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

The bidding war is back! But now imagine, instead of overly heated buyers trying to muscle their way into their dream homes, investors and first-time buyers elbowing each other out of the way to snap up foreclosures. The Chron follows up on their January report on flipping’s comeback — indeed, in recognition of the power of the flip, the Federal Housing Administration has begun allowing government-backed mortgages for flipped properties, something that was previously banned. In the Bay Area’s nine counties, houses sold at auction increased from 122 in January of last year to 637 this past January. The fact that so many toolbelt-laden investors are devouring foreclosures in order to put them back on the market again has “frustrated” some first-time buyers, but the end result has been a return of otherwise dead properties and neighborhoods back to life, from their “partly vacant, and forlorn” states.
· Pace of house flipping picks up [SFGate]
· House Flippers Are Multiplying on the Foreclosure Scene [Curbed SF]

[Strawberry Creek Plaza concept via Ecocity Builders]

· Berkeley votes for new Strawberry Creek Plaza [Daily Cal]
· Golden Gate Park: “implied Garden of Eden” [YouTube]
· Augmented reality: aim iPhone for price per square foot [NYT]
· San Francisco first to take citywide parking census? [Streetsblog]
· “Full House” house gets a $150K chop [Inside SF RE]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

On the market for a little over two weeks now, the above is a 3-bed, 1.75-bath condo in a “graceful” Art Nouveau building in Nob Hill. The building features “traditional architectural details” and look to be in pretty fit shape from the photos. HOAs are $250, and the asking price is $1,150,000 — at 1,693 square feet, that’s $679 per.
· 1553 Sacramento St [Redfin]

Project FROG’s modular prefab Crissy Field Center has a sibling in Connecticut — and, let’s be honest here, probably who knows where else. Turns out the fast turnaround on these buildings are enamoring city officials to them, because another one’s going to hit the Hunters Point shipyard. According to the Examiner, speed is of the essence because the $2.3 million federal grant that’s paying for it expires in August. Chop chop! [SF Examiner, previously]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

On Friday, Uptown Almanac discovered a fun project of Robin Sloan, writer, “media inventor,” and Twitter employee: have readers remix scenes of “alternate San Franciscos.” The winning submissions to Sloan’s call for entries were from one Emily Cooper, a self-described science illustrator and purveyor of “3D modeling and fine images.” Her site’s loaded with the kind of 3D infographics that explain things like how DNA works, and how Tiger Woods spanks his mistresses, but this illustrator used her computer-assisted imaging abilities to imagine various San Franciscos involving oddly formed futures, plus one decimated universe where whales inhabit the bay. Not the kind of renderporn we’re used to, but nonetheless hot.
· Scenes of Scheme’s San Francisco [Robin Sloan, via Uptown Almanac]
· Cooperhawk Illustration [Website]

Last week, the little factoid that Apple’s Fifth Ave glass cube has become the fifth most photographed building in NYC got quite a bit of play. The stat comes from a 2009 Cornell study of Flickr images (counted by photographers rather than images themselves to correct for obsessive maniacs) — the study found that San Francisco is the third most photographed city, following New York and London, and that our most photographed buildings are, in order: Coit Tower, Pier 39 (sigh), Union Square, the Ferry Building, “prison” (we can probably safely assume Alcatraz), and Lombard Street. We could have guessed those, but now science has confirmed it. [Cornell, previously]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Among the five St. Regis units currently on the market is Unit 38C, a top-floor 2-bed 2.5-bath that’s described as “quite possibly the most exquisite two bedroom residence ever available” at the luxury SoMa building. The unit opens the owner up to the lavish world of the St. Regis, with 24-hour room service, pool, gym, yoga studio, Whole Foods delivery, and ninth-floor overlook terrace — the works. But on top of all that, there’s earthquake insurance baked into the homeowners fee, which comes out at $2,172 a month. The unit itself: $2,650,000, which at 1,670 square feet comes out at $1,587 per. Does the eyeball lamp come with?
· St. Regis Unit 38C [Website, via Curbed Inbox]

Yesterday saw the announcement of the winner of this year’s architecture gold medal: two for the price of one! SANAA, a Japanese firm run by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, wins the 2010 Pritzker Prize, only the second time a woman’s won the prize, and the third time that a pair has. In the States, they designed the Glass Pavilion at Ohio’s Toledo Museum of Art and the more recent New Museum in NYC. Maybe now they’ll make SFMOMA’s list! [Culture Monster]

It’s happened: a new front in the preservation wars has opened up in the Presidio, though it’s probably not like very much like the usual kind. Consider, if you will, buildings 40 and 41, a pair of military barracks that arch critic John King points out as key to a confusing (if fun!) struggle between two factions of preservationists, or at least two schools of thought on the matter. The barracks sit on top of El Presidio, one of the key Presidio projects (along with Don Fisher’s ill-fated art museum) meant to help bring the Main Post back to life. To completely unearth El Presidio, the “birthplace of San Francisco, from beneath its present-day parking lot, the Presidio would have to move buildings 40 and 41, which are — hold on tight here — also part of history, albeit another part! In an area with so many “layers” of history, this kind of battle was probably inevitable, though it certainly offers no satisfying side for the peanut gallery to choose. And then there’s the “nondescript” laundry shed that one guy wants to save. This’ll be a long one.
· 2 Presidio barracks fuel preservation debate [SFGate]

["Miniarcs ~ San Francisco Highrise Bedroom Stage Set," via Curbed SF Flickr photog Miniarcs]

· Interview with the guys of Gather, camping-born restaurant [Berkeleyside]
· Livermore’s losing sleep over Hindu temple expansion [IBA]
· Arnold vetoes tax break on short sales [SFGate]
· More on those canceled-debt taxes [IBA]
· Warriors’ SF move is just “media chatter” [Oakland Focus, via Eye on Blogs]
· Union Square’s Grand Hyatt embarks on $38M redo [SFBT]