With municipalities coping with dwindling-to-nonexistent state redevelopment funds thanks to Gov. Brown’s decision to abolish the agency, the city/county of San Francisco has just embraced its newest best friend and developer, which just happens to be the local Major League Baseball team and its project cohort.


Long on a list of things to do, the San Francisco Giants and its developer partner The Cordish Cos., Baltimore, finally came up with a redevelopment plan for the vast concrete parking lot at Seawall Lot 337 and Pier 48 south of AT&T Park and across the China Basin Channel at Third St. Called Mission Rock, the plan, submitted to the Port of San Francisco, will encompass a total of 27 acres including eight acres of open space, 1.3 million to 1.7 million sq ft of office space, 650 to 1,000 housing units, 125,000 sq ft of retail and 2,690 parking spaces in a shared (with the Giants) structure.

The project team includes Perkins + Will, master planning; Hargreaves Associates, landscape architecture; Hathaway Dinwiddie and Nibbi Bros., construction; BKF Engineers, civil engineering; and KPFF Consulting Engineers, structural.

Announcing the project this week at AT&T Park were San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, San Francisco Giants CEO and President Larry Baer, and Port Commission President Doreen Woo Ho. Lee said the project would create 4,800 projected construction jobs and more than 7,000 permanent jobs across the technology, service and creative industries. Annual city tax revenues would be around $13 million.

With the entitlement process now under way, the plan is to start construction in 2014 with a full build-out over four phases ending around 2021.

In light of the less-than-stellar pier development response to next year’s America’s Cup yacht races, this looks like a definite winner, and will give wandering Giants fans something to do before and after the games (instead of getting into fights with Dodger fans). The projected $1.2 billion in annual revenues for Mission Rock businesses is a plus, too.


Go Giants!!