Everything NEW or COMING SOON to San Francisco in 2025

San Francisco's on the brink of a major transformation. AI companies have leased nearly 2 million square feet of office space over the past year. There are billions of dollars being invested in mixed-use communities all across the city, including several along the city's central waterfront, and there are hundreds of thousands of new residents and tens of thousands of new housing units expected in the coming years. From massive infrastructure projects to incredible new public spaces, the city is changing at a very rapid pace. And in this video, I'm breaking down the most exciting developments coming to San Francisco, including a brand new food hall with legendary culinary pedigree, brand new waterfront parks, the largest housing development on the city's west side in the past 50 years, and a whole lot more. I'm Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County, and I'm here to give you an insider's look at all the major developments coming to the city. So whether you're thinking about moving here or you already live here and just want to learn more about the city, you have everything you need to stay up to date. So let's dive right in, and we're going to kick it off with one of the most exciting developments coming to the Presidio in years, a brand new food hall called the Mess Hall at the Presidio Tunnel Tops. If you live in San Francisco, you've probably heard of the amazing new Presidio Tunnel Tops, the latest addition to the Presidio, which is an iconic national park with beautiful trails, rec areas, and some of the most gorgeous views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Tunnel Tops themselves are 14 acres of park space that opened at the north end of the Presidio in July of 2022, right next to where the food trucks gather for Off the Grid, with multiple trails, a giant children's playground, and there's a new cafe called Il Parco serving pizza on focaccia crust. It has been a smash hit, no doubt about it, one of the most frequented parks all across the city, and it's about to get even better with a brand new food hall, the Mess Hall, coming in 2025. The Mess Hall, which takes its name from the Mess Hall Group, the masterminds of the area, will create a brand new food hall that will feature an all-day cafe, a cocktail bar, beer and wine shops, and a retail space dedicated entirely to food. The specifics of which vendors, restaurants, beer and wine providers are all going to be there haven't been announced yet, but we know the project is going to be legit because of who's behind it. James Beard Award-winning chef Peter Serpico, who worked with the legendary chef David Chang to open Momofuku Somm and Momofuku Ko. While he's the biggest name for food at the Mess Hall, drinks are being developed by Tabla Rasa Bar and Dolores Deluxe owner Zach Negan, who's responsible for developing the alcohol side of things. I can never have enough food, and combine that with the amenities and views at the Tunnel Tops, plus a little bit of alcohol, you definitely have a winning combination. I'm super excited for it to open, and I'll definitely give you a tour when it does. So make sure you subscribe to my channel to stay up to date, or if you like all this other news that I'll be giving you about new real estate developments coming soon, events, and current things happening in the city. And now for the next major development that I'm most excited about, a brand new waterfront park opening right across the street from the Chase Center. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] This brand new waterfront park called Bayfront Park in Mission Bay is slated to open later this year, and you can already see some of the amazing amenities going up at the space. The project began construction in summer of 2022, and plans include flexible space for events, native landscaping, trails, and a lot of different elements that are designed to get people to engage more with the landscape and the water. With over 5.4 acres of open space, the Port of San Francisco, which is the agency overseeing the project, is completely changing what used to be a largely industrial and underutilized waterfront park that's been largely not utilized for the past several years into a space that can be used by all. The construction has been going on for a while, as I mentioned, several years. It was delayed in part because contamination was found in the soil, so needed to be remediated. That's all since been done, and it is on schedule to open later this year. Some of the most unique features of the park are reclaimed pieces of steel from the old portion of the Bay Bridge. As well as salvaged anchors from the Port of San Francisco's Boneyard. There's also going to be new areas for barbecues and other hangout spots for picnics. As a new venue for public events, gatherings, concerts, given its location right across the street from the Chase Center, which is where the Golden State Warriors play, and all the things around the Chase Center and the events that are going to be taking place at this new park, it really is going to be a game changer for the former industrial area. And what's even more exciting is all the development going on around that Park. It is smack in the middle of 3 multibillion-dollar mixed-use communities that are being built right now on the central waterfront in San Francisco. These include Mission Rock, which is being developed by the San Francisco Giants along with the Port of San Francisco, Pier 70, which is being developed by Brookfield Partners, and the Potrero Power Station being developed by Associate Capital. Each of these are going to bring multiple acres of open space, hundreds of thousands of new square footage of housing, office, retail, lab space, you name it. Phase 1 of Mission Rock is already complete. It is gorgeous, definitely worth checking out, and the others are making great progress. Really exciting to see all the transformation going on to that area. I've got an entirely separate video about these communities. I'll link that up top, in the description below. Definitely worth checking out. And as those areas further progress through construction, I'll be giving updated tours of each of them. So stay tuned, subscribe to my channel if you're interested in those. The next big thing coming that I want to tell you about are the latest developments with respect to the California High-Speed Rail. Hi, I'm Austin Klar. If you haven't heard of this project, it is a high-speed rail that is supposed to connect Orange County all the way to San Francisco with a 220-mile-per-hour train. The project was initially approved in 2008, and it was supposed to be done by 2020. Now projections have it going well into the 2030s, so there have been a ton of delays. There have been a ton of studies, economic studies, environmental studies, seismic studies, all surrounding the project, but a lot of progress has been made that are making