NNN Brokers USA – San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Brokers: "The Scoop"

Talk about stimulus: a nonprofit group is advocating a national, high-speed rail network to the tune of $600 billion over 20 years. Compare that to: the $8 billion that the federal stimulus allocated to high-speed rail, the $9.95 billion that Californians authorized in a bond last fall for our own bullet train track, and to $40 billion, the final estimated cost of the California high-speed rail system. [AP]

[Fong & Chan Architects]

Billed as crucial to the future of the hospital, the rebuild of San Francisco General Hospital officially broke ground yesterday, with Gavin on the scene, golden shovel and all. (That shovel’s had a busy week, as the SF PUC headquarters in the Civic Center also just broke ground.) Voters passed an $887 billion million bond by 84 to 16 percent last fall to go ahead with the nine-story, cylindrical addition. Helipad status: unknown.
· S.F. breaks ground on new General Hospital [SFGate]
· Let the Campaign Begin: SF General or Bust [Curbed SF]
· SF General Helipad Hospital Re-Design Revealed [Curbed SF]

[Curbed artist's conception of Target at the Metreon. It's kind of a big deal.]

Boom: Target’s on its way to the second floor of the Metreon, according to today’s SF Business Times, marking the first Target in the city in uh… ever? According to the story, Metreon owner Westfield has “gone silent” on a bunch of second floor tenant talks in order to “make way for a single tenant.” That tenant is said to be Target— a move that might quiet clamors for a Target in the deserted Mervyn’s space on Geary and Masonic, or more desperate hopes for one in the planned CityPlace mall in Mid-Market. The move would also shift the Metreon’s center of gravity slightly away from its newfound foodie-ness, but in the long haul, that probably doesn’t really matter. It’s Target.
· Target could be bull’s-eye for Metreon [SFBT]
· Remember CityPlace? It’s Still Coming to Market Street [Curbed SF]
· More Renderporn: Metreon’s Lighter Brighter Future [Curbed SF]

["mobile bicycle house" via Curbed SF Flickr photog pagedesign]

· Unchained melody: “More Jane Jacobs, less Marc Jacobs“ [Vanishing NY]
· This Halloween: Embarcadero’s the new Castro? [SFist]
· South City: old hotels becoming new apartments [SF Examiner]
· Animal spotting: Outer Sunset’s wild horses [Luba SF]
· Fun with redlining: courier service’s yes and no areas [SF Citizen]

“Consider if you will, two architects: one admits to actually *liking* the Lowes Potemkin front and the other thinks that IKEA stores are not obnoxious. It’s all a matter of taste in… the Twilight Zone.” —Guest 26 [Welcome the Big Box: Lowe's Is On Its Way]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Then: $545,000
Now: $509,000
You Save: $36,000

The Royal Insurance Building is of the type that trades on nostalgia that happens to not be of the Victorian or Edwardian variety. The 1-bed, 1-bath has recently seen a 6.6 percent price chop, bringing it tantalizingly close to the $500K mark— not bad for prime FiDi country (though harder to say without square footage numbers). Buyer gets to live in a building with a ‘V’ for a ‘U’, and live a block away from work.
· 201 Sansome St #305 [Redfin]

Remember when Philip Morris rebranded itself Altria, as if to suggest they were a sort of time-release pharmaceutical that stimulates feelings of altruism? We’re not saying that CitiApartments abruptly renaming themselves “First Apartments” amid a dogpile of lawsuits is anything like that, but maybe it kind of is. [SF Appeal, previously]

Meanwhile, the neighborhood sistas at noe valley *buzz* are watching the 58-unit “urban condo” business go up at 555 Bartlett St., and they’re not impressed: “every day the condos at 555 bartlett get bigger and bigger swallowing everything in their path without regard. just want to say to the developers out there…thanks for making this area real real whack!” We think they’re talking about the double-wide asshat in the hue of Oompa-Loompa.
· 555 Bartlett… [noe valley *buzz*]
· 555 Bartlett [Website]

Timely (not to mention neverending) talk today of chain stores’ collective value to communities as home improvement chain Lowe’s readies a move into the Bayview. Certain sophisticates among us champion local independents (as well as dislike association with the unwashed masses, surely), but there’s a flip side too, according to a blog pondering chain regulation in St. Louis: “Local retailers, boutiques and independent restaurants likely cannot serve all residents. It’s wonderful to have $25 parmesan cheese available in the city, but what about those who want (couch jam St. Louis cheese) Provel?” Viva la Starbucks! [Saint Louis Urban Workshop, via Streetsblog]