Zephyr SOMA/SoBe Blog

New Construction on Potrero Hill

With all the new construction going on in The City, everyone has an opinion, including me!

Potrero Hill is the first neighborhood where I owned property when I moved back to San Francisco from the East Coast. This was in the late 90's and at the time I worked at KOFY Television, home of Jim Gabbert's Dance Party. The TV station was in a heavily industrial area right below the 101 freeway near Cesar Chavez so on my lunch hour I would wander around the neighborhood looking for new construction homes that I could afford. Finally I was able to purchase a 3 bedroom townhouse just one block below the public housing projects at 25th and Mississippi in Potrero Hill. I lived happily there for 6 years and then sold it for double what I had paid for it and then bought a big loft in SOMA where I live now.

Last week when my office mates and I went on a bus tour of the latest new construction developments, it crossed my mind that there are new opportunities for people to purchase a property that has the potential to appreciate over the coming years and provide an appealing place to live. But everyone has an opinion. So here's mine on one of the many new developments.

The Potrero is a new complex at the bottom of Potrero Hill. All the units are complete and people have already moved in. The location is ideal, just above the new Whole Foods and within walking distance of all the cool restaurants, bars and stores on 18th Street. The units themselves are well priced and the finishes are nice. But the upside of this property, in my opinion, is the resale and investment potential. Potrero Hill as a neighborhood has become more and more popular and is often called the new Noe Valley. With the massive building of the UCSF complex, more and more renters and buyers are being drawn to the area. If I was a first time home buyer and wanted a nice new place to live in a up and coming neighborhood, I would definitely consider The Potrero. It is likely to hold its value and if you decide you want to hold the property once you move on, there certainly doesn't seem to be a short supply of renters looking for a place to live especially if they commute to the south bay.

Remember, it doesn't cost the buyer a dime to be represented by a licensed real estate agent and an independent agent has your best interests in mind. The sales person at a new construction sale office has the job of selling you one of their units. Be fully informed when you purchase new construction, For more information on The Potrero or  any of the other new construction in San Francisco, contact a SOMA Specialist thru this website and we will be happy to share our professional opinions with you too!

Local Neighbors Work to Clean and Revamp Parts of SoMa

 SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16, 2007 - KGO --

San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood is one in transition. The once industrial area has become home to million dollar homes - but some parts of the neighborhood still show signs of their gritty past.

And now some residents are turning things around one block at a time.

Not far from Moscone Center and the San Francisco Shopping Center, the streets and alleys around South of Market are being transformed. The one time industrial area has slowly been turning into a residential neighborhood.

"The neighborhood was just on the very beginnings of the transition to the new south of market," said SoMa resident Foster Weeks.

Foster Weeks moved into the neighborhood 11 years ago.  He's watched the area develop. 

"Because we have so much pedestrian and street traffic - our needs are a lot different then say someone who lives out at Noriega and 48th," said Weeks.

Frustrated by the trash all those people leave behind, Weeks called City Hall - but was surprised by what he learned. 

"Our taxes do go for towards the street cleaning - the machines that come at nighttime - but it doesn't cover the sidewalks apparently," said Weeks.

So Weeks took matters into his own hands. His homeowners association hired a cleaning company to come in and clean the sidewalks.

They turned to Dome LLC, a maintenance service for help.

"There's a group of us that go out and walk through the area and try to access their needs and also assess their needs based on what they can do - you know what they want from us," said Tarah Ornealas from Dome LLC.

"Since then there's been such a great response from my neighbors and the people who live in my building that we've kept it up ever since," said Weeks.

The service now comes down the street twice a day - seven days a week and has captured the attention of other neighbors.

"We just develop a tremendous amount of trash -garbage from just all sorts of sources - that just accumulates here - and there's just nobody else cleaning it up," said SOMA resident Josh Morgan.

Josh Morgan lives one street over on Clementina. He saw what was happening on Tehama and saw an opportunity to build a community.

"We went around and knocked on doors and said this is what we want to do," said Morgan.

"Clementina cares" was born: A group of neighbors committed to improving the quality of life in SoMa.

They've hired cleaning crews to come in once a day - five times a week for $1,100 a week. Businesses and residents chip in to make it happen.

"We were hoping that if we could bring some attention to this neighborhood and start cleaning it up - that the city would really take more of an interest helping us improve it," said Morgan.

Four blocks are now using the service.

Fred Adabi is the head of the Public Works Department. He applauds the residents for picking up where the city doesn't.

"To see a group of citizens taking the initiative, hiring contractors, to maintain the sidewalks are amazing," said Director of San Francisco Public Works Fred Abadi, Ph.D.

