Go back to News pageSAN FRANCISCO -- Want to buy a new luxury home with scenic views and the roar of the '49er faithfuls rolling across your front lawn?
With little fanfare, one of the largest housing developments in recent San Francisco history is being built along the ridges overlooking Candlestick Park. For the past few weeks, concrete-mixer trucks have been rumbling up the hill, pouring foundations for the first 200 homes.
The project, St. Francis Bay, will have 568 upscale condominiums and townhouses. Not only is it the biggest since the 1940s, it also will be the first suburban-style gated community in San Francisco.
St. Francis Bay is being designed for professionals 30 to 50 years old and for empty-nesters in their late 50s and 60s who want to trade down to smaller homes. They will be priced from the low $200,000s to the high $300,000s.
The site has a long history. The terraced ridges that so prominently greet commuters as they drive north along Highway 101 were first excavated during the construction of Candlestick Park. The dirt was scraped, loaded onto trucks and dumped at the bottom of the hill as a landfill parking lot for baseball and football fans.
Campeau Development, the huge Canadian firm, tried to develop the site in the 1980s. But the company went under in the U.S. commercial real estate bust.
Five years ago, the site was purchased by the Tentex Group, one of the 10 largest development firms in Taiwan. The company has developed numerous large projects around the Pacific Rim, but St. Francis Bay is their first U.S. venture.
This is the largest project in San Francisco since Henry Dolger built Westlake in the 1940s. The last big project was the 463-unit condo complex, Opera Plaza, on Van Ness Avenue.
The first 200 homes at St. Francis Bay won't be ready for occupancy until late next year. Until then, motorists along U.S. 101 can watch a work in progress.
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