A plugged-in reader’s (slightly edited) 12 notes on Emerald Fund’s proposal to develop 333 Harrison Street which has been approved by San Francisco’s Planning Commission:
1. The new building will be sandwiched between Bridgeview and One Rincon.
2. Some Bridgeview owners will be adversely affected. The lower level units will lose their views as the new building will be 40 feet away.
3. The building will house rental units.
4. Rents will be expensive: from $ 3,000 to $ 3,500 per month.
5. Approximately [7-stories] high.
6. The units are small, mostly one bedroom units averaging 500 square ft.
7. They will have a great public park, looks like a courtyard.
8. It will take approximately 2 years to complete.
9. One Rincon Hill is not at all affected.
10. The Metropolitan will not be affected.
11. Another nice perk: they will have a dog run (Park South below).
12. They have plans to convert them into condos within 15-20 years (that is what they told us). But, it is most likely much sooner than that time frame.
Design (and all images) by David Baker + Partners Architects.
UPDATE: A bit of clarification on those parks from another reader:
Emerald Fund is not building either park, especially not the dog run at Bryant/Beale. Caltrans is building that one on their own land. Caltrans would only agree to do that if they could sell their Fremont/Harrison parcel for a decent amount of dough, and they will use some of that money for Bryant/Beale.
Cheers.
∙ 685 Units Looking Beyond The Current San Francisco Downturn [SocketSite]
∙ 333 Harrison Street Design: Slide Show [dbarchitect.com]
“4. The rent will be expensive… from $ 3,000 to $ 3,500.00.”
Translation: These are the rents that would cause the project to pencil out for a lender.
just a couple clarifications:
Emerald Fund is not building either park, especially not the dog run at Bryant/Beale. Caltrans is building that one on their own land. Caltrans would only agree to do that if they could sell their Fremont/Harrison parcel for a decent amount of dough, and they will use some of that money for Bryant/Beale.
diemos – good point. At $3K or so per month, they might get an NOI of $25K. What do you estimate their cost basis for a 500 sf unit? A cap rate of 6% would imply about $400K – 10% would require just $250K. I’d want to run the numbers with rents for a 1BR at under $2K. Seems like your all-in costs would need to be well under $500 psf to expect any kind of rate of return. Who’s funding low cap rate projects these days?
The solar hot water panels appear to be in the shadow of ORH. D’oh!
Why is that developers insist on building right next to the Bay Bridge? Is that the only land they can find? This looks like a nice little addition the neighborhood, but seriously, right next to the freeway? It’s got the terrible ORH location with none of the benefits (you’ve never be high enough to escape the noise/soot).
When does construction start?
To give some elevation perspective, Harrison goes over Beale and is always packed when the eastbound traffic on the Bay Bridge is backed up. Parking will be a nightmare at times.
Bridgeview owners will be adversely affected (the lower level units will lose their views). The new bldg will be 40 feet away from the Bridgeview.
Will it block their views of the approach to the Bay Bridge?
I wonder why the didn’t make the park a little smaller and make the units more resonable in size…500 for a 1bd is tiny.
tipster – true, the Rincon towers will shadow the solar panels for a portion of the day (and so will the Bridgeview later in the day). One would hope that the engineers have taken the % of sunlight received into the design. I’m sure that those are actually pre-heaters that feed into ordinary gas or electric heaters. Their purpose is not to fully heat the water but rather take some of the workload off of the gas or electric heaters.
On another topic, check out that first 3D drawing. The perspective seems to be intentionally chosen to exaggerate the size of the existing towers and under emphasize the size of this new project.
… actually got my orientation a little wrong. Bridgeview should not shadow this new development.
Excited about the prospect of having a public open space in Rincon Hill!
I think this is a positive for the entire neighborhood, with perhaps the narrow exception of those at the Bridgeview losing their view. It’s certainly a great improvement over the abandoned lot currently there. Moreover, the apartments/condos will apparently reduce the noise from the bridge for the ‘park area’ in front. Looking forward to it.
Those Bridgeview units aren’t losing a “view.” A view of what? A Caltrans construction office, a chain link fence and the side of 1 Rincon? Give me a break.
Also on point #2 above — the 333 Harrison building will not be 40 feet away, it will be over 50 feet away — 25% wider than all the small streets in Soma and just as wide as most of the standard streets in the City, where buildings very happily face each other.
