FivePoint wants to add offices to Candlestick Park plan

FivePoint Holding has pitched a revised plan that includes a shift of 2 million square feet of offices previously planned for its stalled development in Hunters Point to the former site of Candlestick Park.

The pending request for approval from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the latest in a saga that has enveloped the site in the 10 years since the city promised to replace the historic stadium with affordable homes.

FivePoint also is seeking new deadlines and terms on tax benefits on the project. The Board of Supervisors, meanwhile, has opened the possibility of seeking a new developer for the site, the San Francisco Standard reported.

Any new deals will be worked out as most of the site of the now-demolished stadium—at 602 Jamestown Avenue in the southeastern corner of the city—remains a 280-acre ditch.

Irvine-based FivePoint’s proposal for 2 million square feet of office space in what it’s calling an “innovation district” at Candlestick comes amid an ongoing dearth of demand facing the office market throughout the city. Vacancy rates for the sector continue to hover around 30 percent, and values have tumbled, with many properties trading for less than $300 per square foot–less than half of pre-pandemic prices, in many recent cases.

The proposal to resume the redevelopment of Candlestick would be the first steps to add its current stock, consisting of three buildings with 337 apartments at Alice Griffith Community, a public housing development off Gilman Avenue across from the old stadium.

Everything else is dirt lots, fencing and blocked roads — the shadow of a promised neighborhood, according to the Standard.

FivePoint and city officials in 2014 jointly promised to rebuild the neglected parcel to give the local population of the historically Black neighborhood options for remaining in the area.

That vision came with pledges of jobs, parks, infrastructure, and nearly a third of the residential units set aside as affordable.

The site has remained largely barren, with a previous plan to build a mall meant to rival the Stonestown Galleria was scrapped in 2019. Plans for the construction of apartments that would have housed hundreds of San Franciscans by this year have remained in limbo, according to the Standard.

Because of delays, FivePoint is proposing the previously agreed-upon 2036 deadline for the project’s tax benefits be moved to 2070.

The developer is also asking for the city’s limit on bond debt to finance the project to increase from $800 million in 2010 to $3.3 billion. Officials attribute this increase to higher construction costs, property values, and a longer development timeline.

Suheil Totah, a senior vice president at FivePoint who now leads the redevelopment of Candlestick, said the new version of the project could capture business lost to parts of the Peninsula, such as AI companies.

“The focus on housing remains the same,” Totah told the Standard. “It’s just the types of commercial [spaces] are being expanded to allow for what we’re seeing in the market.”

A report from the Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst found that FivePoint failed to comply with its original agreed-upon construction schedule for Candlestick and noted only 4.5 percent of its housing has been completed.

The report offered a few policy options, including procuring a new developer, deferring approval and financial commitments until more progress is made, or requesting a performance audit on the project.

— Dana Bartholomew