“Westbay Builders has purchased a 25,380-square-foot industrial property at 72 Townsend St. for $9.2 million and plans on developing a nine-story, 74-unit condo building on the site….The project is fully approved and will incorporate a historic one-story warehouse built in 1874 for grain storage. “ (Flynn Properties scores with SoMa, Potrero sales)
Good addition, will add some more units to this area and will complete the streetscape. Also the proposed building while not setting the world on fire has a nice step back from the street. Do think that there appears to be a glut of ground floor retail in South Beach/Mission Bay but will take empty retail to boarded up retail anyday!
Good news for the neighborhood. More residents means more restaurants and better commercial offerings.
Now if only the stadium could be removed when this neighborhood is finally complete. The only good thing the bridge and tunnel game spectators bring is cash infusions to neighborhood businesses. Otherwise I am happy when the baseball season ends.
You mean the stadium that brought the bridge and tunnellers, and yes, us natives, and thier cash infusions that changed that neighborhood from railroads and warehouses to lofts and condos? The lofts and condos that you now live in? You mean that stadium? Hey bub, go back to St. Paul or wherever it was you came from. We’ll keep the ballpark right where it is.
I’m happy to have AT&T Park where it is, and agree that anyone who moved into the area after the park opened knew what he/she was getting in to.
I will note, however, that the recent development of condos in Mission Bay has everything to do with the plan that brought UCSF, biotech, and housing to Mission Bay, and little to do with the ballpark. Mission Bay housing would have been built even if the Giants had gone elsewhere.
Is that picture current? It doesn’t look like 88 Townsend does now in the picture….
If you google the location – you’ll find a link to John King’s article about historic ruse projects.
There are models of what the building might look like. The setback means that the building will look a lot nicer than 88 Townsend which really butchered things.
I’m looking forward to another nice restaurant finding it’s way into the neighborhood.
Anyone have any clue what is happening with all the work to teh building on 2nd across the street from Falstaff? With the high ceilings it looks perfect for a restaurant.
And if everything comes together say two years from now – 2nd street (and it’s side streets) would be one of the hottest dinner destinations in town.
Curious – building under construction in the photo is 88 Townsend
“Historic ruse projects”… that’s a wonderfully appropriate typo.
The change in the neighborhood has nothing to do with the stadium. All of those buildings would be there if the Giants played in San Jose. The neighborhood was transformed because of demand for new construction, relative proximity to the city center, civic paralysis that restricted new development to that part of the city, and a firehose of cheap loans.
Don’t forget a lot of people would never have set foot in south beach were it not for the ballpark, and they never would in the future. A lot of buyers in SoBe for example are empty nesters from the suburbs and probably went to some ballgames and said, wow what a cool area…why in the world am I commuting so far when I could live in a new place downtown.
For anyone to say buyers knew what they were getting into with a stadium, we’ll that is kinda true I guess, but look at what happened to nightclubs in SoMa and SoBe. There used to be tons. Then condominiums moved in, complained vigorously and got almost all of them shut down.
Anyway, no one can deny that in addition to some fine upstanding giants fans there are a bunch of drunken modesto lowlifes that invade the area on a regular basis at gametime. I sure would rather live a few more blocks away from the ballpark.
And by the way 49giants, SF has always been a place where ‘no one is from there’ except for you I guess. Maybe you’d prefer that anyone without gold rush ancestry in SF should leave? The reason why SF is such a vibrant city is because people from all over the world move to SF because they want to be there.
The stadium DID change the development in this neighborhood, especially this strip and the 100 block of Townsend/King. This area used to be a great club area. Many of us MOURN the loss of 177 Townsend. When the Ballpark moved in, it was the City’s desire to have a neighborhood of condos, faced with red brick, to match the new stadium. This meant that many great warehouses were torn down. The only force Willie Brown apparently couldn’t tackle was Ronald McDonald. I’m all for “highest and best use,” but this neighborhood was a place for many of us to go every weekend, and I wouldn’t step foot in it anymore (well, I do go to Limn to pick up my rich clients expensive furniture for their overpriced homes). Otherwise, all it is is the place for already drunk Marina girls and jock guys to jump in a taxi and go to continue drinking. If I hear another girl on Chestnut St. shreak, “Let’s go to MoMo’s!” I’m going to kill someone.
I’m pretty sure it was the earthquake that changed SoBe; all else, including the ballpark, ultimately flows from that.
This development could be off again… all the marketing window material has been removed, so we are either getting some new temp retail (no details visibile) or the building could be back on the market.