Organized Labor

Project Would Create Mixed Use Development on the Embarcadero

San Francisco Waterfront Partners, LLC (SFWP) has proposed a new development at 8 Washington Street near the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero. SFWP is a partnership of Pacific Waterfront Partners, LLC and its principal investor the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS). The project will include 170 residential units and a 350-car underground parking garage. An additional 34 units of affordable housing would be built off-site.

Pacific Waterfront Partners Managing Director Simon Snellgrove presented plans for the 8 Washington Street development at a San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council delegates meeting September 26. He asked for support from the SFBCTC for SFWP’s efforts to combine four lots for the development in order to move the project forward. Snellgrove said the plans for the 8-story, 84-feet tall residential building include improved public access reconnecting Jackson Street to the waterfront and an improved environment for pedestrians, bicycles, and users of public transit. Plans for street level restaurants, cafes are also in the works.

Snellgrove said one area of controversy for the planned development is the proposal to eliminate three of the nine tennis courts of the Golden Gateway Tennis Club. While some Tennis Club members want to maintain the existing number of courts, Snellgrove said that the SFWP proposal would expand and improve recreation space for the tennis and swim club and increase the outdoor recreational area for children’s summer programs. SFWP also proposes to build a health club to create other recreation opportunities for tennis club members and residents.

The proposed 350-car parking garage is designed to remove 268 cars from current parking spaces along streets and on piers. Snellgrove said the garage would reduce traffic congestion by consolidating the parking spaces and re-routing traffic off the Embarcadero into a dedicated lane to the parking garage. “The street is like an open parking lot now,” said Snellgrove. “This gets all these cars off the street.

The proposed residential building features luxury condominiums with real stone walls, brass railings and mahogany fixtures. “High end housing pushes up all housing, and creates more opportunities,” Snellgrove said. “It will lift up the quality of the neighborhood.” He said SFWP was looking to get LEED certification as a green building by including a roof top rainwater collection system.

SFWP has conducted a series of meetings with neighbors to tout the project as a positive enhancement for the community. Snellgrove pointed out that it meets and exceeds the goals of the City’s Waterfront Land Use Plan which calls for exploring “the possibility of obtaining economic value from Seawall Lot b351 by combining it with the adjacent Golden Gateway residential site to provide expanded opportunities for mixed residential and commercial development.”

“The Port loves the project but it needs resounding support from the Board of Supervisors, and they need to hear from supporters,” Snellgrove said. He estimated that the demolition, shoring, excavation and construction at the 750,000 square foot site would be completed within 27 to 29 months and would provide jobs for an average of 160 workers per day.

SFWP was selected by The Port of San Francisco to redevelop and re-use the historic Piers 1 1?2, 3 and 5. This Public-Private partnership between SFWP and The Port focuses on preserving and rehabilitating the historic maritime design of the Northeast Waterfront and the Ferry Building Waterfront while enhancing the public use and access to the historic and scenic waterfront setting. Work on the piers is expected to be completed in November.

“The 8 Washington project is not huge but it is an elegant and attractive project of which Building Trades workers can be proud,” said Mike Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building Trades Council. “The opening of Jackson St to the waterfront will provide a boom for San Francisco.”