Coming to San Francisco: The Multi-Billion Dollar Treasure Island Project

San Francisco is converting an island into a multi-billion dollar mixed-use community with 8,000 new homes, over 300 acres of parks and waterfront spaces, some of the best amenities you can find anywhere in the Bay Area with unobstructed views from bridge to bridge across the San Francisco skyline and Marin County. This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County, and developers have been working for over a decade to turn Treasure Island into a cutting-edge, environmentally sustainable community. And in this video, I'm going to break down everything going on on the island, including how developers are turning the former naval base into one of the most ambitious developments in San Francisco's history and what you can expect as development continues. If you like videos about new developments, current events, or the San Francisco and Marin County lifestyle, subscribe to my channel because I make videos about that stuff every single week. Now let's get right to the development. And to really understand how special and ambitious it is, you need to understand the island's history and how it's shaping what's going on on the island. Treasure Island is a man-made island smack in the middle of the San Francisco Bay that was built under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration as part of the Works Progress Administration. It was initially intended to serve as a new airfield for Pan American Airlines, and the island played host to the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939 and 1940, celebrating the new Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge and showcasing the future of San Francisco. Plans to use the island as a second airport servicing San Francisco never really came to fruition, and the island was turned over to the Navy in connection with the United States' role in World War II., and it remained a naval base until about 1997 when the base was closed and the island was turned back over to the city. The redevelopment of Treasure Island is happening alongside redevelopment of the natural island next door, Yerba Buena Island, which is being transformed into several hundred luxury homes, condos, townhomes, single-family homes for sale by developer Wilson Meany and designer Edmonds and Lee. And the redevelopment there is maintaining the footprint established by the Navy to allow for preservation of the natural landscape on that island. I've got a separate video on what's going on Yerba Buena Island. I'll link that video in the description below. Definitely worth checking out because the units and amenity spaces there are awesome. Wilson Meany is the developer over at Yerba Buena Island, but because Treasure Island is a much larger development, closer to 8,000 units compared to Yerba Buena's couple hundred units, they do have partners in the Treasure Island development, Lennar and Stockbridge Capital Group. The developers have been working on this development for well over a decade, principally on, you know, getting through the legal processes with the city as well as the infrastructure work needed to get the island in inhabitable. There have been concerns that the former naval base's operations have caused toxins to leak into the soil, so it's a toxic environment not suitable for habitation. And over $1 billion has been spent on getting the island inhabitable, including remediation of the toxins in the area. There are also concerns about sea level rise, so a huge amount has been spent making sure that what they're building is able to withstand sea level rise over the next many years to come. That's partly why, as you'll see, the buildings are set back from the coast of the island with park space in between, which serve not only as, you know, public open space, but as drainage and protection from potential sea rise. It's really ingenious what they've done here. All in, the development is supposed to cost well over $6 billion. So the scale of it is massive and the designs here are incredible. Skidmore, Owings Merrill is the principal designer of the master plan for Treasure Island. The approach on Treasure Island is a bit different from how they're laying things out on Yerba Buena Island to reserve how the Navy had things laid out. Most of Treasure Island is going to be brand new construction, rental and for sale complexes arranged in a series of walkable blocks in separate neighborhoods, you know, brand new neighborhoods that are being created along the western, southern, and eastern edges of the island. The entire island is going to be surrounded by a brand new waterfront park system, and there's going to be retail corridors, commercial corridors connecting the various neighborhoods on the island. The retail corridor is supposed to be along the edge of Clipper Cove, which is one of the most serene beaches in San Francisco, and it's going to connect to the bus and ferry terminal on the island. The parks and open spaces are well under construction, already starting to come together, and the views from there are absolutely stunning. You can see some of it in the background. The island is also entirely flat, making biking, walking, jogging extremely easy and very convenient. The island is being designed with less of a focus on driving and cars. There's a ferry system that will take you from the island to downtown San Francisco in about 7 to 8 minutes. So you can get to downtown San Francisco quicker than you would if you were living in the East Bay, or even if you were living in San Francisco proper in like the Richmond or the Sunset. The transit hub is going to be on the northwest corner of the island, which is the part of the island that's connected to Yerba Buena Island. So it's going to be the most accessible part of the island by land. It'll be not only a transit hub, but have a hotel, shopping, dining, cultural centers, high-density housing options. There's going to be a promenade along Clipper Cove with a market hall, a sailing center, and retail near the marina. And all of that will be connected to the parks running along that outer section of the island that I mentioned, all surrounding the homes that are being built. And all of these spaces are going to take full advantage of where the island is located. It's setting right in the middle of San Francisco Bay with unobstructed views from East Bay, the Bay Bridge, the San Francisco skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, Angel Island, Alcatraz. And this isn't all conceptual. It's already happening. There are already buildings that are open for lease and people are occupying the building on Treasure Island. There are also several other buildings in progress starting releasing in the coming months, starting sales in the coming months. Aisle House is the first one to open on the island that's new. It's a 22-story apartment complex designed by David Baker Architects, 250 rental apartments, 9 live-work residences at Aisle House. It's got a full amenity stack like a fitness center, roof deck with barbecues, seating areas, and those incredible views of the San Francisco skyline. They're also building out retail space at the ground level, which is designed for a cafe. Units there range from studios to 3 bedrooms, starting just under $3,000 a month going to north of $7,000 a month. The next building that's going to start leasing on the island is called Hawkins, and it's a little bit different of a design and concept than Isle House. Isle House is a 22-story structure. Hawkins is two structures, mid-rise, one 6 stories, one 4 stories. The complex is 178 units with studios starting at around $2,800 a month going again up to 3 bedrooms for over $7,000 a month. It's also going to have a fitness center, rooftop coworking space, and a pet spa. So all the buildings here, you're getting some awesome amenities, all taking advantage of the awesome views. And the first for-sale homes are also going to be released next year, early next year, February, March timeframe at 490 Avenue of the Palms. Pricing and floor plans haven't been finalized there yet, and it's under construction, so I can't give you a tour just yet, but I definitely will once it becomes available. So definitely subscribe if you want more information. And this isn't going to be all market-rate housing. About 27% of the units that are being built on the island are going to be dedicated affordable housing. So there's going to be thousands of options available for lower and middle income households. It's not all super luxury pricing. Well, there you have it. That's what's going on on Treasure Island right now. And as you can see, there is a ton going on. It's really exciting to see that this space is finally starting to make progress and be utilized the way it should be with the natural surrounding. The entire master plan is scheduled to be completed in 2036. So trust me, there are going to be a lot of updates along the way with all the new buildings parks and open spaces that are coming here, and I'll definitely be posting about those. So make sure to subscribe if you want to stay up to date. I'll also be featuring a bunch of it on my Instagram, TikTok, on YouTube Shorts as well. So definitely check those out and follow along if you're interested. And if you're thinking about relocating in San Francisco or Marin County, definitely reach out to me. I moved to the Bay Area over a decade ago to work as a lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world before getting into real estate. Now I help people relocate to the area from all over the country. I'd be happy to be a resource for you. I'll put my contact information in the description below. Reach out anytime. And before I go, go check out the tour that I did over at Yerba Buena Island. It's one of the nicest new developments in the entire city. The views there, the amenity spaces, the units, they're all incredible. Definitely worth taking a look. I'll put the link to that in the description below as well. I hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll see you in the next one.