The four building Bayview development at 5800 Third Street was first approved by Planning 2005. Following a false start in 2007, the first two buildings with 137 of the proposed 340 units were delivered in 2010 along with San Francisco’s second Fresh & Easy store.
Phase Two of the development is now preparing to rise behind buildings one and two:
Approved for 60-foot heights, 219 parking spaces, and 203 units, the developers are seeking an amendment to allow the final two buildings reach 65 feet, decrease parking to 183 spaces, and increase the number of Phase Two units to 271 by eliminating all 71 of the three-bedrooms while increasing the number of studios and one-bedrooms by 146.
The total number of unrestricted market-rate units in Building Three would increase by 62 to 150 with 129 parking spaces, up by 29 parking space as originally approved.
While originally approved for 115 regular market-rate units (a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units), Building Four is now proposed as 121 units of senior housing (117 of which would be one-bedrooms) with 65 fewer parking spaces attached.
Editor – thanks for pointing this out. Very interesting stuff, thinking about the developer changing strategy halfway through.
Good project, good for third street.
It seems like:
3 bedroom units were not selling. Families want to move elsewhere…(?) Cut those out and convert them to saleable 2 bedrooms and studios. Internet kids.
Getting more market rate units squeezed out of the space will be helped by having more parking along with. (Does “parking would be provided at an at-grade garage in tandem parking lifts” really mean a car elevator/elevators?) Like Romney in La Jolla.
Make the other units senior housing. Politically favorable (who doesn’t like apartments for seniors?) and easy to sell condo buyers on being neighborly with nice old people.
The part of the Bayview puzzle I always grapple with is the following: If you are a young family and you buy into a three bedroom unit in a place in this neighborhood, you get carte blanche to send your kids to whatever public school you want in the city.
Your $375K 2BR condo with $75K down gets a mortgage payment of $1,347 monthly (3.5% 30 year fixed) and Claire Lilienthal Elementary (albeit with a long commute) for the taking.
Why don’t more people make that trade?
My take (hope?) is that eventually people will, and the byzantine SF school lottery process will change. Sowing the seeds of gentrification.
“Why don’t more people make that trade?”
Because it’s still not a guarantee that you can send your kids to the school of your choosing (although more likely). You’re still rolling the dice with the schools in a neighborhood that is perceived not to be safe. And as you mentioned, if you do get in, it’s a long commute. Gentrification is happening there but fast enough.
They are changing the strategy because families do not want to move to the area. It’s dangerous and not safe for kids. You get more bang for your buck outside the city. Once this area changes in about 20 years or so, then you will see families moving into the area.
I have seen the units many times and am friends with some owners there. The three bedrooms price out very similarly to a single family home in the neighborhood. A home in decent condition, probably two bedrooms up and “bonus” room or two down. Buyers for the 1 and 2 bedroom condos are often without children, younger, want new and modern, and don’t want potential issues of buying an older home. They are just different consumers. There is just less demand for 3 bedroom townhouse condo at $500,000 range.
@Bayviewjohn…you hit the nail on the head, the 3 br units match up to what you can buy a house in the area for and if willing to go with a fixer upper for a starter home, the home route is often cheaper. As a frequent shopper at the Fresh & Easy and patron of Limon, the current tenants are definitely a new type of buying demographic to the area.
The senior living makes sense as well as many homeowners in the Bayview are older, unable to maintain and upkeep residential homes, and makes more sense for them to move into senior living, and doesn’t hurt either as a means to speed up gentrification by opening real estate up to newer buyers.
I really wonder if Caltrain will consider reinstating and/or constructing a new train station at this location? There was previously a station platform just down from the Paul Ave. overpass, but with this development and subsequent development i don’t know that it might not be a bad location for another stop for Caltrain, especially with Shipyard development on the horizon.
The Paul Ave. Caltrain station was shut down due to low ridership (Atherton was partially shut down for the same reason).
If development continues to increase density here then Caltrain will probably reopen Paul Ave. if it looks like it will attract enough riders.