The National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors and GSW Arena LLC on Jan. 17 held the groundbreaking ceremony for the team’s new arena at the project site in San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

Joint-venture partners Clark Construction Group and Mortenson Construction will build the estimated $1- billion Chase Center. Scheduled to open for the start of the 2019-20 NBA season, the facility also will play host to a variety of events.

Project officials note that, in the modern era of professional sports, the center will be the only privately financed facility of its kind built on private property.

The 18,000-seat complex will anchor an 11-acre retail-and-office district with amenities the neighborhood currently lacks, along with a new 5.5-acre public waterfront park.

“It was important to create a design that was visually striking, memorable and very sensitive to the surroundings and the neighborhood,” says David Manica, president of Kansas City, Kan.-based Manica Architecture, the design architect.

Manica says his team worked hard to create an “intimate and exciting game atmosphere” that will maintain the intensity of the Warriors’ previous building, Oracle Arena.