Lennar and Five Point are selling prospective buyers not on the housing, but on the vision for a neighborhood that, like an all-inclusive resort, gives residents few reasons to leave.
I walked around parts of the shipyard overlooking the Naval property. It was quiet, except for the soft chatter of a couple touring the property before an appointment.
The SF Shipyard is one of the most ambitious real-estate developments that San Francisco has ever seen. The project is expected to cost $8 billion, and it will finish in the early 2030s.
Source: Office of the Mayor
The SF Shipyard might sound dreamy to the millennial homebuyer, but those amenities may be years and years away. The plans are subject to change as the cost of construction rises.
The dock is the future site of a waterfront promenade where residents will someday enjoy live music, catch a water taxi to San Francisco's Embarcadero, or just take in the views.
The shipyard dips a toe into the "agrihood" — or agricultural neighborhood — trend with its 350 acres of green space, including a grasslands ecology park, trails, and sports fields.
City buses will someday provide transportation between downtown and the shipyard. In the meantime, residents can take a free shuttle that runs every 30 minutes during the work day.
Five Point wants to squeeze an entire shopping district into the plans. A retail corridor will have a movie theater, a supermarket, and nearly one million square feet of retail space.
While Lennar is responsible for building all 12,000 housing units at the shipyard, its spinoff Five Point is tasked with developing the community in and around those new homes.
All units come with one or two parking spots, which is especially important because there are few shops, restaurants, or grocery stores within walking distance of the shipyard (yet).
About 10% of all units will be priced below $257,000 and reserved for low- and middle-income buyers. Those units "won't skimp" on any high-end finishes, according to Lennar.
Source: Lennar
One- and two-bedroom units range between "high $500,000s" and $1 million — typical of starter homes in San Francisco — while three-bedroom units go up to $1.5 million.
The rooms were small but affordable by Bay Area standards.
Lennar's current range of inventory at the shipyard averages $860 per square foot — nearly $200 less than the average price per-square-foot in San Francisco, according to Trulia.
A fully furnished model unit that I toured featured massive windows, appliances from Bosch, hardwood floors, carpeting in the bedrooms, and contemporary finishes.
The condominium buildings are typical of new urban developments: washed in neutral colors with a familiar industrial flare. Wrought-iron railings wrap around the balconies.
It's an understatement to call the SF Shipyard a housing development. The project will eventually cover nearly 800 acres and span about two miles from the farthest points.
Kofi Bonner, Five Point's regional president in the Bay Area, describes the SF Shipyard development as "a new community within an old city."
Still, Lennar and Five Point aren't waiting for the cleanup to finish before building in the area. Construction is well underway on the parcels that passed inspection.
After the shipyard closed, it was declared a "superfund" site — a toxic-waste site where the United States Environmental Protection Agency can force parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government to do the work.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency
The cleanup of contamination at the shipyard has been ongoing for more than 20 years — and it's prompted investigations that are steeped in scandal. A 2000 investigation by SF Weekly found "troubling evidence" that the Navy \ mishandled the radioactive waste it produced. It reportedly dumped huge amounts of contaminated sand into the San Francisco Bay and sprinkled radioactive material on- and-off-base "as if it were fertilizer" to practice cleanup.
Approximately 70 acres of the 500 total acres at Hunters Point have been cleaned up by the Navy, passed inspections by the EPA, and sold from the city of San Francisco to Lennar and Five Point. An additional 280 acres near Candlestick Park will be released in a later phase.
In 2012, several employees of a government-contractor that was paid to clean up the site admitted to faking soil tests — swapping samples from areas known to be highly contaminated with dirt from areas known to be clean. Now all the soil samples are being reviewed, causing delays in the transfer of land from the Navy to the city of San Francisco to the developers.
From 1948 to 1969, it hosted a then-secret laboratory that ran tests on ships exposed to nuclear weapons, as well as research on the effects of radiation on living organisms.
Military equipment and ships contaminated by atomic bomb explosions were left at Hunters Point, and toxic substances including petroleum fuels, pesticides, and heavy metals seeped into and polluted the soil at Hunters Point, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2015.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency and SF Weekly