[All images via the SF Port] Taking a cue from their ball club, the SF Giants' real estate team is seeing a hard winter's work pay off with the renewed momentum of the Mission Rock megaproject that it's developing on Port-owned land in the ballpark's backyard. Now that the Port has endorsed their latest project updates and Term Sheet, the Giants are waiting on Board approval to move into EIR for the 3.6 million square foot, $1.6 billion mixed use development, which encompasses Pier 48 and Seawall Lot 337. We've been tracking this project for, oh, 6 years now, but couldn't help getting excited all over again when the team landed the ultimate Anchor tenant for Pier 48, designed to appeal to the kind of hardcore locavore only this town can mass produce (yes, that's Anchor Steam Brewing Company). Taking a breath before the two year entitlements process, which kicks off in May, the Giants' Director of Real Estate, Fran Weld, took some time to talk shop with a group of well-heeled building industry folks from the BICB at SPUR this week, while we listened in.
Questioned about the possibility of ending up with a "bunch of expensive wine bars," Weld explained that the Giants will be "curating the ground floor environments" of both the retail storefronts and 8 acres of open space to appeal "to Giants fans as well as the larger community." And perhaps the tenants upstairs? In this case "curating" seems to mean leasing the ground floor space not to the highest bidder, but to whoever attracts the occupants in the homes and offices above that will pay the highest rents. So, does that mean there won't be any wine bars?
The team will definitely, however, be making the push on the horizontal work, which will kick off in 2015 and includes $200 million worth of infrastructure improvements (funded by public Tax Increment Financing) and an expanded China Basin Park, which will quintuple in size. There will be more parks but no less parking, Weld assures fans. The project will replace the parking spaces of massive Lot A, 1 for 1 with a big-ass parking structure at the southern end of the development. With a drawn out 4 phase, 10 year build-out projected to wrap in 2025, it's uncertain whether the overall vision for the District will manifest as designed. But as long as the Anchor Steam is flowing by 2016, as planned, we'll be happy enough. - Laura Tepper
Previous Coverage of Mission Rock [Curbed SF]