Tall & Urban News

While sales for housing on Yerba Buena Island are underway, the first sign of concrete is finally visible on Treasure Island. The first of many buildings to come is rising at parcel C3.2, a 100 percent affordable housing development called the Maceo May Apartments. Its 105 units are a fraction of the largest master plan for residential construction in the Bay Area. The approximately 8,000-unit plan for the two islands is being developed by Treasure Island Community Development (TICD), a partnership with Stockbridge Capital Group, Wilson Meany, and Lennar Corporation.

The Maceo May Apartments is a US$75 million six-story modular building. The structure spans 104,500 square feet for 105 units, ranging from studios to two-bedroom units for formerly homeless veterans and their families. The project will be delivered to the Chinatown Community Development Center and Swords to Plowshares, a Bay Area-based developer.

Mithun is responsible for the architecture. The façade will feature a sleek design with a white facade, and bronze-toned highlights sat on top of a recessed base with curtain wall and dark panels. The project is expected to be finished by 2022.

The property is opposite from C2.1, which is expecting a 345-foot (105-meter) mixed-use tower with design by Handel Architects. The building will produce 265 dwelling units and parking for 189 vehicles across 545,480 square feet (50,676 square meters).

The Maceo May Apartments is a part of phase one in construction, which has a combined 3,571 unit build-out, the largest of the four phases. Phase one will also introduce the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, 202,000 square feet (18,766 square meters) of office, 67,000 square feet (6,224 square meters) of retail, and 42,000 square feet (3,900 square meters) of circulation space.

There will be 140,000 square feet (13,006 square meters) of retail, 300 new hotel rooms, and 100,000 square feet (9,200 sqare meters) of new offices for new buildings. 72.4 acres (29.2 hectares) of public and open space will reshape what is currently the very inaccessible Yerba Buena Island. There will be 31.2 acres (12.5 hectares) of open public space on Treasure Island.

Phase two will create 1,243 apartments, phase three will create 1,017 units, and phase four will create 2,169 units by 2036, depending on market conditions. There will be at least 2,150 affordable houses at full build-out, along with 290 acres (117 hectares) of public open space between Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island.

The master plan is the work of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, who wrote that “The design proposes three compact neighborhoods organized around a town center and ferry terminal—a layout intended to encourage walking, bicycling, and using mass transit.”

The current approximate target to finish phase one is around 2026 to 2027, after existing residents move into new housing and ferry services begin in 2023. Bus services to Oakland and the East Bay will start in the summer of 2023, with MUNI services increasing by 2027.

For more on this story, go to YIMBY.