Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is a Go

(Photos from Lennar Urban)

I blogged recently about South Weymouth Naval Air Station and the plans to convert that closed government facility to Southfield - a 1,500 acre mixed development south of Boston.

San Francisco has just approved the redevelopment of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, a similar project to Southfield, located just north of San Bruno Mountain State Park on San Francisco’s Bay.  This site has been undergoing 20 years of environmental cleanup that started several years after the base was closed in 1974. Because of the toxic nature of the site, $700 million dollars in Superfund dollars were used to bring the site to EPA standards.

The new 700 acre development will be completed in two phases on one of the last large tracts of land in the San Francisco Bay area ; Parcel A will be a 63 acre neighborhood that will include 1,400 homes, 25 acres of parkland, and over 9,000 sf of retail and commercial space.

Phase II, dubbed Candlestick-HP II will include 10,500 homes, 300 acres of parks and recreation areas, two million sf of retail and commercial as well as a potential future site for the new San Francisco 49ers stadium and a green technology research hub.

Lennar Urban, the developer of the project plans a total investment for both phases of almost $8 Billion and 10 to 20 years to complete.

Read more about Hunters Point:

Associated Press

San Francisco Approves Giant Redevelopment Project

The Bay Citizen

SF Board Says "Yes" to Lennar

2008 Hunters Point Urban Design Plan

   

South Weymouth Naval Air Station: SouthField

South Weymouth Naval Air Station was a United States Navy air field that started operations in 1942 and became established as a Navy blimp base during World War II. It closed in 1997 after the Base Realignment and Closure Committee of 1995 recommended it to be eliminated.

Although talk of redevelopment of the base started immediately after its closure – after 13 years – the first dirt is about to be turned for the construction of the East-West Parkway that will support the development.

The 1,500 acre mixed-use development of the airfield, located 13 miles south of Boston, will include over 2 million sq ft of retail and office space, 2,800 homes, public parks, a golf course, as well as a $100 million film studio. Total investment is estimated to be $1.5 billion.

This will be an interesting project to watch.  This certainly is not the first air base to be closed (or redeveloped) as part of the "peace dividend" but there are many of these sites across the US that are available for redevelopment and likely would be catalysts for those communities impacted by the loss of jobs from these closed government facilities.  There is a lot to this redevelopment and I will add another post to talk about the details in the coming weeks.  For an overview - see the SouthField website:  SouthField 

Here is the article about the development from the Boston Globe:

Air Base Project Nears Takeoff