By Joshua Sabatini, The San Francisco Examiner September 8, 2020
“A more than $1 billion development proposal on San Francisco’s waterfront near the Bay Bridge would bring 850 units of housing to Seawall Lot 330 and commercial buildings with a floating public swimming pool on rebuilt Piers 30-32.
“The project, proposed by Strada Investment Group and Trammell Crow Company (TCC), could bring certainty to an area that has seen other development pitches come and go and where a 200-person homeless Navigation Center currently operates.
“The project would take advantage of a state density program to exceed building heights in exchange for offering 25 percent of the units, or 207, at below market rates.” SF Port staff has not yet evaluated how the state’s density bonus statute interacts with the June 2014 measure Proposition B, which requires voter approval of projects that exceed existing height limits.
“The proposal also includes the demolition and rebuild of the 17 acres of Piers 30-32 at a size 45 percent smaller and construction on them of ‘two-story shed buildings with high ceilings, conforming to the 40-foot height limit,’ according to a memo from Elaine Forbes, executive director of the Port of San Francisco.
“Jesse Blout, a co-founder of Strada, told the Port Commission that ‘one of the through-lines of all the past failed efforts on this particular pier has been the incredible cost and risk associated with retrofitting and rebuilding the piers.’
“ ‘A light bulb went off. What if we solve the cost problem by dramatically reducing the footprint of the pier?’ he said.”
Read full article here. (~ 4 ½ min.)