Organized Labor

Project Would Create Mixed Use Development on the Embarcadero

After hearing from supporters and opponents of the proposed 8 Washington Street Development at its meeting Feb. 24, the San Francisco Port Commission voted unanimously to enter into an exclusive negotiation agreement with San Francisco Waterfront Partners (SFWP). SFWP is a partnership of Pacific Waterfront Partners, LLC and its principal investor, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS). SFWP worked with the Port of San Francisco to redevelop and re-use the historic Piers 1-1/2, 3 and 5, completed in November 2006.

The $364 million 8 Washington Street project will feature two 8-story condominium buildings of about 84 feet in height with 70-85 residential condominiums as well as ground floor restaurants and retail space.

Building Trades union members turned out to support the project, which would provide jobs for an average of 160 construction workers every day during construction, according to the developer. SFBCTC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mike Theriault called on the Port to work with SFWP to get the project going to create jobs at a time when construction workers are hurting. “Jobs in construction are down,” Theriault said. “We need jobs. Even with the federal economic stimulus funds, jobs in construction will be slow for another year. We can’t count on public sector projects and need private development projects like this one. This project will provide jobs and increased tax revenues for the City and the Port.” He acknowledged that there was some local opposition to the development but told Port Commissioners that, “The virtues outweigh the downsides of this project.”

“We need these jobs and this project is a good use of the land, which is now a vacant lot,” said Joel Koppel, a labor representative for the electrical industry who addressed the board.

SFWP’s 8 Washington Street project on the east side of the Embarcadero north of the Ferry Building will include residential units, restaurants, retail shops, and outdoor public access connecting Jackson Street with the Waterfront. The mixed-use development combines the Port’s Seawall Lot 351, currently a 2/3 acre parking lot, with the adjacent privately owned Golden Gateway Tennis and Swim Club property so that the entire block bounded by The Embarcadero, Washington and Drumm Streets would be developed as one 3.2 acre project. A new Golden Gateway Tennis and Swim Club and an underground public garage would replace the existing tennis facility and parking lot at Embarcadero and Jackson Street.

Adrian Simi, Carpenters Local 22 Field Representative pointed out that while opponents of the development say they want to preserve open space, “A blighted parking lot is not open space” and urged the Commissioners to back the project as a way to create jobs. An underground garage with about 170 spaces for the residential units and 350 spaces for the public would replace approximately 268 parking spaces in existing parking lots along the streets and piers. The public garage would help support the growing number of visitors to the Farmer’s Market, Ferry Building retailers and other businesses along the waterfront and would reduce traffic congestion by consolidating the parking spaces and re-routing traffic off the Embarcadero into a dedicated lane to the parking garage.

Opposition to the 8 Washington Street project is led by members of the Golden Gateway Tennis and Swim Club, organized as Friends of Golden Gateway (FOGG). They expressed objections to the proposed changes to the tennis courts and the heights of the proposed condominiums. Zoning in the area limits heights to the 84 feet proposed for the 8 Washington Street condos; some residents want to limit heights to 40 feet. The project would relocate the swimming pools to the site of the existing 90 space parking lot, and rebuild the tennis and swim club with four outdoor courts instead of the current nine courts. The group has begun to circulate a petition opposing the development.

SFWP’s Simon Snellgove noted that there was some local opposition to his project but that, “There is citywide support for the development.” He gave the Port Commissioners stacks of letters of support from businesses, individuals, and labor and political leaders. “We have an opportunity to work on creating a good waterfront project for the City and the Port,” he said. “We have created public open space, not private club space.”

Port Commissioner Mike Hardeman, Business Agent for Sign and Display Local 510, expressed frustration that Port development projects have taken years to get started. “I want to see some projects where we get some shovels in the ground,” he told Organized Labor. He called for the Port Commission to be more aggressive in moving forward on development of SWL 351 as well as a proposed cruise ship terminal for Pier 27 and projects at Pier 70. He said the relocation of the Exploratorium to Piers 15 and 17 would be a huge project that would also create hundreds of jobs.

The Port is also expected to gain financially from the $364 million 8 Washington Street development, with annual rental fees of over $500,000. Those funds would help pay for repairs of rotting and rusting piers along the city’s 7 1/2-mile waterfront that could cost as much as $1.9 billion.

While voting to enter into negotiations with SFWP, the Port also agreed to undertake a public planning process in conjunction with the San Francisco Planning Department regarding the Port’s seawall lots on the northern waterfront, including Seawall Lot 351, to be completed no later than October 27, 2009. The move came in response to Third District Supervisor and new Board President David Chiu, who wrote to the Port urging a re-examination of the city’s northern waterfront developments. In his Feb. 19 letter, Chiu wrote that, “Several port-initiated development efforts have failed in the face of community opposition. Similar concerns are currently being raised regarding the proposed development at Seawall Lot 351 and the future development of seawall lots on the northern waterfront, and I share many of these concerns.”

The Port’s Communications Manager Renée Dunn said that, “The Port welcomes Supervisor Chiu’s suggestions and we look forward to a more extensive planning process.” However, at the same time, the Port just approved the ENA [exclusive negotiation agreement with SF Waterfront Partners] and that will go forward. “While there could be some modifications to the 8 Washington Street project as a result of the planning process, we have given the green light to Port staff to look at the development design and details and work through it,” Dunn said.

The developer expressed confidence that the project would win support from the community and from the Board of Supervisors, which ultimately would have to OK the project. SFWP spokesman P.J. Johnston told the San Francisco Chronicle that the public planning process would help gain support for the SWL 351 development. “We think we have a great project. And the more people see it, the more they like it,” Johnston said. The Chronicle also reported that Supervisor Chiu’s legislative aide, David Noyola, said that the planning process “could create clear goals about the waterfront development, which would likely accelerate Snellgrove’s project rather than slow it.”

Also testifying in support of the project at the Port Commission meeting was San Francisco Housing Action Coalition Executive Director Tim Colen. He told Commissioners to support the project as a way to bring in revenue to fix the Port’s crumbling infrastructure as well as support the construction of affordable housing. He said the Commissioners should consider whether the development would “benefit a narrow interest or a broad interest.” As part of its project, SFWP would pay into the City’s affordable housing fund to develop an additional 34 units of affordable housing off-site. “Under the City’s inclusionary housing ordinance, (the developer) is required to provide 15 to 20 percent desperately needed below market rate housing in District 3,” Colen wrote in a letter to the Port Commission. “Depending on the project size, this is estimated at 21 to 34 homes for families that could not otherwise obtain them. Does losing five private tennis courts trump this much affordable housing for District 3 families?”

SFWP is currently undergoing an environmental impact review for 8 Washington Street, which includes a review of the project with and without Seawall Lot 351. Once the project is underway, 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.

“The 8 Washington project is not huge but it is an elegant and attractive project of which Building Trades workers can be proud,” said SFBCTC Secretary-Treasurer Mike Theriault.