Chicago firm nabs pair of S.F. sites for 40-story tower

From today's SF Business Times,

Chicago-based Fifield Cos. has snapped up two key parcels on the top of Rincon Hill and has hired international celebrity architect Richard Keating to design a 40-story luxury condo tower there.

Fifield finalized the land acquisition earlier this month from Theodore Brown and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which had entitlements to build a 25-story building at 375 Fremont St. and a 28-story tower at 385-399 Fremont St., according to Tim O'Brien, the company's senior vice president.

The new 435-unit project, the application for which was filed March 20, represents a validation of sorts for San Francisco's Rincon Hill plan, which calls for tall svelte buildings pointing skyward. It's also a victory for San Francisco Planning Director Dean Macris, who had criticized the Theodore Brown and Archdiocese designs as excessively dense and light-blotting and had unsuccessfully lobbied for a single, slender tower.

"They were too close together and too clunky," said Macris. "The Fifield design is a wonderful response to the site, it's a beautiful proposal."

The best quote in the article, however, is the response to comments that there are already too many projects in the pipeline, possibly leading to a market saturation...

Despite the more than 30,000 residential units in the pipeline in San Francisco, with 5,000 or 6,000 slated to be completed annually over the year six years, O'Brien said he is not worried about an oversaturated condo market. He said the expense and political obstacles of building in San Francisco will kill off many of the developments. The 20-block Rincon Hill planning area is slated to have 3,675 new housing units, a 1.5-acre community park and $30 million in community enhancements.

I wonder how the other Rincon/SoBe planners/developers feel about that comment?

We all know that Supervisor Daly is torn between creating new housing and milking developers for his own political agenda, but how will the 'Supes react if some of these projects end up mired in Planning hell? Will they find a way to help them get built?