Officials break ground for new condo towers at foot of Bay Bridge
From today’s Chronicle, “It was a familiar story Thursday afternoon — a developer and city officials turning over a ceremonial shovel of dirt to mark the beginning of work on a new San Francisco high-rise. But this one at the top of Rincon Hill, one of San Francisco’s more obscure landmarks, will produce a pair of buildings that will change the look of the city’s skyline and completely transform a neighborhood.”
“The project — called One Rincon Hill — consists of two glass-and-aluminum towers, one 55 stories high, the other 45 stories. They will be the tallest residential buildings west of the Mississippi. The taller of the two towers will be 550 feet high, not as tall as the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid, but their location just south of where the Bay Bridge touches down in San Francisco will make a spectacular change in the way the city looks.”
“Among the things [developer] Urban West will pay for is an upgrade in the Art Moderne Sailors’ Union of the Pacific headquarters hall just across Harrison Street from the condo towers. There will be a community center in the union hall, and a new neighborhood park at Fremont and Harrison streets. The money for the community improvements convinced [Supervisor Chris] Daly, and he showed up to wield a ceremonial shovel, an unusual role for a public official in the progressive wing of San Francisco politics. “There are a lot of places where high-rises make sense,” he said after the ceremony.”
Did Chris Daly really say that? Then again, it’s amazing how he can be swayed by a little money himself… “when … Urban West Associates of San Diego, agreed to put $20 million into the mayor’s affordable housing development fund and $18 million into the Rincon Hill community improvements fund and a South of Market stabilization fund, the deal was a go.”