the goalposts closer and the end finally in sight. One of the biggest concerns surrounding the project was seismic because of its proximity to fault lines up and down the coast. In fact, engineers say it's designed to withstand earthquakes from between 6.7 to 7.3 magnitude, which is the maximum magnitude for earthquakes that are supposed to be experienced in the area that the rail runs. The project has been hit with a ton of different lawsuits and a bunch of other delays, and the project has ballooned to an estimated 12-figure project. But it's not all doom and gloom. There have been a number of other updates that are bringing this closer to completion. Hello. A key segment of the project between Palmdale and Burbank was recently approved. It received all the approvals it needs, and the additional funding that it needed has recently been locked down. California was also recently notified that the Biden-Harris administration is going to be pledging $6 billion to the project to help with the funding gap. And there's a major part of the project underway right now in San Francisco. The intent is to create a Grand Central Station of the West called The Portal. The Portal is going to connect the Salesforce Transit Center, the Transbay Transit Center, via 1.3 miles of rail to where the high-speed rail's ultimately going to go. And that project has received a $3.4 billion matching pledge from the US government. That is great news, but what it means is that the project sponsors need to raise another $3.4 billion independently in order for the government to provide that other $3.4 billion matching pledge. So fundraising is ongoing there, and there is no firm timeline, but that is still good news. And bottom line, there are still a ton of hurdles pieces that were supposed to be completed in 2020 are now not even scheduled to be completed until the mid-2030s. So it is very, very delayed, but we are making progress. And hopefully within our lifetimes, we do get that high-speed rail. I am personally invested in it because the city that it drops off of in Southern California, Anaheim, is about 10 minutes from where I grew up and where my childhood home still is and where my parents live. So I would personally be taking that from San Francisco back home, I would love to use it. The next development I want to talk about is pretty major. It is the Stonestown Galleria redevelopment, which is going to convert the Stonestown Galleria into the largest mixed-use community that's been approved on the West Side in the past 50 years. Those plans, which have been underway for years, recently received full approval by the Board of Supervisors earlier this summer. The plans call for 30 acres of surface parking lots in the area to be converted into a bunch of new housing, 3,500 new units in total, ranging from like 4-story townhomes to an 18-story residential tower to a 200-unit senior village. There's also going to be dedicated farmer's market space. There'll be new parking structures and underground parking to service the area. There's gonna be 6 acres of parks. There's gonna be a town square, and 20% of the housing is slated to be affordable housing. There will also be a new 20th Avenue built to service the area. It's going to be like a brand new main street 150,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, and entertainment space. It is expected that the project will spend another couple of years in planning before construction starts, and once it does, it is expected to be done in phases and take about 20 years to complete. The first phase is going to involve a ton of the infrastructure work required, new streets, new utilities, things to get it ready for all this new housing. That first phase will also include those 4-story townhomes that I mentioned. Mm-hmm. And what's great is that the mall that's currently there will continue to be open during construction. So these stores aren't going away, they're still available to service residents in the area. This is going to completely transform that space. I know Brookfield Partners is excited about it, San Francisco is excited about it, I'm excited about it, and I'll definitely be showing it off to you as construction progresses. And the last major update I want to talk to you about is the makeover being proposed for Powell Street retail corridor in Union Square. Powah Street. The 3-block stretch of Powell ending at the cable car turnaround has been one of the hardest-hit areas since the onset of the pandemic. It used to be a bustling area, so much foot traffic, but it has since become very desolate and not a place that you necessarily want to travel to. There's also a lot of empty storefronts, so there's less of a reason to travel there. So to draw more people to what is now a more desolate street, the city is proposing a complete redesign of the space. They plan to add a giant starburst-shaped color-changing chandelier. They're proposing to widen the sidewalks to create more walkable space and outdoor seating for restaurants in the area. They plan to have decorative lamps and lighting spanning the corridor to make it more inviting. These plans look really cool, and they would definitely be welcome in that area. The proposed project is expected to cost about $6 million, $4 million of which is going toward the actual construction of these new spaces. $2 million is going to go toward incentives to bring new businesses back to the area. If it gets approved, construction should start next year and take a total of a few years to complete. We'll see if it actually goes through, and I'll definitely be keeping you posted. So if you want more updates about that project or any of the other projects that I mentioned, or future developments coming to San Francisco, the housing market, or just want to know more about what day-to-day life is in San Francisco, definitely subscribe to my channel because I make videos about that stuff every single week. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] And if there are other events or developments you want to hear more about, drop a comment, let me know, or feel free to reach out to me. I'll put my contact information in the description below. And if you're thinking about relocating in the area, I'd be happy to be a resource for you. 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. And I did that without knowing much of anything about what it's actually like to live in the city. So I know how scary it can be moving to a new place or or to change neighborhoods, so I'd be happy to help you. And before you go, if you want to learn more about those mixed-use communities that are being built along the Central Waterfront, I made a separate video about that that I'll link in the description below. I've also got a video about another big development going on at Yerba Buena Island. I did a full tour of that. I'll link that in the description below as well. Go check 'em out, and I'll see you in the next video. Hola.