Yerba Buena condos get big project rolling
Units early step of Treasure Island redevelopment
Yerba Buena Island, the rocky outcropping that rises from the bay next to Treasure Island, is home to a Coast Guard station, a marina, 145 species of plants and 21 types of birds.
Soon it will also be home to a species that until now has not inhabited the island: the San Francisco condominium owner.
Developer Wilson Meany this week started construction there on 266 condominiums. The units — a collection of flats, town houses, and a fivestory apartment building — will be tucked into a hillside surrounded by 72 acres of hiking trails, beaches and landscaped parks.
While the 266 units represent all the housing planned
for Yerba Buena Island, the project is significant because it marks the first phase of the massive redevelopment that also includes Treasure Island, the man-made former U.S. Navy base where 7,744 other units are to be built, along with a hotel, restaurants and retail.
The revenue generated from the condo sales on Yerba Buena Island will help pay for new infrastructure on Treasure Island.
“It’s taken years to get here, but the start of this project creates real momentum for the transformation of Yerba Buena Island, and particularly Treasure Island,” said Judson True, director of housing delivery for San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “We need to do everything we can to accelerate the creation of the 8,000 units approved in the project, more than a quarter of which will be affordable.”
The plan for Yerba Buena Island — previously called Goat Island and Sea Bird Island — is distinct from the dense urban neighborhood planned for Treasure Island, developer Chris Meany said.
Yerba Buena Island is natural; Treasure Island is man-made. Yerba Buena is hilly; Treasure Island is flat. There will be no retail on Yerba Buena, while the Treasure Island plan calls for 140,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.
Yerba Buena will have just 14 below-market-rate units, priced at between 80% and 120% of area median income — that’s between $78,800 and $118,200 for a two-person household. Treasure Island will have about 2,000 affordable units, at a range of income levels.
Seventy-five percent of Yerba Buena Island is being preserved for open space — parks, sandy beaches, and 5 miles of hiking and biking paths. Treasure Island will also have about 300 acres of open space, but the development will be denser, with multiple buildings over 200 feet and the tallest tower rising 450 feet.
“The plan always called for Treasure Island to have all the density and for Yerba Buena Island to be a low-density place where we would do as much as we can to restore the habitat,” Meany said. “We really did look at the development of Yerba Buena as being independent of Treasure Island . ... In terms of the place-making, it really is 100% its own thing.”
While the plan has been in the works for 20 years, the residential units will arrive at a time when San Francisco is facing a severe housing shortage. Construction is to start next year on the first of the Treasure Island developments, a 100-unit joint venture between the Chinatown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Swords to Plowshares that will house formerly homeless veterans. It is to open in 2021.
Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes the islands, said he’s pleased to see construction crews there.
“Yerba Buena is a beautiful island and people should live there,” Haney said. “This takes us a step in that direction.” Still, the project has caused some anxiety among Treasure Island residents.
There are about 1,800 residents living there in dilapidated buildings constructed during World War II. Those buildings are to be knocked down, and most residents were given the choice of taking a buyout or relocating into new units at their old rents. There are also lingering questions about the cleanup of the island, which the U.S. Navy is responsible for completing, as well as about whether the island’s engineering plan will protect the new community from sea level rise.
About 40 households lived on Yerba Buena Island until they were evicted in 2015 to make room for the redevelopment. About one-third of those residents chose to take a payment and move elsewhere. About two-thirds relocated to other apartments on Treasure Island and will eventually be housed in the new buildings.
“There is still a lot of anxiety among the residents on T.I. whether there will be housing for them and how much it will cost,” Haney said. “The general sense among residents is, ‘the project looks beautiful and we are happy it’s being built, but we don’t think many of those units will be for people like us.’ ”
Pricing on the Yerba Buena Island condos has not been released. But the project’s amenities — a 14,000-square-foot clubhouse with a lounge, dining room, bar, game room, spa, sauna, massage room, fitness studio, locker rooms, terrace and outdoor lap pool — make it clear that the developer is aiming to compete with the luxury towers that have popped up in recent years just across the bay.
Meany said the units would be marketed at “San Francisco prices — not inexpensive.”
Condos in San Francisco average $1,378 a square foot for low-rise buildings and $1,667 a square foot for highrises, according to Polaris Pacific, a condo marketing and sales company. But Polaris Pacific research director Miles Garber said it’s unclear how Yerba Buena would compare to other developments. Sales will commence early next year and the first units will be ready for occupancy in 2021.
“There are no comps (comparable properties),” Garber said. “We have never seen anything like it in the marketplace.”
The key to the plan’s success is the construction of a ferry terminal, with frequent service to San Francisco, said Gregg Lynn, a broker with Sotheby’s International who specializes in high-end condos.
“As soon as you provide direct ferry access to and from downtown San Francisco, that will take the whole unknown out of it,” he said. “By the time the place opens, I’ll have to hear that there is ferry service every 15 minutes between 6 a.m. and midnight. If they can tell me that, then I will bring my clients there.”
V. Fei Tsen, who chairs the Treasure Island Development Authority Board of Directors, predicted the island’s parks and trails, public artwork and views would become a major destination.
“I represent the public, and what the public gets out of this is a wonderful 72 acres of open space,” she said. “I think it will attract families. I think it will attract international travelers. I think it’s going to be a really popular spot.”