Anchor’s brewery plan losing some steam

Retrofit costs delaying Pier 48 building project

When the San Francisco Giants and Anchor Brewing said in 2013 that the revered local beer maker would open a large brewery on Pier 48 as part of the Giants’ huge Mission Rock project, it seemed like a perfect fit — cool brews on the changing waterfront. Or, maybe not. Instead of Pier 48 being renovated to house a manufacturing facility when Mission Rock begins construction, perhaps as early as 2019, that phase of the development has been moved to the back of the line. And the details are vague as to what presence Anchor might actually have.

“Pier 48 will be in the later phases of the project,” Fran Weld, the Giants’ vice president of strategy and development, said Wednesday. “At that point in time, Anchor will look at its overall priorities.”

People familiar with the still-evolving plans say the problem isn’t the financial health of the brewery, which has a plant at the base of Potrero Hill and has been in business in the city since 1896. The issue is the daunting costs of seismic upgrades and making the aged pier strong enough for a new use.

The price tag on such structural work could easily top $25 million, they say, even before Anchor starts spending to convert a pair of glorified sheds into a brewery that would include 50-foot-tall grain and yeast tanks and an estimated 75 workers per shift.

Similar cost issues have helped scuttle other proposals for piers along the Embarcadero. This includes the Warriors arena that was to rise on Piers 30-32 before the basketball team turned its sights to Mission Bay, where construction is under way.

Both the Giants and their landlord, the Port of San Francisco, say they’re still intent on finding a way for Anchor to be part of a renewed Pier 48.

“We do still see Anchor as a partner in Mission Rock and Pier 48,” said Phil Williamson, the port official in charge of reviewing the 27-acre proposal. “We’ve put a lot of thought and effort into how this might work, and there’s still a hope that it will happen.”

Similarly, the Giants’ Weld stressed, “we’re definitely committed to a partnership at Mission Rock with Anchor.”

But instead of kicking off the ambitious project with a feel-good restoration of Pier 48, which was the idea when the plan was announced in 2013 and Anchor talked grandly of opening by the end of 2016, construction now is scheduled to start along Mission Creek. Four housing and office buildings would rise in tandem with 4.5-acre China Basin Park.

“As we’ve worked on scheduling different aspects of the project, it became clear to us that affordable housing and open space” should be the first elements out of the gate, Weld said.

The park will also be designed as part of Mission Rock’s efforts to prepare for the likelihood of sea-level rise in coming decades.

The Giants were awarded development rights to Mission Rock in 2008, only to be stalled by the recession. Plans revved up again in 2012, but stalled when a voter initiative required that developers seek approvals for any proposed height increases on port property.

That permission was secured in 2015, and the team last week released an environmental impact report for the project, which would include as many as 1,600 housing units and more than 1 million square feet of commercial space. The report also details how Pier 48 would be restored to accommodate “production facilities for brewing, distilling, packaging, storing and shipping product.”

The Giants hope to win approvals for the project this fall. If the economy holds, construction of the first phase could begin by 2019.

Asked to comment on its plans for Pier 48, Anchor Brewing released a statement Wednesday saying the firm “continues to work with the Giants ... with the aim to build a brewery on the pier. The process is complex and still in early stage development.”

Anchor also emphasized that a recent upgrade to its Potrero Hill plant “has given us plenty of breathing room for production capacity.”

Wednesday, Williamson conceded that no development project on a historic pier is easy.

“It’s nothing like building something on actual vacant land,” Williamson said. “Costs and flexibilities are always moving targets.”