|
SAN FRANCISCO
Computer renderings show how changes proposed for
the Transbay Terminal area might alter the skyline. The red images are
towers higher than 850 feet. The blue ones are towers now allowed.
The City is contemplating tallest building in the West. >>MORE
San Francisco's waterfront project gets
green light
A key element of San Francisco's US$270
million waterfront project has been given the go-ahead, clearing the way for
the two-phase project to begin, which ultimately will see an international
cruise terminal open by 2008.
The Bryant Street Pier Project, first
awarded after competitive bidding in early 2000, can now move forward. The
city's Board of Supervisors approved last week the US$9 million sale of a
half-acre of land across the cruise terminal site to the developer for the
building of a condominium.
The developer, San Francisco Cruise
Terminal (SFCT) LLC, is a consortium of four partners including The
HarbourFront, an 80:20 joint venture between Mapletree Investments and PSA
Corp.
PSA's direct involvement in the project
shrank from its original position as the sole Singapore partner in the
consortium, through its subsdiary PSA (USA) Inc, as it hived off its
non-port properties in preparation for listing.
HarbourFront was originally established
to be the vehicle for managing local and overseas cruise terminal
businesses.
A Mapletree spokesperson declined to
reveal HarbourFront's exact share in the consortium, but said Australian
developer and property fund manager Lend Lease Corporation was the lead
partner.
The other consortium members are
Taiwan-based maritime group Chinese Maritime Transport Ltd and San
Francisco-based real estate advisory and brokerage firm Witney Cressman.
'With the recent approval obtained from
the Board of Supervisors, we will be working with our lead partner, Lend
Lease to finalise our plans for the phase 1 work which is the development of
the 22-storey condominium. This phase 1 work is expected to take between two
and three years to complete,' said Mapletree spokesperson Shae Hung Yee in
response to Shipping Times queries.
Under the unique deal, SFCT will build
the 22-storey condominium tower and then use the estimated US$20.4 million
from the sale of the 140 units to help finance the rest of the project,
according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The main portion of the project -
expected to cost $246.2 million - includes the 100,000 square foot cruise
terminal, 565,000 square foot commercial office and retail space, and
parking garage, all on 26.5 acres of land at piers 30-32.
A waterfront public park is also a
requirement of the project.
The developer, SFCT will operate the
cruise terminal, office and retail complex on leases from the Port of San
Francisco until 2071 when the buildings revert to port ownership.
Over the course of the lease period, the
port is expected to get nearly US$525.4 million in 'participation rent' from
the developer, according to the Chronicle report.
The cruise terminal project is part of a
decades-old plan to revitalise San Francisco's dilapidated former industrial
waterfront.
It is also aimed at making the historic
city a more attractive destination for cruise ships, which now use a
converted cargo facility near Fisherman's Wharf. An estimated 150,000 cruise
passengers are expected to visit the city this year, growing to 175,000 next
year, according to the Chronicle report. -
by Donald Urquhart Singapore
Business Times 2003
July 23
 
Pier 30 is one of the San Francisco
piers that will be developed when long-term lease of piers 30-32 is
executed, including plans to build a 22-story condo tower on the Embarcadero
across from the piers.
New cruise ship terminal plan approved
Supervisors OK land sale for waterfront development
A waterfront development plan that
promises a new San Francisco cruise ship terminal won the Board of
Supervisors' approval early Wednesday.
Supervisors voted 11-0 for the $9.3
million sale of a half-acre of Port of San Francisco land for a 22-story
condominium tower at the foot of Bryant Street, across the Embarcadero from
Piers 30-32.
The developer, San Francisco Cruise
Terminal LLC, and the port plan to use proceeds from the condo development
to help fund construction of the cruise ship terminal and an office and
retail complex on 26 1/2 acres at Piers 30-32. The money is also supposed to
pay for a park just to the south.
Development of the piers is projected to
cost $246.2 million. The developer would build and operate the terminal and
office and retail complex through leases that are projected to pay the port
$525.4 million through 2071. After the leases expire, the buildings would
revert to port ownership.
The developer is a partnership of Lend
Lease Corp. of Sydney, Australia, and the Port of Singapore.
The terminal deal is one of several
agreements negotiated under Mayor Willie Brown to spur private investment in
deteriorating public buildings and piers on San Francisco's northeast and
central bayfront. The goal of the project is to make San Francisco a more
attractive destination for cruise ships, which now use a retrofitted cargo
facility at Pier 35 near Fisherman's Wharf.
The city's cruise business has been
growing. About 150,000 passengers are expected to visit this year and
175,000 next year, up from 80,000 in past years, said Gerald Roybal, the
port's director of maritime marketing.
The port is setting up two community
advisory committees to suggest ways to cut water and air pollution from
cruise ships after the terminal's opening, set for 2008. -
By Chuck Finnie, David Anderson San
Francisco Chronicle 2003 July 17
To realize a decades-old dream of a new
cruise ship terminal, the Port of San Francisco is turning over 27 acres of
its most valuable waterfront property to a developer who wants to build
condominiums and a commercial office and retail complex.
It is a formula -- public real estate for
private capital -- that has been employed by the port under Mayor Willie
Brown to refurbish and maintain a waterfront that has lost much of its
maritime cachet.
The deal-making has attracted hundreds of
millions of dollars in investment to restore, beautify and redevelop the
northeast and central bayfront, but rarely has it promised such a direct
lift to the agency's core mission of bolstering the local maritime industry.
