“A new San Francisco Justice Facilities Improvement Study by architects Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and Mark Cavagnero Associates identifies 1.5 acres of city-owned land on the southwest corner of Third Street and Mission Rock as the “preferred location” for a 265,000-square-foot building that could house police headquarters, the Southern District police station, a fire station, and parking for 171 police vehicles.
In addition to the Mission Bay site, the study looked at two secondary locations: a parcel at Third and Evans streets and another on Bryant Street, between Fourth and Fifth. Both of those sites would require the city to acquire privately owned property.”
UPDATE (2/14): A plugged-in reader provides a link to the rough massing (above) as well as “cost estimates, a timeline, and more info on what else is planned as part of this major overhaul.”
∙ SFPD headquarters pick: Mission Bay [San Francisco Business Times]
The way SF does things I bet that this will end up costing more than $300mm (way over $1K/sf) if they decide to build it…
I am not a subscriber, so I can’t read the whole thing, but I wonder if they mean the southEAST corner of that intersection.
The most recent land use plan I can find for Mission Bay has parcel 4 marked residential, though parcel 8 across the street was planned for public facilities. (I think parcel 8 currently has an old fire station there now that’s used as a homeless food distribution site)
As a side note, the city this land use map, but it’s not any more recent.
Good point FormerAptBroker. To get the total cost, you could take the national average for construction costs for this type of structure and then triple them since this is San Fransicsco – and then double them again since this is a SF govt project. If your $300M estimate is about right and there are 10 police districts in SF (75,000 people per dist), that works out to a cost of over $4,000 per person. The real questions which will probably never be asked are why do we need a new station and why 265K square feet. If you put this cost on a per crime solved basis, the number would be astronomical. On a per murder solved basis, it would approach infinity.
But stimulus is good, right?
^^^We need it because of seismic codes passed by voters in a proposition years ago (don’t remember which one). Just another case of voters saying, “Hmmm, yep, we definitely need all new buildings for our police HQs around the state. Sound good”, without voters finding a way to pay for them. God I hate direct democracy.
> without voters finding a way to pay for them.
It seems to me that in California everything is paid for by issuing new bonds…
The remarks about cost don’t make sense to me. The relatively recently constructed addition to the hall of justice turned out to be relatively frugal. These structures also get extremely heavy use and have many years between upgrades or replacement. If you have excellent knowledge of efficient construction, then why aren’t you getting involved. Isn’t it obvious that wanting more from the SFPD and failing to support their need for facilities represents a self defeating conflict?
We don’t need a new $300M building to improve public safety and solve crimes in this city. We just need a city govt that is less pro-criminal, a DA who is willing to prosecute, citizens who are willing to snitch, and cops who will get off their *ss and go catch bad guys.
God knows the Southern Station needs an improved, adequate facility. With AT&T Park and all the other events that happen in and around their precinct area, it is a shame they work in the shoe box shared with the court house. Let’s do this!
I thought you were going to pick the article about tech jobs 🙂
Brutus,
Seismic Codes in California are NOT approved by voters – they are set by the California Building Standards Commission (www.bsc.ca.gov). I’m not sure about a SF voter initiative requiring stricter codes, but there a very real risk of a major earthquake causing catastrophic damage and loss of life to our public facilities. See this recently released SPUR report for more information:
http://www.spur.org/documents/020109_article_01.shtm
At least it’s well served by public transit.
The remarks about cost don’t make sense to me.
This is just the usual FSBO negative about everything comment. I’ll bet you a beer that it costs less than $300M FSBO.
Here is a more realistic estimate:
http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/news/2008/04/cost-increases-for-four-institutional-building-categories/
San Francisco construction costs for a police station are listed at $246/sq ft.
FAB and FSBO’s estimates are ludicrous.
NVJ – I’ll take you up on the bet. The Business Times article cites the $200M cost – FAB and I are just applying the usual govt overrun to that figure. (How many fold has the Bay Bridge east span increased since its inception?) I’m printing the entire BT article below. It gets worse – they are also talking about a $440M new jail. Those seem like staggering sums to me – particularly on a per capita basis and in light of the massive current deficits at the city and state levels (not to mention the soon-to-be $12T federal deficit). Yes, I admit that I am pretty negative on govt spending. And I firmly believe that the real solution to improving public safety lies not in facility spending but with the basic points I mentioned in my other post. But I will gladly pay off on the bet. Here’s the article:
SFPD headquarters pick: Mission Bay $200M project would add police presence to biotech hotbed
San Francisco Business Times – by J.K. Dineen San Francisco Business Times
San Francisco officials have identified Mission Bay as the top choice for a new $200 million police headquarters, a project that would bring a busy civic use to a neighborhood that has been defined by housing and life science development.
A new San Francisco Justice Facilities Improvement Study by architects Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and Mark Cavagnero Associates identifies 1.5 acres of city-owned land on the southwest corner of Third Street and Mission Rock as the “preferred location” for a 265,000-square-foot building that could house police headquarters, the Southern District police station, a fire station, and parking for 171 police vehicles.
In addition to the Mission Bay site, the study looked at two secondary locations: a parcel at Third and Evans streets and another on Bryant Street, between Fourth and Fifth. Both of those sites would require the city to acquire privately owned property.
Built in 1985, the current Hall of Justice does not meet seismic codes and is half the size needed to meet standards set by the California Correctional Standards Authority.