40 feet away is a lot more reasonable (for 333 Harrison) than 3 feet away, as is the proposed design for 430 Main / 429 Beale. http://livable.wetpaint.com for design plans of the 430 Main design that is totally unfair and inconsiderate to BayCrest residents in regards to the sunlight and our open space areas. Sign my petition!
What are the plans for full time security at the park and enforcement of keeping the dogs in the dog run (vs the rest of the park)?
If you’ve been to South Park, you know the above two questions are very, very necessary…
Rents will be expensive: from $ 3,000 to $ 3,500 per month.[snip] The units are small, mostly one bedroom units averaging 500 square ft.
$3k/mo to live in a 500 sq ft apartment that’s right next to a highway? I have a hard time believing that.
Peer pressure will likely be needed to keep dogs in the dog run area at Bryant and Beale … the community or parks & rec would lock up the Byrant and Beale park, most likely, to try to protect it from all the typical ailments of living in an urban environment (graffitti, homeless encampments, etc). Hats off to the residents at Watermark for the efforts behind the dog park … and I don’t think it had anything to do with the Fremont/Harrison property deal …. Caltrans liked the idea last year or whenever as a photo opportunity to mark the completion of the western approach of the Bay Bridge retrofit work. Period.
Second what Jamie said. Beale park is fenced and will be locked during off hours.
In terms of keeping dogs in their designated area, I don’t see that it will be an issue because dogs will have a specific enclosed area, unlike South Park.
Huge kudos to the area residents who are making this park possible.
Interestingly, the last image makes it appear like the dog run is easily accessable from the development. Actually, its quite different. Nobody can walk under the bridge at this location. To access the dog run, people would need to walk down Harrison to Main street, and then up Byrant (Harrison crosses over Beale; no intersection).
I’m not saying the the dog owners are lazy, just that the image is a little misleading…
I’m pretty sure there are stairs connecting Harrison and Beale.
I too have a hard time believing they will get $3000-3500 for these tiny 1 bdrms in this location.
According to the website for The Gateway you can rent a 494sf studio for $1795, and a 1000sf 2bd for $2875. Personally I would take their location ANY day. Direct access to Embarcadero Center and a very short stroll to many things of interest to me. And I’m pretty sure they’re rent controlled too. Granted, they’re older.
In fact, I don’t think I’d consider 333 Harrison at any price. Just my personal preference.
I believe there will be some form of a path connecting 333 Harrison to the proposed dog run park at Bryant and Beale, but I have no idea where that path would be located (steps, I suppose)
I agree with the comments regarding the high monthly rent for extremely small units. I doubt renters will rush to move into this place.
Not an orientation expert here, but the renderings seem to show the sun shining on this project from somewhere out by the Golden Gate. Meaning it will look like the picture for about 15 minutes during the late afternoon in the summer months. Otherwise, the open space looks like it will be in shadow most of the day from the brige, the building itself, and the thick finger of One Rincon Hill.
i think you can rent at Avalon Mission Bay for like $2100-$2800 for a one bedroom around 680sqft to close to 1000sqft. Heck, you can rent at Infinity for less than $3000 (one bedroom at 800sqft. see craigslist). Why would anyone want to spend 3k-3500 to be next to soot and noise? I think the developers are way to optimistic in their estimation.
castroclone – Good catch about the sun location, but One Rincon Hill 2 will not cast a shadow until is built.
whether or not it is technically blocking the sun at any given hour you will be looking up t 2 monsters and a highway foprwver. its not a great location.
right now the rent market looks like you can rent bigger unit on a higher floor for less or equal rent for a very long time.
when the market comes back this will probably become a condo project. emerald are smart guys and they know what they are doing, and they will go with what the capiutal market support at the timne – a few years out – and no one knows what that will be as of right now.
if the market gets strong eventully and one rincon resales are at 1200 psf, then this can build and sell at 900 psf.
whether or not it is technically blocking the sun at any given hour you will be looking up t 2 monster towers and a highway forever. its not a great location.
right now the rent market looks like you can rent bigger unit on a higher floor for less or equal rent for a very long time.
and, when the market comes back this will probably become a condo project. emerald are smart guys, they have controlled this land a long time low basis, they know what they are doing, and they will go with what the capital market support at the time – a few years out – and no one knows what that will be as of right now.
if the market gets stronger eventully and one rincon resales are at 1200 psf, then this can build and sell at 900 psf. thats what has to happen before rents here are $3500.
Their $3k per month rent target is for three to four years from now when the project is finished – and when we’re in the middle of some massive inflation. Right now it seems crazy, but 3-4 years from now after a year or two of 15% inflation and it won’t seem that crazy.