On the eve of an incredibly tight November election that will dictate her political future, Mayor London Breed took the podium to announce a new park on the Embarcadero.
Technically, it’s the creation of a public-private partnership to potentially enable the construction of a new park, but who’s counting?
Breed plans to introduce legislation on Tuesday to greenlight a partnership between the city, Salesforce Tower owner BXP Inc. (formerly Boston Properties), and the Downtown SF Partnership to redesign and upgrade the Embarcadero Plaza in front of the Ferry Building and the adjacent Sue Bierman Park.
“We are going to reimagine what Embarcadero Plaza will be for the future so that people who want to come here can enjoy it,” Breed said at the press conference, before listing a string of recent park projects that have been open to the public, including Bayfront Park, China Basin Park, and Presidio Tunnel Tops.
“All these open public spaces every single weekend are packed with people. This is one step further to making a plaza like this come to life differently.”
Gallery of 3 photos
the slideshow
The resolution would call for BXP to spend $2.5 million on the design of the project, while the Recreation & Parks Department and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development would commit to securing $15 million in public funds for the park.
BXP and the Downtown SF Partnership would also be charged with working to secure an additional $10 million in private funding.
What exactly the project would consist of is still an open question and subject to community outreach, but ideas include entertainment venues, a new children’s playground, or a marketplace space with kiosks. Any potential renovation of the park would go through public hearings and review.
“San Francisco needs a world-class park in its downtown,” said Aaron Fenton, senior vice president of BXP, at the press conference. “This is such a prime piece of real estate with its iconic views and its access to public transportation”
BXP has been working with the design firm HOK for about a year on a redesign of the plaza in a bid to better activate the area and make it an attractive amenity for its tenants. During that time, the city has tried to activate the area with programming like concerts, raves, and DJ sets.
“As the front door to San Francisco, Embarcadero Plaza is arguably the most underutilized public space in the greater downtown area and prime to welcome residents and visitors downtown to experience a world-class waterfront park in a world-class city,” Robbie Silver, Downtown SF Partnership CEO and president, said in a statement.
Initial renderings shared by the team show the removal of the Vaillancourt Fountain, perhaps one of the city’s most reviled pieces of public art.
The real estate developer, which also owns the adjacent Embarcadero Center, touted increased vitality from its planned revamp, including a publicly accessible bathroom at its property with an eye-popping $2.5 million price tag.
Breed’s legislation is being put forward a few months after Mark Farrell — one of Breed’s leading competitors for mayor — proposed his own version of a new Embarcadero Plaza park as part of a larger downtown revitalization plan.
At the time, a Breed campaign spokesman derided the plan as a “Chat-GPT” envisioned fantasy.