The following letter was written by Jeffrey Leibovitz of the Port of San Francisco Cruise Terminal Environmental Advisory Committee and originally published in today's issue of the San Francisco Business Times.
In the photo: The Queen Mary 2 docked at the Port of San Francisco
The Port of San Francisco is working on two major projects, Piers 30-32 and Piers 25-27. The Port needs to prioritize its development needs. What San Francisco really needs today is a world-class cruise terminal before any other developments are allowed to tweak their projects to get them to pencil out.
Why is anyone surprised that the costs to shore up dilapidated, aging piers and make them safe to build on has skyrocketed? What is surprising is that the Port is missing an opportunity to support a development that makes dollars and sense for the city.The Port should bring together Shorenstein Properties, Forest City and DeBartolo Holdings and make the cruise terminal a priority. Piers 30-32 infrastructures are in the same condition or worse than Piers 25-27, yet the leadership at the Port is unable to figure out how to pool resources to provide the city with a revenue-generating development that benefits a growing revenue-producing cruise industry.
This revenue generator will enhance the cash-strapped Port to help defray costs to repair our waterfront resources before the battle is completely lost to time and salt water. The new terminal will also help support business from South Beach to Union Square.
If Shorenstein wants a new headquarters on our waterfront, how about the 350,000 square feet of class A office space the new cruise terminal will provide?
Piers 30-32 are a fully entitled development site and ready to go. The Port has some $25 million to $30 million dollars in the bank to jump-start this development. The Port also has $16 million in the bank to develop the 65,000-square-foot, public-open-space Brannan Street Wharf alongside Pier 30-32.
Instead of supporting the Shorenstein's desire to add more office space (which would require another environmental impact report) to Piers 25-27 to make the numbers work, the Port should bring all of these players together and build the James R. Herman Cruise Terminal.
What a novel idea, a development that is lucrative and logical for the Port, the city and the surrounding community.
1 comments:
Let's not forget that the post 1906-through-WPA-era breakwaters and piers on the north shore of the City that protect the shorleine could use about $70 million to keep them functional. If a cruise hip operator wanted to pony up some of (or all) of that price tag, it would go a long way toward making the City a viable player in the international tourism market through the 21st century, as well as provide for the development of cutting edge waterfront office space so popular.
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