Quote:
Originally Posted by tyler82
I thought this building was mix use commercial, residential, and hotel? Am I wrong??
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301 Mission was a mixed use project when it was first proposed 5 years ago. Here's a SF Chronicle article on the project from 2002:
58-story skyscraper seeking S.F. approval
Proposal for city's fourth-highest tower
Gerald D. Adams, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, May 18, 2002
(05-18) 04:00 PDT San Francisco -- San Francisco will have a new entry in the skyscraper sweepstakes if a New York development firm has its way -- a 58-story tower that would be the fourth-tallest structure on the city's skyline.
The combination hotel-condominium-office tower would be built next to the Transbay Terminal at 301 Mission St. between Fremont and Beale streets. Topping out at 605 feet, it would be exceeded only by the Transamerica Pyramid at 853 feet, the Bank of America tower at 778 feet and the California Center at 693 feet.
While planners will welcome the prospect of adding housing downtown, environmentalists and slow-growth advocates are likely to express concerns that the building would block views and cast shadows on open spaces.
The $300 million project came to light last week when the Planning Department told the developer, Millennium Partners of New York, that the skyscraper would require an environmental impact report before proceeding through the bureaucracy.
Unlike its three skyscraping rivals, which consist mostly of offices, the proposed 301 Mission tower would include 163 condominiums, 108 rentals and a 136-unit "extended stay" hotel for people who linger weeks rather than days and want kitchens.
Only about 10 percent of the project's 1.06 million square feet would be devoted to offices -- and those would be in a nine-story structure separated from the tower by a three-story atrium.
Millennium Partners is the same group that built a similar but slightly smaller project in Yerba Buena Center, the Four Seasons Hotel and Residence.
The new structure would be built in the area of downtown where zoning laws permit the tallest buildings to go up. Even so, it would exceed the maximum allowable height by 55 feet, requiring special approval by city planners.
The tower would be clad in light-colored glass of "a bluish quality," said Glenn Rescalvo, a spokesman for architect Gary Handel. "We're trying to create something almost crystal-like that plays with the light of the sky at different times of the day."
Former Planning Director Dean Macris, whose bureaucrats drew up the Downtown Plan zoning rules in the 1980s, said the 301 Mission tower would fit neatly into the high-density area and be close to several transit lines. Macris said, "This puts the biggest buildings where they ought to be."
But Sue Hestor, an attorney and one of the city's leading environmental watchdogs, said she was concerned about the effects of a building "so tall that its shadows will go on for many blocks," possibly as far as Yerba Buena Park to the west and Justin Herman Plaza on the waterfront.
Hestor said she also wanted to see whether the tower would hide views of the Bay Bridge, bay and East Bay hills.
Phil Aarons, a principal of Millennium Partners, said neither issue would be a problem.
Because the structure would be "a taller, thinner, more elegant building than one that is shorter and squatter, it preserves very beautiful view corridors," Aarons said.
In addition, Aarons said, his firm has studied potential effects on parks and concluded, "We don't shadow any of them."
Millennium Partners is asking the city to approve 390 parking spaces for a building that would have 271 residential units. That could run afoul of the city's transit-first policy, which discourages new parking structures downtown.
"We're still looking at that," Aarons said.
He isn't worried that the economic slump will make the project less attractive to tenants. His firm is encouraged by its experience with the Four Seasons, where condominiums are priced from $950,000 to $14 million and "have sold strongly."
The Four Seasons condos did sell briskly at first, said Mary Lou Castellanos, senior sales person at Pacific Union Realty. But a lot of people bought and didn't move in, and several units are now on the resale market, she said.
Condos for $1.5 million, $1.275 million and $2.5 million have been on the market for a couple of months, Castellanos said. She said, "We're seeing price reductions in that high-end condo market."
To help the 301 Mission project win approval, Millennium has hired the politically potent law firm of Coblentz Patch Duffy and Bass, which has also maneuvered the Mission Bay project through the bureaucracy for Catellus Development Co.
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