Foster Weeks says it's just a matter of time before the movement spreads further.

"I really feel that people are going to be pleasantly surprised two to three years from now with the downtown San Francisco that we are going to see," said Weeks.

The residents along Clementina hope to soon ramp up their cleaning to seven days a week.

Transbay Transit Tower and Center

Today I attended a SPUR-hosted lunchtime seminar on the new Transbay Transit Center, a centralized transit hub, being built and designed by Hines Development and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The Pelli team was chosen by TJPA after an international competition for the design and development of this massive project. TTT&C is being built at 1st Street and Mission and is comprised of a tower, the transit center, and a park. The project hopes to be LEED certified the tower will most likely be “gold”, while the transit center is expected to be “silver”.

The Transit Tower will be a 1200 ft white curved commercial building, which may become the tallest in San Francisco, if it passes through the city’s “entitlement process”. As a reference for how high that is, the Empire State Building is 1250 ft. What I found enchanting about this tower are the two twin cylindrical harmonic air turbines that will light the top of the tower. Depending on the wind speeds the light could be faint and dim, or strong and bright. Unfortunately, in order to produce a significant amount of power for other purposes, the turbines would have to be much larger and would produce a considerable increase in the noise and vibrations within the tower.

The Transit Center will be a hub for MUNI, Greyhound, Caltrain and eventually the California High Speed Rail. Riders will enter through one of 25 entrances including the ½ acre Mission Square; an open-air plaza topped by a glass canopied ceiling, indoor redwood trees, and a quaint funicular to take you to the rooftop park. Throughout the Center will be multi-storied “glass baskets” to allow natural light to filter into the depths of the building. Above the transit center itself the design incorporates a 5.5 acre rooftop park - as long as the tower is high. Nicknamed, City Park, the landscaper Peter Walker foresees a park which will emulate seven Californian terrains, from wetlands to woodlands and designed to provide a habitat for local fauna. The plans include streams, a jogging trail, a stage, fountains, and a playground. The water used throughout the park will be recycled grey water from the tower and transit facility. While the redwoods and Canary Island palm trees will assist in detoxifying the exhaust fumes from the buses.

These buildings are part of an extensive Transbay Project, www.transbaycenter.org, spearheaded by the TJPA which is creating a new neighborhood in San Francisco that includes residential, retail, and commercial space.

Hanging at 850 Bryant - Hall of Justice

Last week, I had the privilege of performing my civil duty and answered my summons for jury duty at

850 Bryant Street

.  I came with no excuses.  I tried to put myself in the shoes of the accused, recognizing that trial by jury of one’s peers is a fundamental democratic ideal of our legal system.

There have been changes since I last served.  The system is now 1-day or 1 trial.  They try to bring potential jurors in for a single day for jury selection.  If you aren’t needed, you are excused until you are then eligible to be called in one year.  If you are selected as a juror, you serve until the trial is over.

Last week was Jury Appreciation Week.  The court made the effort to educate prospective jurors in the ideals that make our justice system work. They also gave us pens, bookmarks, refrigerator magnets and cookies.  Boy, did I feel special!

As part of the education process, we were informed of these statistics:  In 2006 in

San Francisco

, some 180,000 jurors responded to their summons for jury duty.  Of those, approximately 42% completed service in person by reporting to the Court for one or more days of service.  Jurors were impaneled for approximately 570 criminal cases at the Hall of Justice and 495 civil cases at the Civic Center Courthouse.

Besides being my duty as a citizen, I found this was an opportunity to contribute to the workings of justice in my community.  And, I enjoyed several lunch breaks, and shopping expeditions in wonderful SOMA!

Mission Bay

In the May 8th edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, John King, the paper’s urban design writer, wrote a commentary on Mission Bay. The commentary’s headline, “Mission Bay – dull by design and still growing” suggests a controversial article. Check it out at www.sfgate.com. Enter the reporter’s name in the search area and click “Go.”

In a separate piece, printed as part of the commentary, King assigns grades and comments on The Glassworks, 235 Berry and 255 Berry which are all buildings with units available for purchase. Re-sales are beginning in The Glassworks and 255 Berry while buyers are beginning to move into 235 Berry. Each of these buildings is distinct. I encourage buyers interested in this part of Mission Bay to look at each building and read John King’s commentary.

Mission Bay is changing rapidly.