"This (deal) actually looks pretty
good," said San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose district
encompasses some port land and who has been critical of previous deals by
the port not containing enough public benefit.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors
voted on a long-term lease of piers 30-32 at the foot of Bryant Street and
the sale of a parcel across the Embarcadero roadway from the piers to San
Francisco Cruise Terminal.
LLC.
The structure of the cruise ship terminal
deal shares similarities with agreements the port struck with the Giants for
their ballpark at China Basin and those with developers who renovated Pier 1
into office space and are putting the finishing touches on a rehabilitation
of the historic Ferry Building.
The port is currently negotiating three
other proposed developments:
-- The port is negotiating with Mills
Corp., a Virginia mall developer, for construction of an office and retail
complex and YMCA health club at piers 27- 31.
-- A partnership called San Francisco
Waterfront Partners, LLC, backed financially by the California State
Teachers Association pension fund, is in talks with the agency for a lease
on piers 1 1/2, 3 and 5. Those piers were condemned as structurally unsound
in December 2000.
-- Under proposed terms for a lease to
build a hotel on port land at the base of Vallejo Street, Stanford
Hospitality Inc. would pay the port escalating base rent of $750,000 a year
or a percentage of revenue -- whichever is higher.
Feeding the port's hunger for private
investment are legal mandates to maintain its piers and to support maritime
industries, port officials say.
The 1968 Burton Act, authored by San
Francisco Democrat John Burton, then an assemblyman and now president pro
tem of the state Senate, shifted management control over the approximately
700 acres of port land and piers from the state to the city.
The property, stretching from Hyde Street
Pier to Islais Creek, is held by the city and governed by a
mayoral-appointed port commission "in trust for the purposes of
commerce, navigation and fisheries," according to the act.
Because cargo, fishing, ship repair,
cruise and other harbor activities don't cover the cost of maintenance --
much less upgrades to maritime facilities -- the port needs to develop its
real estate, said Ken Winters, the port's real estate director.
"We are trying to optimize revenue
within the trust restrictions," Winters said. "We are converting
liabilities into assets."
Approval of the cruise ship terminal deal
would be a lift for an agency that lost $5.4 million in fiscal year 2002 and
whose management is under scrutiny at City Hall following allegations by
some port workers about theft and other misconduct at the port and
retaliation against whiste-blowers.
Port Executive Director Douglas Wong said
the project is important because it "will preserve and foster San
Francisco's cruise industry . . . and create thousands of construction,
retail, maritime and service sector jobs for over 60 years into the
future."
The developer, San Francisco Cruise
Terminal, LLC, is a partnership between Lend Lease Corp. of Sydney,
Australia, and the Port of Singapore, which was recruited to participate in
the project by the Brown administration. The partnership won a competitive
bid for the property in January 2000 after mounting a $100,000 lobbying
campaign.
The partnership plans: a 22-story
condominium tower on the parcel across from piers 30-32; a
100,000-square-foot cruise terminal, 565,000 square feet of commercial
office and retail space, and four-story parking garage at the piers; and a
public park called Brannan Street Wharf stretching south along the bayfront
to pier 36.
Under the deal, the developer would build
the condo tower first and use money from the sale of 140 condominiums to
help finance the rest of the project.
The partnership would buy the 1/2-acre
condo site for $9.3 million and give the port a share of profits from the
condominium sales estimated at $20.4 million to the agency.
However, the port would be required to
plow all of that money and more back into the project.
The deal calls for the port to spend the
$9.3 million from the sale of the condo site and an additional $6 million to
cover the estimated $15 million cost of building the Brannan Street Wharf
park.
The park is a requirement for approval of
the project by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development
Commission, a state agency that regulates filling and dredging of San
Francisco Bay and all real estate development within 100 feet of the bay
shoreline.
Under the deal, the port also would have
to hand back to the developer all of the agency's profits from the condo
sales -- the estimated $20.4 million -- to help pay for the terminal, office
and retail space, and parking development on 26.5 acres at piers 30-32.
That work is expected to cost $246.2
million, including $56.6 million for pier strengthening, $147.5 million for
the office, retail and parking, and $42. 1 million for the cruise terminal,
port records show.
During construction of the terminal,
office and retail space and parking garage, projected to start by 2005, the
partnership would pay the port $150, 000 in annual rent for piers 30-32.
After completing the project and opening
the terminal, the rent would increase to $850,000 under a 66-year lease,
with annual adjustments for inflation. (Sixty-six years is the maximum lease
period allowed under the 1968 law that transferred control of the port lands
from the state to the city.)
Three years after the developer begins
operating at piers 30-32, the partnership also would be required to pay the
port "participation rent" from its annual operating profits.
Participation rent is projected to begin in 2012 at $162,000 and climb
annually.
Over the life of the deal, total rent
revenue to the port is projected to amount to $525.4 million, according to
Board of Supervisors budget analyst Harvey Rose.
The port also would be entitled to a
share of the proceeds from any sale of the lease by the partnership and any
gains from refinancing of the partnership's debt.
The agreement would make the developer
responsible for all maintenance and repairs to piers 30-32.
Finally, all buildings constructed at
piers -- the terminal, the office and retail complex and the parking garage
-- would revert to the port at the end of the lease in 2071. -
by Chuck Finnie, Adrienne Saunders San
Francisco Chronicle
13 July 2003
|
