Can we be brutally honest now?
Much as I love the architecture and all the new development it has engendered around it, including SF's first and probaby only (for a long time) supertall, the TransBay Terminal itself is probably an unnecessary and expensive white elephant. The current terminus of rail service into San Francisco is now, and was predictably when the Terminal project began, in the center of a bustling, growing part of the city which is well connected to the other dynamic parts by light rail transit. The difference for someone working in the business/financial districts to get to a train at 4th & King vs 1st & Mission would be minutes once the Central Subway is completed (although the capacity of platforms and the ability to run longer tains on that line should have been greater). We should have spend a much smaller sum on increased capacity for the subway and a new station at 4th & King vs the TransBay, something I argued at the time.
In any case, with the likelihood of getting federal funding to bring train service (commuter and high speed) into the new terminal fading, we are going to have a money hole on our hands and I have no confidence in the city's ability to deal with it.
Quote:
Exclusive: Transbay Center picks manager to fill empty retail space as deficit looms
Apr 12, 2017, 2:12pm PDT Updated Apr 12, 2017, 5:30pm PDT
Roland Li
Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
The $2.4 billion Transbay Transit Center has picked a manager to fill the project's 100,000 square feet of retail, a crucial role as it faces a potential multimillion-dollar annual deficit.
The Transbay Joint Powers Authority Board voted last month to pick an asset management team lead by developer Lincoln Property Co., according to a staff memo. A person familiar with the deal said a contract is expected to be signed in the next week.
Lincoln Property Co.'s team includes Colliers International (NASDAQ: CIGI), a global real estate brokerage, which will lease the retail space and Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, which is managing the project's rooftop park. The team also includes Pearl Media, which is handling promotional services, and Lavoz, which is in charge of marketing. The agreement is for six years, with a five-year extension option . . . .
The Transbay Transit Center, the largest under-construction transit center in the Western U.S., expects an operating loss for at least its first four years of operations, through fiscal year 2020-2021. The deficit could be as high as $20 million per year. The transit center only has funding secured for bus service and needs additional money to connect Caltrain and eventually a high-speed rail connection, as originally planned when construction started. The lack of projected traffic is expected to result in losses for the complex.
The center's 100,000 square feet of vacant retail is a large availability and comes on the market as Bay Area retailers have struggled with high rents, a shortage of workers who can afford to live in the region, and competition from online retailers. San Francisco's largest new retail project, the 250,000-square-foot 6x6 development in Mid-Market, finished construction last fall and doesn't have any tenants . . . .
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http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...815&j=77933721
Who here thinks the city, confronted with those funding needs, is not going to cut and short-change funding to the Terminal in every way it can, skimping on maintenance, security and janitorial services and letting the place become a dirty, unsafe, disheveled homeless hangout?