resting spot
18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted Excavation
in18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted Excavation
in18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted Excavation
in18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted 666 Folsom
in15 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted Planning
inJ.K. Dineen with the San Francisco Business Times, with the news of the revised valuation of the Transbay Center Tower.
New Transbay deal: Land price cut to $185M
San Francisco Business Times
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2012, 7:21am PDT
A new agreement between the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and the developer of the proposed Transbay tower and terminal in San Francisco would reduce the amount paid for the land from $235 million to $185 million.
According to a exclusive negotiating agreement that was reached Feb. 9 but has not been made public, developer Hines will pay the city $140 per buildable square foot for the land. In 2007, during a historic real estate bubble, Hines had offered to pay $350 million for the land, a number that was slashed to $235 million in 2008 as the global economic recession set in.
The still lower land price reflects both current economics realities as well as the fact that the height of the proposed building has been shaved from 1,200 feet to 1,070 feet, a change which cut 450,000 square feet from the project, according to TJPA spokesman Adam Alberti.
The exclusive negotiating agreement comes five years after Hines beat out Forest City and Rockefeller Group to win the right to enter into negotiations with the city to acquire the land. At the time Hines’ offer was more than twice any of the other bids — Forest City offered $145 million and Rockefeller came in at $118 million.
10 Saturday Mar 2012
Posted Excavation
in10 Saturday Mar 2012
Posted 140 New Montgomery
in09 Friday Mar 2012
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inThe original Wall Street Journal article from March 07, which triggered the coverage by CurbedSF and SocketSite, was behind the WSJ paywall for a time, and I did not know in advance to pick up a copy.
But now (this is written and backdated from April 12), the WSJ article if available on the Internet. I am happy to be able to finally read this, and detail it here courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. Also, it is a bit of a thrill to see that the interior walls, once the sheetrock is removed, REALLY ARE old red brick. I was planning to ask my friend Demetrius Nogara of Plant Construction about this. I cannot wait to see them in person once the building is finished. So beautiful. They have been there, hidden away, for 75 years or so, and now finally they get to see the light of day.
New Call by Developer on Historic Tower
By THERESE POLETTI, The Wall Street Journal
March 7, 2012 / Bay Area Edition
A historic skyscraper in downtown San Francisco, the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph building, empty for almost six years, is about to become a hub of construction activity as a $50 million-plus modernization project begins.
The building’s owner, developer Wilson Meany Sullivan, is doing a major seismic retrofit and renovation of the 26-floor Art Deco icon at 140 New Montgomery St. in the South of Market neighborhood.
The rehabilitation will include making the skyscraper more resistant to earthquakes and upgrading its 280,000 square feet of available office space to house potential tech start-ups, venture-capital firms and others. This is a new strategy from the developer, which in 2008 filed plans to turn the tower, also known as the Telephone Building, into 118 luxury condominiums, at an estimated cost of $80 million to $100 million.
“With the location, the history, and the quality of the renovations, 140 will be one of the premier office addresses in the city,” said Joshua Callahan, a WMS project manager. The renovations started last week, he said. The developer has all the city approvals needed to begin construction, and other approvals are pending.
The Telephone Building has been a part of the San Francisco skyline since it was completed in 1925 for Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co., which nicknamed it “140,” a name the developers are using again. Designed by renowned local architect Timothy Pflueger, it has soaring terra-cotta piers flecked with white and gray, unusual Bell System details and 13-foot-tall eagle statues at the top.
After AT&T merged with SBC Communications in 2005, it put the Telephone Building up for sale.The residential real-estate market was hot in 2007 when WMS—best known locally for its renovation of the Ferry Building—and partner Stockbridge Real Estate Funds bought the building and a nearby garage for $117 million.
But after the 2008 financial crisis, WMS put the condo plans on hold. The building has remained empty, except for a 24-hour security guard, while the developer weighed its options. Recently, the office market has started to boom again. Just last week Macy’s.com leased nearly 243,000 square feet on seven floors at nearby 680 Folsom St.
“In the past 18 months, you have seen a surge in demand that has resulted in rising rental rates,” Mr. Callahan said, adding that the south Financial District—as real-estate agents call the area—where the Telephone Building is located, “is probably the strongest market in San Francisco.”
The earlier iteration of the project has received local plaudits. In 2009, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, a historic preservation nonprofit group, gave WMS and its architects an award for “Best Proposed Adaptive Reuse” for the condo-conversion plan.
“They are doing some pretty significant upgrades and making a major investment in the building to ensure its long-term preservation,” said Mike Buhler, executive director of Heritage, of the new plans.
WMS seeks to maintain the architectural integrity of the building while modernizing and adding safety features. The Art Deco lobby will be restored, and tenant amenities will include a private outdoor tenant garden, bike parking and showers.
Vintage light fixtures in the lobby will be restored, original bronze medallions on the elevator doors replicated, and the old mail chute retained, according to the plans.
WMS will replace 1,300 of the building’s 1,700 steel-frame windows, install seismic bracing and modernize the elevators. WMS will also take two elevators out of service and create new concrete shear walls along the building’s core service area, which will double as a seismic upgrade and house electrical, data rooms and bathrooms.
The developer also plans to create two new retail or restaurant spaces off the restored main lobby, which has a colorful plaster ceiling and dark marble walls. New entrances will be created for each retail location and canopies and signs on the building will be allowed, with some limitations, according to the plans.
Chefs and restaurateurs have indicated an interest in the larger retail space, WMS said.