Sam Vitkoski
SoMa Specialist

Mission Bay By The Numbers

Planned for Mission Bay, San Francisco's southern waterfront:

• 49 acres waterfront parks
• 6,000 residential units
• a 500 room hotel
• 50,000 sq. ft. retail entertainment
• 5,000,000 sq. ft. office space
• 43 acre UCSF Research Campus

Bordered by Townsend Street on the North, 280 in the West, Dog Patch on the South and the water on the East, San Francisco's newest neighborhood has easy access to Hwy 101 and 280, Caltrain, BART, light rail, and ferries. 

I'd say this area is worth keeping an eye on as it transforms from a shipyards of yesteryear to a vibrant destination neighborhood.

Update on Condo Plans For the SF Tennis Club

In an earlier post, my colleague, Churn Hwang, talked about the San Francisco Tennis Club and Pulte Homes’ plan to build condos at the South of Market site.

In the most recent issue of the San Francisco Business Times (April 27 – May 3, 2007), Pulte Homes announced that that “it had abandoned plans to build 500 condos at the South of Market site.”

The paper’s writer, J.K. Dineen, reported that “Pulte’s decision was driven by ongoing discussions with the Western SoMa Task Force, a neighborhood planning group that is studying rezoning the area.” The reporter further wrote that “the Western SoMa Task Force is pushing for a development mix that reflects the neighborhood’s low-key mélange of industry, entertainment, office, housing and retail.”

Sam Vitkoski
SoMa Specialist

At last--Parking cards online!

The City has finally made Parking Cards available for purchase on line. Until now they have only been available at a few 'select' mom-and-pop type delis and hardware stores, and could not be paid for with credit cards as the sellers do not get any mark-up from which to pay credit card charges. Nor could they be purchased at DPT with anything but cash or (with difficulty, I discovered) a 'company' check. Additionally, employees at DPT had to log every card purchased by hand making a large purchase (Zephyr routinely purchased lots of $2000.00 to sell to its agents) incredibly time consuming and frustrating.

However, they are now readily available at https://services.sfgov.org/mtacards

Maybe one day the city will make them refillable too!

The Flower Market

Recently, TJ Lee wrote about the Flower Market Café, a place to get a bite to eat (free parking Wednesday through Sunday nights!).

The Flower Market itself is a destination. Open to the public everyday for certain hours after the wholesale business has their chance at the fresh deliveries, the Flower Market vendors offer great prices on cut flowers, orchids, potted plants, vases and more.

The market opens at the crack of the crack, as they say, for florists, retailers, caterers and those with the secret handshake (or appropriate wholesale badge).

Just recently, I went to purchase fresh flowers for the open house I was hosting. Last week, I bought a bunch of sunflowers on 2 foot stems, and irises with 18 inch stems for about $12.

This week, I purchased two packets of orchids – containing 3 sprays each – for $2.75 a piece. Also got a large bunch of red carnations ($5) and baby’s breath for $2.75. Another vendor was offering what seemed to be a dozen 3 or 4 foot stalks of gladiolus for $12. Yet another vendor was selling potted orchids for $10.

Such a deal. And parking, too, if you don’t mind paying 75 cents for 15 minutes.

Bay to Breakers....Great to Run Even Better to Watch!!

Established in 1912, Bay to Breakers is a 12K (7.46 miles) course. From sea level at the Embarcadero the course rises steeply along Hayes Street Hill. Around the 2.5-mile mark runners climb an 11.15% grade between Fillmore and Steiner, bringing them to the highest point in the race, approximately 215 feet above sea level. The remainder of the course gradually flows downhill alongside the Panhandle and through Golden Gate Park.

If you are a spectator then bring your camera because you will see everything from world class marathon racers, centipede runners (groups of 6 or 12 people tied together) or people in all types of costumes and some not in anything.  You will even see a pool of salmon running the course backwards, but watch out for the naked runners, they can be shocking to see.   I used to live near Hayes at Laguna and every year I loved to see the groups of returning friends who would try to scale the Hayes Street hill bearing a Tiki Bar (yes, I said a Tiki Bar) with a couple of kegs inside it  Sometimes they made it all the way up and sometimes they didn't, but they always looked as if they were having a great time.  I think they will even give you a glass of keg beer if you help them reach the top of the Hayes Street hill.

The race starts on Mission Street and literally cuts the city in half, so if you have to cross Market, Hayes or Fulton Streets, you should plan to be across them before 8 am and expect delays until at least noon.  The traffic also causes over flows and back ups onto the approach of the Bay Bridge, not to mention parking will be crazy to get starting on Saturday night near the starting point.

May 20, 2007 - Always the Third Sunday in May

Start Time: 8:00 am

USA Track & Field Certified 12K  - 7.46 miles

www.ingbaytobreakers.com