COMPLETION OF CANDLESTICK POINT AND HUNTERS POINT SHIPYARD REDEVELOPMENT MOVES ONE STEP CLOSER TO REALITY

Mayor Newsom signs resolution endorsing $2 billion financing plan for project

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Today Mayor Gavin Newsom signed a resolution endorsing a $2 billion dollar financing plan for the combined redevelopment of Candlestick Point and Phase 2 of the Hunters Point Shipyard.

The financing plan will fund the creation of the largest parks project since the construction of Golden Gate Park, over 3,000 below market affordable housing units, and hundreds of millions of dollars of area-wide transit improvements, without using any General Fund dollars.

“In these very difficult fiscal times, it is more important than ever that we smartly partner with the private sector to help pay for critical public benefits like parks and affordable housing, and to stimulate huge economic investments in the City, particularly in the Bayveiw Hunters Point community,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The financing plan also provides for the contribution of at least $100 million dollars of private financing from the project developers towards the construction of a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, if the 49ers elect to build a new stadium on the Shipyard.

Last year, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors approved preliminary development plans for the site, that include over 10,000 new homes (more than 32% of which will be offered at below market rates), a 2.5 million square foot green tech campus, over 700,000 square feet of retail, and over 300 acres of new waterfront parks. This past June, the voters of San Francisco overwhelmingly approved the project with the passage of Proposition G, by a more than 60% margin in every district of the City. In addition, cleanup of the next phase of the project – approximately 100 acres of land – is now fully funded and almost complete.

“Approval of the financing plan,” said Mayor Newsom “is another indication of the steady progress that the City has been making on this critical project.”

Final development agreements for the entire 770-acre site are expected to be complete and fully approved in the next 12 months, by the end of 2009.