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

Perhaps to be taken with a grain of salt (or not!), but a reader writes in with word of a freakout down at 50 U.N. Plaza, where the dormant Federal Building has been getting some work done to bring it back to life. The feds had previously deserted it in favor of Thom Mayne’s cutting-edge fortress on 7th and Mission, but as was previously reported, 50 U.N. Plaza received $121 million in stimulus cash to get seismically retrofitted and turned again into a contributing member of society. After a weird flap where Brit firm Foster + Partners was hired to do work meant to stimulate the American economy, the General Services Administration about-faced and hired instead HKS and local firm Architectural Resources Group. Now, as our informant says: “Just these past two weeks the GSA freaked out about the budget going over (based on programming and project particulars they ASKED FOR) and just got HKS to fire everyone under them and start from scratch. How’s that for the use of stimulus funds?” Italics added by Curbed for sassiness.
· Foreigners Disinvited from UN Plaza [Curbed SF]
· Fingers Crossed: Fed Building Shall Revitalize U.N. Plaza [Curbed SF]

Catching up with Trinity Place, the Chron has a couple contrary views of some of our favorite characters. First, there’s uber-landlord Angelo Sangiacomo, who’s now described by an angry activist turned Trinity Place tenant thusly: “He’s actually a nice person. Who knew?” Then there’s supe Chris Daly, known generally more for killing plans if they don’t have enough affordable housing: “Everybody says he is anti-development, but he supported one of the biggest developments in the city.” Hey, it’s opposite day! [SFGate]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

The front face of 1660 Shrader, a 5-bed 4-bath house just north of Clarendon Heights, might not be the most exciting thing this side of Wednesday, but it has its redeeming qualities: the wide views from the living room, for example, somehow make that conferencey table look right at home. And the mid-level deck also looks pretty on par. No square footage in the listing, but asking price for the 1949 house is $2,950,000.
· 1660 Shrader St [Redfin]

Hornswoggled! San Francisco’s suing a Huntington Beach-based escrow firm for allegedly stealing over $1 million in city funds that were meant to help make homes safer for low-income residents. The company is said to have taken money from at least a dozen other California cities too, and its offices have now completely gone dark. So uncool. [SFGate]

After four years of putting together an ambitious plan to remake Berkeley’s downtown with taller buildings to bring in more housing and jobs, the city faced mounting community opposition, and decided to toss the plan altogether. The city council voted unanimously to rescind the plan last month, but that was in order to get a slightly revised plan up and running. It’s looking a little more promising now: the Daily Cal reports that 2.0, which still has some room for revision before it hits the ballots in November, is a result of “many compromises” between more development and concerns such as affordable housing and building heights. Sounds a bit like the kind of policy wrestling that goes on on this side of the bay – still, with most issues smoothed away, there are still charges that Berkeley’s mayor Tom Bates is only pushing through a plan loaded with “back room concessions” to UC Berkeley and their development plans. C’est la vie.
· City Grapples With Historically Contentious Downtown Plan [Daily Cal]
· Berkeley’s Downtown Plan Put to the People

[Wells Fargo Building via Flickr//\/\ichael Patric|{]

["Day 087/365: The Gate," via Curbed SF Flickr photog sfjobles]

· It’s official: supes clamp down on garages [SF Examiner]
· Mission school installs fenced in vertical garden [Public Press]
· Musical chairs: San Jose strongly supports A’s move [Merc]
· Golden Gate Bridge: shaved head edition [Uptown Almanac]
· Mission vs. Cow Hollow: a baby-name ethnology [7x7]

Tensions are high among Peninsula cities, which see themselves as losing in a big way if the California High-Speed Rail Authority decides that street-level or raised tracks for the bullet train are the way forward for the general Peninsula area. So they’ve banded together and decided they’re going to ask for double the amount of time usually reserved for commenting on draft environmental impact reports — 90 days instead of the usual 45. Only the alternatives analysis that the authority’s set to release on April 8 isn’t a draft EIR, just a report pointing toward which route is “most feasible,” and whether and where the train should go underground, above ground, or what have you. The actual draft EIR’s set for December or thereabouts. Meanwhile, in case the plan doesn’t end up favoring underground routes, the Peninsula’s bracing for trench warfare. T-minus eight days!
· Cities want more time to study high-speed rail route [SF Business Times]
· Caltrain Says Ending Bullet Train in San Jose Won’t Do Any Good [Curbed SF]

No boom means no bust! A report on the hardiness of upstate New York notes that the region was “largely insulated” from the boom-bust cycle due to its lower than average growth. When the bust came along, there wasn’t much nonprime lending, and thus nothing to bust. No surprise here: this was actually true for most major metropolitan areas. [Real Time Econ]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

The 3-bed, 2.5-bath house at 70 Winfield is a somewhat recently built house on Bernal’s “south-after west slope.” It’s got a gourmet kitchen, French doors leading to a private deck, panoramic views, and a “huge” garage that can reportedly hold “at least 2 cars + storage + office,” if you’re into working with residual car fumes. Still — spacious. Asking price is $1,250,000.
· 70 Winfield [Website]

Fated forever to waste away: Market Street Railway blog, a project of the nonprofit that devotes itself to restoring streetcars for the F-Market line, has the tale of nine San Francisco streetcars languishing in Missouri, of all places. How’d they get there? They were part of a batch sold to a starry-eyed guy in Tahoe who wanted to build a solar-powered streetcar line there. That didn’t happen, but a Missouri developer bought some to turn into bookstores and sushi restaurants (what, no diner?). Real estate bust hit, and that didn’t happen either. Result: rusty streetcar grave. [Market Street Railway]