Luxury homes under construction on Yerba Buena Island

Renderings by Hayes Davidson

Developer Wilson Meany broke ground Tuesday on a long-planned development on Yerba Buena Island, located in the middle of the bay next to Treasure Island.

The firm is marketing the 266 incoming homes as luxury condos and townhomes steeped in the natural beauty of the island setting. The homes will feature, among other things, views of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The new development is part of San Francisco’s plan to remake Treasure Island as a dense hub of new housing.

Whereas adjacent Treasure Island is flat, manmade, and haunted by anxiety about radioactive leavings from the former Navy base, Yerba Buena Island is a smaller, natural space with less baggage. That leaves developers the opportunity to frame the island as an exclusive destination for expensive new SF homes.

At Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Wilson Meany cofounder Chris Meany called the new development “an opportunity to live San Francisco as we all should live it,” although it appears unlikely most people will get that opportunity.

With only 14 of the new homes planned as subsidized housing and the sales team already playing up the attractiveness of the surroundings—”75 percent of Yerba Buena Island is being preserved for open space,” beams the company press release—it’s clear the new condos will command a hefty sum when the time comes. Pricing has yet to be announced.

Judson True, San Francisco’s director of housing delivery (a newly created position to shepherd construction of new homes), said at the groundbreaking that the luxury homes were an important milestone toward the city’s goal of building 8,000 new units on the islands.

On the current timetable, homes on Yerba Buena Island will begin selling in 2020, with move-ins set for 2021.