500-acre Mixed-Use Development Approved

After nearly a decade of heated negotiation, the Pleasanton City Council has approved a mixed-use development on a 500-acre site owned by the city of San Francisco.

The project will include 745,000 sf of office space eagerly anticipated by firms looking to move out of the congested San Jose region. The project will also include 580 homes.

A partnership led by Greenbriar Homes Communities Inc. will buy 120 acres, while Pleasanton will acquire the remainder and lease it back to the developers. Pleasanton and the developers have until the end of October to pay San Francisco an initial $2 million for the land.

The site was acquired by San Francisco in the 1930s as part of its watershed, but a 1980s reengineering of the water supply network rendered the land obsolete. Although the city initially planned to keep title and hire a developer, it eventually decided to sell for about $150 million.