[peanut gallery]

Mr Weinberg was right and now brings us the confirmation:

Luxury apartment builder Crescent Heights, which constructed the glassy residential highrises next to the Twitter headquarters, just bought the rights to develop San Francisco's latest downtown tower.

The Miami-based developer beat out three other development teams and agreed to pay at least $165 million for the site known as Parcel F at 546 Howard St., next to the future Transbay Transit Center, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority said Thursday. The site, which will need to go through a lengthy entitlement process before getting built out, is zoned for a 750-foot-tall highrise that would span at least 750,000 square feet.

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What was key to the deal? Crescent Heights agreed to price 35 percent of the future apartments on the site as below-market-rate. Most of those units will be reserved for households making half the city's median income, which would be a family of four earning about $51,000 a year annually. About 10 percent of those affordable units will be priced for people making exactly the city's median income.

The developer also agreed to pay for the land in full before entitlements, a relatively rare move. The TJPA called the site "one of the final gems in the Transbay neighborhood" in a statement read at City Hall Thursday.

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The Parcel F site, mid-block between First, Second, Howard and Natoma streets, is zoned for two-thirds commercial uses, which includes a possible hotel. Crescent Heights has only built residential projects in San Francisco, including highrises like Nema, Jasper, and planned 10 South Van Ness, so it will likely ask for a Planning Code amendment to build all apartments.

Another twist? The price for the land will increase to $185 million if Crescent Heights can also close its potential purchase at the next-door property, 540 Howard, which would increase the developable land area by about a third. That land is zoned for a 450-foot-tall commercial building, according to property records.

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If Crescent Heights builds apartments on Parcel F, expect some of the ritiziest market-rate apartments at the site. The developer typically works with luxury designer Handel Architects on San Francisco projects. Its Rincon Hill tower, which recently started leasing, will have concierges and a staff of 35 to go along with “its intelligent mobile technology that preemptively alerts concierges upon entry and exit,” according to the building’s brochure.

More at the link. I suggest giving it a read.