In this video, lawyer‑turned‑real‑estate agent Austin Klar provides a comprehensive overview of San Francisco’s Central Waterfront, arguing that the area is on the cusp of a major boom. He outlines three massive mixed‑use redevelopment projects—Mission Rock, Pier 70, and the Potrero Power Station—detailing their size, residential units (including affordable housing), office, retail, research‑and‑development space, parkland, and resilience measures such as site elevation for sea‑level rise. Klar highlights anchor tenants like Visa, OpenAI, Anthropic, and the boutique hotel component at Potrero, and showcases existing amenities such as Pring Cove Park and the RH San Francisco showroom. He situates these projects within a broader economic shift, noting the influx of AI firms, proximity to downtown, the South Bay tech hub, and ongoing downtown investments. Throughout, Klar positions himself as a resource for prospective residents, encouraging viewers to subscribe, comment, and contact him for relocation assistance, while also cross‑referencing a separate neighborhood‑ranking video.
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San Francisco Central Waterfront neighborhood is about to boom. And in this video, I'm going to show you everything that you need to know about what's going on here before the landscape changes forever. The Central Waterfront is the location of 3 of the largest mixed-use developments in San Francisco history. I'm talking billions of dollars being invested to create incredible residential complexes, retail, office, and acres and acres of open park spaces. And on top of that, the landscape of San Francisco's workforce is changing as we speak. AI companies are planting their flagpoles in the area. For example, OpenAI just leased 500,000 square feet of office space in Uber's headquarters down the street from where we're filming. There's a massive hospital here, and there's a variety of new amenities that are either already here or are coming soon that are completely transforming this industrial waterfront. I'm Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County, and I'm gonna give you an overview of each of those 3 large mixed-use communities that are coming up in the area, as well as some tidbits about great amenities that are in the area as well that you definitely want to keep your eye on. And you should definitely subscribe to my channel because I'm gonna make in-depth videos about each of those communities as they progress and as new buildings come to market. But for now, I'm just gonna give you an overview of each of those. So let's dive into the first one, starting with Mission Rock. [MUSIC] First up is Mission Rock. The San Francisco Giants and Tishman Speyer are leading the helm of developing this 28-acre space, which is taking over what used to be a giant parking lot area. The 28-acre mixed-use neighborhood will consist of 8 acres of new public open space, 2.7 million square feet of office, retail, and residential space, including 1,500 new rental homes, a substantial portion of which will be affordable units. The first mixed-use building at Mission Rock, The Canyon, actually opened already in 2023, and there are many more to come. Canyon consists of a 5-story plinth topped by a 240-foot tower with ground-level retail and restaurant spaces, 2 floors of office space, and then 283 apartments on top of that. Amenities there are stacked attended lobby, full-service gym, sauna, lounge space, dog washing and grooming salon, screening room, and a rooftop with a hot tub. Incredible views of the bay and waterfront from there as well. And one of the coolest features about this development is that the entire site is being raised 66 inches to account for sea level rise over the next century. The goal is obviously for everything that's great that's being built here to exist and prosper long-term. So accounting for sea level rise is a must, and it's something that the city and the developers are doing all across the waterfront. Mission Rock is also going to be the site of Visa's newest headquarters with capacity for over 1,500 employees. So the entire community is being transformed from what was basically a vacant parking lot into a vibrant new space with a ton of new businesses coming to the area. Now heading to the second of these three mixed-use communities being developed in the area. Right behind me is Pier 70, a historic former industrial site being developed by Brookfield Partners in partnership with the Port of San Francisco. And the plans for Pier 70 look awesome. 9 acres of open parks and recreation space, 2,000 new housing units, over a million square feet of new office space, and hundreds of thousands more for retail, production, and nonprofit art space. And two of my favorite features of the Pier 70 redevelopment are actually already open. The first one is where I'm at right now, Pring Cove Park. It's a park right along the waterfront the weather in the Central Waterfront District is among the best in San Francisco. So it's a perfect place to bring your dogs, bring kids, have a picnic, or just hang out by the water with some of the best views in the city. The other amenity already open in the Pier 70 redevelopment is RH San Francisco. What used to be Bethlehem Steel's office building was bought by RH several years ago and meticulously restored and turned into one of the most beautiful showrooms and hospitality spaces in the entire Bay Area. There's a restaurant on the ground level with multiple wine bars. You can get wine at the wine bar, roam the entire gallery, including the rooftop space, which has multiple lounge and seating areas with stunning views of the San Francisco Bay, a perfect place to enjoy that great Central Waterfront weather. And if Crane Cove Park and RH San Francisco are an indication of what's to come, I am super excited about the Pier 70 redevelopment. All 28 acres of it are going to be spectacular. And the last of the 3 mixed-use communities being developed along the Central Waterfront is the Potrero Power Station redevelopment. Just down the street of Pier 70 is a 7-acre mixed-use site at the location of a former PG&E power plant, and the architects behind this one are some crazy heavy hitters, including Foster and Partners and Herzog de Meuron. The proposed project is being developed by Associate Capital. It will be a majority residential, mixed-use, and mixed-income neighborhood, delivering approximately 2,600 homes, 600,000 square feet of office space, another 600,000 square feet of research and development space, 100,000 square foot of retail, and a number of community amenities. The project will be anchored by a 300-foot power stack and feature nearly 7 acres of parks and open space. There's also a boutique hotel adapted from a former steam power facility, and there will be a number of different restaurants, cafes, shops, and stores. And I was actually involved in some of the litigation over development of this site back in my attorney days, so I'm personally invested in how this whole thing comes together, and I'm really excited to see what they do with the place. And on top of all of these crazy mixed-use developments, there's a huge influx of new business coming to the area. Most notably, two major AI companies have recently subleased office space nearby. Anthropic, the first one, leased 250,000 square feet of office space just a few minutes from the central waterfront in SoMa, and they took over Slack's headquarters. OpenAI just leased 500,000 square feet of office space at Uber's headquarters right next to the Chase Center in the central waterfront. So you're not only getting a bunch of new business in the waterfront, there's a ton new that's going in all around it. And if all that weren't enough, the central waterfront area is just a few minutes' drive to San Francisco's downtown, which is itself undergoing a massive change, multibillion-dollar investment back into downtown, including $500 million alone into the Transamerican Pyramid, which is San Francisco's most iconic building. And the Central Waterfront is so close to the tech hub of the South Bay. Very easy to commute to the South Bay from here. Really easy to get to all the industry that's in SoMa and in downtown. So in my opinion, because of everything that's coming here and everything that is in the immediate areas surrounding the Central Waterfront, I think this place is about to boom. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Now, that's just my opinion. I'd love to know what you guys think in the comments. Tell me whether you're as excited about these new developments as me and what you think it means for San Francisco's future. And if you're thinking about relocating to the area and having trouble navigating the market, definitely reach out to me. I'd be happy to be a resource for you. My contact information is in the description below. I moved here from Orange County over a decade ago without really knowing much of anything about the different areas in San Francisco. So I know what it's like not knowing where to live or how different areas stack up against each other. And if you want to know more about where the Central Waterfront fits in, how it stacks up against other neighborhoods, and how other neighborhoods stack up against each other, I made a completely separate video ranking in tiers a ton of the most popular and some not so popular neighborhoods in San Francisco. So go check it out. I'll link that in the description as well. I hope you like it, and I'll see you in the next video. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
