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

The custody battle for the as yet nonexistent 49ers stadium has begun (although we all know who’s going to win this one), with a group called Santa Clarans for Economic Progress sending out fliers to the city’s electorate. According to City Insider, the group’s funded in large part by the 49ers. The opposition group, Santa Clara Plays Fair, has no such luck, though the pro-Santa Clara/49ers contingent expects “San Francisco interests” to get involved. Otherwise, this may end up being somewhat of a one-sided battle. [City Insider, previously]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

The city has just released the draft plan to build up in SoMa, dramatically reshaping the city’s skyline and shifting downtown’s beating heart onto Mission Street. That beating heart: the Transbay Transit Center with rooftop park. And everywhere around it, a bustling pedestrian urban center filled with bikes and people and young newsboys selling afternoon editions of the paper. The goal of the 25-year transformation is to increase the city’s ability to accommodate its share of job growth. To do this, the city has to eliminate caps on density and unleash building heights in particular areas, with an eye toward sculpting the skyline’s “graceful mound.” Kind of like getting a hedge to grow into a giraffe wireframe.

But it’s not all high-rises and skyline mounds. On the ground, city planners turned much of their attention in the 147-page plan to shaping a lively pedestrian experience. To wit, the goal is to “create gracious public spaces and accommodate higher pedestrian volumes by widening sidewalks and adding substantial amenities and infrastructure, such as seating, landscaping, kiosks, and bicycle parking.

There’ll be new plazas created, including one at the northeast corner of Howard and 2nd, and Mission Square, a grand entry plaza to the Transbay Transit Center. That’s not to mention the biggest, craziest open space in the plan: the 5.5‐acre park on the roof of the new transit center, which will be accessible by funicular and by other vertical connections.

The plan calls for more of the city’s “Living Streets treatments,” creating the same sort of “linear plazas” along Beale, Main, and Spear that Rincon Hill calls for: namely less car lanes and wider sidewalks with more amenities. Alleys should get some attention on certain blocks, too, particularly on Natoma, Tehama, and Clementina, in order to enhance the pedestrian and bike network while continuing to provide “back-of-house” functions for buildings.

Next on the program: the draft environmental impact report, scheduled for mid-2010, and by fall of next year, a final version of the report should appear and adoption hearings are scheduled to begin.
· Transit Center District Plan [City Design Group]
· Rendering Revelation: Transbay Transit Center & Funicular Extravaganza [Curbed SF]
· Curbed SF Reports: Transbay Terminal Plan Public Meeting Redux [Curbed SF]

["any given corner at sunset" via carla la]

· “The new age of bamboo“: maybe it’s for real now [NYT]
· Commercial real estate: too tough to save? [WSJ]
· Vacancies mean more holiday pop-up stores than ever [MSNBC]
· City treasures: the St. Francis Wood fountain [Toasted Blog]
· San Francisco: now 141 illegal signs lighter [SF Examiner]

“I find myself thinking of the Millennium as the ‘Batman building’ because of its pointy ears when seen from the south… emphasized by the blinking red lights.” [The Best New Buildings of the Decade: The Ones That Didn't Make It]

The city’s facing a budget deficit of $500 million next year, but adding to the pain will be a likely drop in property taxes. Those taxes are pegged to the consumer price index, which is expected to drop this year, meaning lower property taxes for everyone, and a city scrambling to cut basically everything. Or, as the supes prez said, “We don’t have anything to cut but bone.” [SF Examiner]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Contemporary and traditional married and decided to raise their baby in Bernal Heights. The “fab home” at 64 Prentiss St. was built this year, and as is the norm now, begs for some green cred with bamboo floors and thermal pane windows. It’s got 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and “expansion potential” on the garage level. Hellooo, in-law! Pretty nice views, judging from the photos, and — is this the latest sign of contemporary cred? — the second square toilet we’ve seen in as many days. Asking: $1,360,000.
· 64 Prentiss St. [Redfin]

Yesterday we brought you Curbed’s Best Buildings of the Decade, a meandering list of 10 that represented, each in some way, the city’s awesomest new buildings. But there’s more fun, yet! Here now in no particular order are the runners up that, for all intents and purposes, should have made it onto the list — if only the number 10 could somehow accommodate five more.

