Transbay development battle emerges between property owners

Golden Gate University is hoping to rezone their building at Mission and First Streets, across from the Millennium and new Transbay Terminal, which could lead to a new 800 ft+ tower:

Golden Gate University is pushing to have its main campus at 536 Mission St. rezoned for an 850-foot tower as part of San Francisco’s new Transbay neighborhood...

Bob Hite, vice president of business affairs and CFO for Golden Gate University, said the university started discussing a plan to sell its 33,000-square-foot property at Mission and First streets to a highrise developer about a year ago. The site now holds Golden Gate’s main building, and he said the university would only be interested if it could either be part of a new mixed-use development on the site or move to another location in downtown San Francisco. Golden Gate has hired land use attorney Pam Duffy of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP and has put together a task force to look at potential deals.

If approved, Golden Gate’s rezoning would be part of a highrise cluster around a 1,000-foot Transbay Tower that would include six skyscrapers over 600 feet and allow for another 5.8 million square feet of new office space, 1,350 housing units and 1,350 hotel rooms.

However, a fight is brewing with a neighboring parcel over which will be zoned for the higher tower:

The latest zoning proposal pits Golden Gate University against neighboring developer David Choo, who owns seven parcels in and around First and Mission streets. The latest Transbay plan calls for two tall towers — one 700 feet and one 850 feet — on the block that includes both Choo’s property and the Golden Gate University property. Choo has been trying to sell his parcels as a unified site that alone could accommodate the two towers, one 700 feet and one 850 feet.

Thus, if a tower is designated for the Golden Gate University property, it could reduce the Choo property to just one tower of either 700 feet or 850 feet. In 2006, Choo filed an application to build as many as five towers on his property, but over the past 18 months has been trying to sell a number of San Francisco building sites as his commercial mortgage lending business, California Mortgage & Realty, has suffered severe losses. One of his funds, CMR Mortgage Fund II, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 31.

SOURCE: BIZ JOURNALS