WMS also plans to get rid of the stage and a projection room in the building’s unusual 26th-floor auditorium. The stage’s proscenium features bas reliefs with a snake charmer, elephants and other animals. The decorative plaster ceiling will be retained and as many of the bas reliefs as possible will be saved or stored. Molds are being made of all the plaster detailing before any construction begins as a precaution, according to the developers.
The permit applications also include a salvage plan to store unused historic details and fixtures, which will also be made available to any prospective tenants for their office build-outs.
Christopher VerPlanck, founder of VerPlanck Historic Preservation Consulting, which does architectural preservation consulting in San Francisco—and isn’t doing any work for this project—says he is concerned about some changes upstairs, including converting the auditorium into an open office space and the elimination of any remaining original floor plans. He suggested the auditorium could be used as an amenity for tenants.
“So many commercial developers and property managers all follow the latest trends en masse,” Mr. VerPlanck said. “Ever since the first dot-com boom, they have been gutting entire floor plates of historic office buildings because they think that everyone wants to work in a giant raw space.”
He said his office building, the Mechanics’ Institute, “is nearly original inside and it is fully leased.”
Mr. Callahan of WMS said an open office space is the best use for the auditorium and all the floors. “Conference centers are a nice marketing idea that get limited use in practice.”
He said the building would be ready for occupancy in the summer of 2013.
09 Friday Mar 2012
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inAnother favorite of ours, CurbedSF, also did a good job with the news about 140:
Pacific Telephone Building Scraps Plans For Condos, Moves On To Office Space
Thursday, March 8, 2012, by Alex Bevk
Back in 2007, developers Wilson Meany Sullivan (of Ferry Building and One Powell fame) acquired the Timothy Pfleuger art deco skycraper at 140 New Montgomery Street. Known as the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building, the tower was one of the tallest skyscrapers on the West Coast at the time it was constructed in 1925. The developers had grand plans to renovate the building into luxury condos, and even got through the permitting and entitlements labyrinth in 2008. Unfortunately for them, the plans were hatched right before the recession, and the loss of funding cause the project to stall out for the past four years.
Fast forward to today and the office market has started to boom again, so the developers have redirected the project. With a $50 million-plus modernization project about to begin, the new rehabilitation will include a major seismic retrofit and upgrading the skyscraper’s 280,000 square feet of available office space to house potential tech start-ups, venture-capital firms and others. According to the project website, the space will included high-end amenities like a private outdoor tenant garden, showers, bike parking and repair rooms, and first-class ground-floor dining. Are you listening, future fancy tenants?
Designed by local superstar architect Timothy Pflueger (art deco mastermind behind the Transbay Terminal, New Mission Theater, CCSF, and the Paramount Theater in Oakland), it has soaring terra-cotta piers, art deco details and 13-foot-tall eagle statues at the top – not to mention a pretty fierce marble lobby. There’s also a 26th floor auditorium (sure, why not?), complete with bas reliefs with a snake charmer, elephants and other animals. According to the plans, WMS seeks to maintain the architectural integrity of the building – vintage light fixtures in the lobby will be restored, original bronze medallions on the elevator doors replicated, and the old mail chute retained.
It won’t be all historic sentimentality though, as the plan also include measures to modernize and add safety features to the building. They will replace 1,300 of the building’s 1,700 steel-frame windows, install seismic bracing and modernize the elevators. The developer also plans to create two new retail or restaurant spaces off the restored main lobby. According to the Wall Street Journal, the building should be ready for occupancy in the summer of 2013.
09 Friday Mar 2012
Posted 140 New Montgomery
inAlthough I have been clued in for awhile that the future of 140 has changed from condos to tech/start-up office space, the ‘official’ news is finally up on Wilson Meany Partners website, and the always excellent SocketSite has done a good job of summarizing it.
140 New Montgomery: Renovation And Rendering Scoop
As we noted yesterday, Wilson Meany Sullivan’s renovation plans for the 26-story Pacific Telephone Building at 140 New Montgomery no longer include condos and the building will remain an office building targeting “tech start-ups, venture-capital firms and others.”
So here’s the inside and rendering (click to enlarge) scoop. Ceiling heights will range from 13 to 20 feet on the upper floors, windows will be replaced and be operable (think fresh air and cooling breezes), and the targeted others include law and design firms.
The ground floor of the building will house two restaurant spaces while the building’s south facing service yard will become a private outdoor sculpture garden.
Tenants will have access to secure bike parking, locker room, shower suite and a “bike spa” that “repurposes 140’s historic wood-paneled executive board room as a place to tune up your bike before heading out for a lunchtime ride or the commute home.”
And yes, there are a few parking spaces below the building for the big hitters and a secured entrance near the adjacent parking garage for everyone else.
02 Friday Mar 2012
Posted 140 New Montgomery, 666 Folsom
inFor many years I parked in the Moscone Center Parking Garage. But I never thought about going up to the roof to take photos of 140 or 666.
But now, with construction beginning on both places, I can see that this might be a good venue to observe the construction efforts.
The roof of 690 Folsom, the old PacBell garage at the corner of Third and Folsom. This building will be torn down soon.
Progress at 666:
View of 140 from the garage roof:
In the former Taco Del Mar spot (a new little cafe opened last year but unfortunately did last long), a new neighbor is going to open.
A big pipe used for the cross-lot bracing (especially the corner support) is taken across the street from the central section to the west section.
Look how deep those buttress shafts are being drilled !