Today Mayor Edwin M. Lee and Supervisor Malia Cohen celebrated the beginning of home construction for the first phase of the 750-acre Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point development. The City’s selected development partner, Lennar Urban Lennar Urban, the master developer for the project, begins construction on the 1,400-home Hilltop community. Construction will be completed on 247 market rate and affordable homes in 2014.

“The Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point project is one of our City’s most important development projects in a generation,” said Mayor Lee. “We are moving forward without delay to transform the blighted former shipyard to bring new housing, parks and thousands of construction and permanent jobs to San Francisco in the next three decades. I thank Bayview Hunters Point residents who have volunteered their time to plan this project over the last two decades. I must also thank leaders such as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, former Mayor Willie Brown, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell for providing the necessary leadership to undertake this transformative process. This public-private partnership has already delivered a host of community benefits, and the launch of construction will accelerate the benefits to the Bayview community and the rest of San Francisco.’’

“I couldn’t be more excited to see construction beginning at the Shipyard,” said Supervisor Malia Cohen. “The Southeastern neighborhoods will now begin to realize the needed affordable housing units, public parks, community benefits and job opportunities associated with this project”.

“This is a true partnership,” said U.S. Senator and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. “The Navy, the City of San Francisco, its residents and a private developer are showing what can be done to help spur economic and social growth in our City and region.’’

“The cleanup and redevelopment of the shuttered Shipyard means jobs for neighborhood residents and new affordable housing so that diverse families can continue to call San Francisco home,” said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “I have been proud to partner with our Senators, Mayor Lee, local officials and most importantly members of the community on this transformative project and join in the celebrations as shovels hit the dirt.”

The Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point is the largest redevelopment effort in San Francisco since the 1906 earthquake. This nearly $8 billion, 750-acre development project will transform a former military base into a thriving community in San Francisco’s Southeast corner. Once completed in the next 20 years, the Shipyard and Candlestick Point will become home to more than 12,000 new residential units, with more than one-third of those affordable to low-income households.

In addition to homes, the project will will employ the latest technology in green building and infrastructure project and feature a research and development campus for emerging technologies, retail and arts and community spaces and more than 350 acres of parkland. The project continues to attract interest from investors around the world.

The Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point redevelopment is expected to create more than 10,000 permanent jobs and generate several thousand construction jobs during the 30-year life of the project.

“We are very excited to begin building San Francisco’s newest neighborhood,’’ said Lennar Urban President Kofi Bonner. “Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point will offer many new housing options and job opportunities for residents of the Bayview area and others who want to make San Francisco their home.’’

The Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point development has been planned in two major phases:
•    Phase 1 was approved in December 2003 and calls for construction of up to 1,400 residential units with approximately 32 percent of the homeswill be affordable and 26 acres of parks; and
•    Phase 2, approved in August 2010, calls for more than 10,000 homes and a mixed-use community of parks, retail, entertainment, office and research and development space. Phase 2 includes the reconstruction of the Alice Griffith public housing development in the first phase of development, which will be built adjacent to the current location to allow existing residents to move directly into new homes.
 
As part of its development agreement with San Francisco, Lennar has agreed to contribute $37.5 million in job training and affordable housing benefits for the Bayview-Hunters Point community during the build-out of The Shipyard and Candlestick Point. Lennar already has contributed the first $7.5 million, which is being overseen by The San Francisco Foundation.

To learn more about The Shipyard, go to: www.theshipyardsf.com  .