Ceremony launches 15-year Pier 70 redevelopment

City officials broke ground Thursday on one of the biggest waterfront developments at San Francisco’s Pier 70 that will provide affordable housing alongside up to 1.75 million square feet of office space and up to 360,000 square feet of retail space.

The 28-acre project will include 2,100 residential units with 30 percent of those units as affordable housing and seven acres of open space and parks. The historic site was used during World War II to build ships, and was where the BART Transbay Tube was assembled, according to the developer Forest City.

Up to 90,000 square feet will house a state-of-the-art waterfront arts facility that will include space for artists in the Noonan Building, which currently is at Pier 70.

Additionally, three buildings will be rehabilitated, including Building 12 which will return as space for manufacturers to make local goods and sell them.

Forest City said as part of the first phase of the project, crews will raise the grade of the entire site to protect against sea level rise. Building 12 for example will rise by nearly nine feet.

Supervisor Malia Cohen, who represents the Dogpatch neighborhood, said for decades that the public had no access to the waterfront or enjoy the view:

“The revitalization Pier 70 builds on a connection to a piece of the waterfront that quite frankly has never been accessible.”

The project has been 10 years in the making and was the first project needing a vote from the public after voters passed Proposition B.

Mayor Mark Farrell said:

“Today what we’re doing is celebrating the revival of our southern waterfront in San Francisco.”

The $2 billion project will be built in three phases over 10 to 15 years and provide 10,000 construction jobs and 12,000 full-time jobs.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.