Moving a major public agency to the nascent Mission Bay would create hundreds of construction jobs and could help bolster retail and housing projects in Mission Bay. Immediately south of the preferred site is Seawall Lot 337, where a development team headed by the San Francisco Giants, Wilson Meany Sullivan and Kenwood Development is planning to build 875 rental units, 240,000 square feet of retail and 1 million square feet of office space. On the other side of the site is Bosa Development’s Radiance condo project.
Kelly Kahn, Mission Bay project manager for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, said the Mission Bay plan has always called for a small district police and fire station on the parcel, which is already home to a small historic brick fire house. But the notion of also building the police headquarters on the site emerged recently in discussions with the Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Project Management, which oversees public construction projects for the city. Kahn called the police headquarters idea “incredibly preliminary” but “generally well within what is contemplated for the block.” She said “at this point, our reaction has been pretty positive.”
“Our instinct is that we could do a really architecturally excellent and strong civic building there,” said Kahn. “We have our housing and biotech jobs and our parks and our supermarket and our library. A strong civic building could really add to the mix of uses, which is definitely part of the vision of Mission Bay.”
The agencies currently housed at the decrepit Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St. would be split into two campuses, one possibly in Mission Bay and one near the current building, under the scenario outlined in the study. The cluster near the current Hall of Justice would include an 828-bed replacement jail, as well as offices for the district attorney, public defender, and police investigations and traffic divisions. The report outlines several possibilities for a new replacement jail, one to the east of the current Hall of Justice at Sixth and Bryant and one directly across Bryant Street.
Quickest scenario means 2014
Under the implementation schedule, construction on a Mission Bay police headquarters could start in 2012 and — under the quickest scenario — police brass could move in by early 2014. The other criminal justice campus would be built out in a longer period of time. The study calls for the new jail, with an estimated price tag of between $439 million and $444 million, to be completed by 2016. The other Hall of Justice facilities — police investigations and local justice agencies — would not be ready for occupancy until 2020.
But even though construction is years away, the new public safety complex is already a hot topic among city architects. The city has put out a request for qualifications to design the new police headquarters, which would be funded through a bond measure put to voters next November. The proposals were due on Feb. 2 and nine design teams submitted, according to Jim Buker, project manager of the Department of Public Works.
While the teams have not been disclosed, architecture sources said those seeking the assignment include: KMD Architects with Tom Eliot Fisch; Beverly Prior Architects with HellerManus; Studios Architecture; Skidmore Owings Merrill; Perkins + Will; Cannon Design; and the HOK/Cavagnero joint venture that compiled the study. The design teams will be interviewed the last week in February, and five finalists will be picked.
“We’re in a recession and this is a big job and a city job, which always get a lot of interest,” said Douglas Tom, a principal with Tom Eliot Fisch, who added that the level of interest was a “sign of the times.”
Other city buildings as well
In addition to the SFPD headquarters, Mission Bay could become home to the city’s 72,000-square-foot office of the medical examiner and the police department’s forensics lab, according to the facilities improvement study. The study says that the facility would be in leased space and that “planning for the facility is well under way.”
The city has been in negotiations to lease space in 1600 Owens St., one of the entitled life science buildings Alexandria Real Estate Equities plans to build in the biotech cluster, but those talks slowed down last summer as the credit crisis froze new commercial real estate development, according to San Francisco Director of Real Estate Amy Brown.
“It looked pretty promising, but everything came to a screeching halt when the credit dried up,” said Brown. “It may get back on track, depending on what happens with credit markets and development in general.”
Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus publicly stated Oct. 30 of last year that it was putting several Mission Bay projects on hold despite having tenants willing to lease between 200,000 and 300,000 square feet of build-to-suit space.
For anyone interested in seeing a (very basic) rendering of the proposed police headquarters, the following link is from a November 2008 presentation that included cost estimates, a timeline, and more info on what else is planned as part of this major overhaul.
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/cpp/meetings/cpc/supporting/2008/JFIP_HOJ_and_FSC_Presentation_FINAL.pdf
Also, the following link is a rather fascinating January 28, 2009 overview of the City’s capital plan for the next approximately 10 years. It includes plans to overhaul/replace several key facilities, including SF General Hospital and the Hall of Justice. It gives a more complete cost estimate than the Business Times article and the November presentation. The Hall of Justice replacement section starts on slide 32:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/cpp/meetings/cpc/supporting/2008/CCSF_09_18_Cap_Plan_Debt_Summary.pdf
If they are talking $200M today, you are right that it may well go over. That number seems obscenely high to me. How much did the Mission Station cost?
I don’t understand how we can need a new jail so soon. I remember them finishing up the jail in the late nineties, was that just an expansion? It seemed like a whole new jail at the time. The old Hall of Justice was built in 1985 and they need to replace it so soon? This is nuts.
I’ll take the over on a $300M estimate for a new police station. In fact, after reading the article and applying some common sense as regards the gooberment, I’ll bet a beer that it will come in way over $400M. They’re saying that it could be completed in 2014, so let’s check back in, say, 2020 and see who wins!
This discussion is mostly moot anyway, if those links from Lower Safeway are correct, since they state that funding for this project would have to be approved by a 2/3 vote.
I can remember bond issues like this passing for hospitals, parks, schools, museums, transit and fire stations. But I remember a few times when bond money for a new jail was put on the ballot and failed, though I have to admit that I cannot find this in the archives. Maybe this was before 1998.
Voters might be more receptive today, but I kind of doubt it. Why is there so much space planned for expansion anyway? Is City Hall expecting to have more criminals in 2010 than today?