Having bid a winning $350 million for the land upon which to build San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Tower and Terminal back in 2007, over twice as much as the next highest bid of $145 million by the Richard Rogers and Forest City team, and an amount which was already reduced to $235 million in 2008, Hines will now pay $185 million for the land upon which the shorter Transbay Tower will rise according to J.K. Dineen.
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Nice do-over!
Great project and getting better and better as it evolves.
I don’t think I understand how this particular “auction” works. Are the original bids not binding? If not, then why go through the process in the first place?
Seems to me to make more sense to sell this city-owned property on the open market using the same process utilized for private party transactions. I’m sure there probably is some reason this can’t be done, but not sure why. Can someone explain this. Thanks.
Wish the tower hadn’t shrunk – we need something to puncture the flat skyline that’s developed since 1971 – shorter isn’t better!
Smaller, cheaper, and uncut.
^^ everything warehouse said.
thanks snark17 I could get the right context
hee hee
It’s almost like someone poured cold water on this project.
Really? how so?
i think tipster was making another phallic joke.
The phallic jokes are tired, but not as tired as people saying One Rincon looks like an Ionic breeze and thinking they’re funny.
Will the tip of the new Transbay tower be color coded like ORH based on the weather? And no it’s not a phallic joke (though it could perfectly be).
How so? Well, it’s been hacked down, they are shortchanging the tjps by almost half and the top is a useless, empty cage. This unoriginal, me-too building gets worse every time there is news about it. Hines should sell their rights to someone who will pay for and build something worthy of being the city’s new tallest.
Why doesn’t the top have a bar & restaurant, or an observation deck at least? It would actually make money hand over fist. See NYT article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/nyregion/empire-state-building-observation-decks-generate-startling-profits.html
While mostly a “useless empty cage”, it does appear to have a box of mechanical equip within for 1/2 its height. The imagination these people have…
An observation deck actually would be a brilliant idea for drawing visitors to the park, too.
I think an observation deck and restaurant at the top are great ideas. Add two extra-tall floors above what’s currently there. Then (with mechanicals) that cage doesn’t seem like such a gimmicky attempt to make it appear to be a taller building.
Not to quibble about minutiae, rubber_chicken, but it looks to me like about 1/3 of the cage height is filled with the mechanicals shroud. And even then, that shroud seems exceptionally tall.
Yeah we can soak the tourists for $20 to get an up close look at the fog!
I would bring visiting friends up there, definitely. I am sure you will be able to see all bridges as well as the ocean over Twin Peaks and Sutro from that high.