Lennar Gains Density for Hunter's Point Housing

SAN FRANCISCO-Lennar Corp. this week gained 25% more units for the first two blocks of residential development at Hunter’s Point. Lennar is the master developer partnering with the city to redevelop the former navy base and Candlestick Point, the voter-approved plan for which would remake contiguous waterfront districts with 10,500 housing units, retail and commercial development, parks and possibly a new football stadium.

Lennar last week showed reporters renderings and models of the initial project, which would be built on a hilltop within the former shipyard. The parcels are bounded by Donahue Street to the northwest, Friedell Street to the southeast, with Innes Avenue running between them, and pocket parks abutting each of them.

The density bonus approved by the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission increases the number of units in Lennar’s initial housing project for one of the two blocks to 63 from 51. The Shipyard’s Citizens Advisory Committee reviewed and approved the designs at its January and February 2009 meetings.

The block with the increased density, Block 51, is designed to include 63 apartments or condominiums (53,231 square feet of livable space) above sunken parking. The mix includes one studio, 31 one-bedroom units and 31 two-bedroom units. The units range in size from 449 square feet for the studio to 930 square feet average for the one-bedroom to 1,202 square feet for the two-bedroom units.

The other block, 50, has been designed with 25 two and three-bedroom town home condominiums ranging in size from 906 square feet to 1,542 square feet and averaging 1,112 square feet. The early price-range estimate for condos is $400,000 to $700,000.

The two developments, considered the gateway parcels to the Hilltop area of the Shipyard, were initially approved more than a decade ago. The new approval allows a density that exceeds the parameters initially approved, in exchange for one additional affordable housing unit, bringing the total to 14. Project completion is slated for mid-2011.

Meantime, the redevelopment agency is issuing an RFP for consultant to provide information and outreach services and administrative support to the Agency, the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee and the broader Bayview Hunters Point community. The agency has had an onsite office at the shipyard since 1995 and for the past three years W.B. Kennedy & Associates has provided the aforementioned services. WBK’s contract expired in January and the company is now being retained on a month-to-month basis while the agency rebids the work per its policy.

The RFP was issued Wednesday with a submittal due date of May 11, 2009. The winning bidder, if not WB Kennedy, will assume operations this summer.