Pier project up in air after Anchor sale
The new owner of San Francisco’s historic Anchor Brewing is undecided about whether it will follow through on plans to build a production facility and visitor center at Pier 48, a project city officials have long hoped would not only attract beer lovers but also bring blue-collar jobs back to the waterfront.
“The short answer is they are currently considering any and all matters and have not made any decisions with respect to ongoing projects,” said Sapporo Holdings spokesman Gino Colangelo. “Nothing has been decided outside of the initial acquisition.”
The Japanese group Sapporo announced this week that it had purchased Anchor Brewing, the craft-beer pioneer established in 1896.
In 2013, Anchor announced that it would
expand from its Potrero Hill facility to Pier 48, which is adjacent to Seawall Lot 337, where the San Francisco Giants are in the final stages of planning a mega-development that will bring 1.4 million square feet of office space, 8 acres of parkland and 1,500 rental housing units to a surface parking lot across Mission Creek from AT&T Park. The project is known as Mission Rock.
While the revival of Pier 48 is a relatively small part of the Giants’ overall plan, it was a sentimental favorite of San Franciscans with an attachment to Anchor Brewing. The original plan called for a production facility that would increase capacity from 180,000 to 680,000 barrels.
Everything from brewing to packaging to shipping, as well as a restaurant, museum and educational space, would be included. At a time when maritime jobs have largely vanished from the San Francisco waterfront, port officials were especially pleased that Anchor planned to ship beer from the pier.
But even before the Sapporo announcement, Anchor’s commitment to the project had started to falter as projected costs to reinforce the pier for additional uses skyrocketed. In May, port officials revealed that the Pier 48 portion of the development, which had been expected to start in early 2019, would be be pushed back several years into a later phase of the Mission Rock development.
Port project manager Phil Williamson said the Anchor project is still part of the overall Giants project that will be before the Planning Commission on Oct. 5.
“While it’s a vision that a lot of people are excited about, we have made the decision to move any industrial development like Anchor Brewing to a future phase of the project,” Williamson said.
Pier 48 currently generates income for the port from parking, storage for the Department of Elections and some special events. Williamson said current uses will likely remain there for at least “five to 10 years.” In September, TechCrunch will host its annual TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017 conference in the 80,000square-foot pier shed.
“We want to keep the facility in usable condition, generating port revenue,” Williamson said.
While Pier 48 received some seismic improvements after a fire in 2002, converting it to a heavy public use with hundreds of daily visitors and workers would trigger a higher standard of reinforcement.
Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said it’s too early to say how the sale of Anchor Brewing will impact the Pier 48 project.
“The Giants and Anchor have enjoyed a very successful partnership for a number of years, and we’re committed to maintaining our strong relationship with future ventures, including at Mission Rock,” she said.
Whether Sapporo decides to move into Pier 48, the Giants are “committed to rehabbing the pier and the apron around it,” Slaughter said. “That pier is going to be a vibrant part of our project.”
Meanwhile, residents who want to see an active waterfront are also uncertain about the future. Jasper Rubin, a San Francisco State University professor of urban studies who sits on several waterfront-related committees, said he loved the Anchor Brewing vision for Pier 48, but his initial reaction to the news of its sale was broader.
“My biggest concern is not with Pier 48 but with the Potrero brewery itself, and I am hoping that nothing happens to that faculty,” he said. “It’s our biggest (production) facility” in the city.
Corinne Woods, a member of the port’s Central Waterfront Advisory Group who lives in a houseboat on Mission Creek, said the escalating cost of fixing the city’s crumbling piers casts doubt on a the economic viability of several port rehabilitation projects.
“Over the last year we have learned a lot more about the condition of the piers, and the kind of money it takes to fix them,” she said. “Everybody is still trying to figure out what can be done — and what it will cost and whether there is enough of a return on investment to make it pay.”