[Flickr/Peter576 & foreverdigital]

AT&T Park, by Populous (formerly HOK Sport)
There, we said it. The constantly renamed baseball stadium didn’t get very much love from our luminary pals — and maybe for good reason! — but it’s become a legitimate anchor to the city, particularly to neighborhoods like young upstart Mission Bay. The stadium’s popularity on game nights has besieged the poor N-Judah, and it’s also brought the culture scene to the baseball capped masses with Opera in the Park. To say nothing of the garlic fries.

Plaza Apartments, by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and Paulett Taggart
Troubled 6th Street might be thankful for the breath of fresh air this building brings to the neighborhood. The development replaced a grody SRO, and was one of the city’s first environmentally conscious affordable housing projects— like David Baker’s Curran House in our first list, it says the poors should be able to live with light and air too.

Millennium Tower, by Handel Architects
Tall, dark, and handsome, with a dash of daring! Like 560 Mission, the Millennium somehow looks interesting, good even, for a glassy high-rise. Visitors can nosh in Michael Mina’s RN74, and residents can do the same in their own exclusive enclave. In a way, the luxury tower’s even a bit before it’s time. When the day comes that the neighboring Transbay Terminal has been replaced by the Transbay Transit Center, complete with high-speed rail and gratuitous funicular, the Millennium will have really come into its own.

1234 Howard, by Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects
If any architect has capitalized on the hotbed of architectural experimentation in SoMa, it’s Stanley Saitowitz. His firm is known, if anything, for the ultracontemporary boxes they plant all over SoMa— and yet 1234 Howard still stands above them as one of the best in recent years. The louvers (he’s a fan of those too) control the flow of light into the homes inside, and the glass catwalk sidings help bring light right down into the center of the building— no easy feat for multifamily homes in a dense area.

Contemporary Jewish Museum, by Daniel Libeskind
Is Daniel Libeskind the least loved of San Francisco’s latest batch of visiting starchitects? Nevermind. The power station turned Jewish museum cuts a great contrast with the Catholic church next door, and is no doubt another foot forward in bringing actual human beings into the surrounding plaza. The building’s meteor cube is bold, sure, but sometimes bold is beautiful.

Could the discovery of a plant that was thought extinct in the wild derail the Doyle Drive replacement project? Probably not. But it’s not like things like that haven’t happened in the past. Instead, botanist types are suggesting that the Franciscan Manzanita that was recently found (after more than half a century presumed gone!) be delicately relocated, after a bunch of cuttings are made to propagate the little guy — allowing Doyle Drive to get replaced just the same. Hugs all around. [The Snitch]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Then: $15,200,000
Now: $13,500,000
You Save: $1,700,000, or 11 percent!

Still enjoying the thinner atmosphere up there in high asking price land, 2100 Vallejo has nevertheless jumped down a couple rungs on the price ladder. Consider, for instance, that the the 6-bed, 5-bathroom home sold in 1995 for $2,475,000. Buy now, and get the adjacent buildable lot for free! At the moment, it’s a “beautiful … park-like-garden,” so it should be fun building on that when the time comes. Oh, and here’s to a nicer set of recliners.
· 2100 Vallejo St [Redfin]

Berkeley’s city council has given cautious support to a ferry terminal that would be located near the city’s fishing pier. They did list a number of conditions they attached to their approval, including environmental considerations and not messing with the windsurfers. The ferries would connect San Francisco and Berkeley on weekends and during commuting hours— and perhaps would be a welcome alternative to the Bay Bridge. [Daily Cal]