pick a different location for its new headquarters. Some civic groups and architects, meanwhile, lament that the corporate-driven development isn’t creating the same neighborhood feel as other sections of the city.

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Salesforce.com

A rendering of the proposed Salesforce.com campus shows plans for a Jumbotron screen overlooking a plaza.

The Mission Bay redevelopment zone was established in 1998, anchored by a new campus of the University of California, San Francisco. City officials, who envisioned Mission Bay as a center for health care and medical research, say 35 biotech firms now are based in the area and take up more than one million square feet of office space. Salesforce.com, a business software maker now based in the city’s Financial District and South of Market Street, is proposing eight buildings containing roughly two million square feet. Mission Bay also is designed to include 6,000 housing units, half of which have been built so far.

Mission Bay “is the most important thing for San Francisco’s economy in the past 30 years, if not longer,” said Michael Teitz, an emeritus professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley. “The city was headed in a direction that was basically tourism, and some software development during the dot-com boom, but it didn’t have what I’d regard as a solid, modern sector in the economy—and I think Mission Bay does that.”

Yet critics say the large buildings and plazas planned for the Salesforce campus won’t improve what they perceive as an unwelcoming atmosphere in Mission Bay.

“Unfortunately, that part of the city is still a bit of a wasteland, and the project doesn’t do much to change that,” said Eric Corey Freed, the founder of organicARCHITECT in San Francisco. Mission Bay, he said, offered the chance to build a new and vibrant neighborhood. Instead, he said, the area is “a place that feels cold, out of scale and out of touch with humanity.”

Mission Bay is a public-private partnership. Private firm FOCIL-MB LLC uses a developer partner to build the infrastructure, and is reimbursed as the redevelopment agency issues bonds backed by increases in property-tax revenue and fees within the redevelopment zone. The agency has issued $320 million in bonds for Mission Bay, while the area’s infrastructure is ultimately expected to cost about $700 million, said Kelley Kahn, the project manager for the redevelopment area. She added that the project is in year 13 of a 25-year buildout.

Only three of the area’s more than 70 lots have yet to be sold by FOCIL-MB, Ms. Kahn said. Much of the land still unoccupied is expected to be filled by Salesforce.com, which purchased 14 acres for $278 million, and an adjacent UCSF hospital complex expected to open in 2014. Salesforce.com didn’t receive any tax breaks for the campus.

Renderings of the Salesforce.com campus, released earlier this month, feature a flashy design. A public square is anchored by a hot-pink Jumbotron video screen.

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Brian L. Frank for The Wall Street Journal

A portion of the area in Mission Bay where the Salesforce.com headquarters would be built.

“That was my idea,” Mr. Benioff, the Salesforce.com CEO, said of the screen. “Putting something like that there can add a lot of energy.” The Jumbotron could be used for things such as employee presentations and public entertainment, he said.

Salesforce.com is hoping for design-review approval from the city by September. “If we can’t get the approvals we could also end up somewhere else,” Mr. Benioff said.

The redevelopment agency’s Ms. Kahn said that while she didn’t anticipate problems with the design review, the pink Jumbotron might face additional environmental scrutiny. Overall, Ms. Kahn said, “we’re generally, based on what we’ve seen, pleased.”

Mr. Benioff argued that a dramatic influx of color in Mission Bay would liven an area that until now has had an “office park” feel.

Mr. Benioff said he first became intrigued by the Mission Bay property when visiting the site of the UCSF children’s hospital he is helping fund with a $100 million gift.

Mission Bay has been the focus of disputes over how to best develop it dating to the 1980s. While the area is physically close to downtown, its location on the opposite side of Mission Creek and Interstate 280 can make it feel remote.

The project’s housing also has generated complaints. A lawsuit originally filed in 2006 by occupants of the Beacon, a nearly 600-unit condo development, alleges flawed construction and insufficient disclosures about soil contamination beneath the building. An attorney representing the real-estate company that sold the condos says buyers were informed of the soil issues prior to the sales, and that the contamination doesn’t pose a danger to residents. The case has been moved to arbitration, said Patrick Catalano, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.

Salesforce.com, which has about 2,750 employees in the Bay Area, expects to house between 8,000 and 9,000 at the new headquarters, designed by Mexico City-based architects Legorreta + Legorreta. The company said it doesn’t yet have an estimate for the construction cost or move-in date.

Write to John Letzing at john.letzing@dowjones.com

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304070104576397610335534024.html