Transbay Tower Gets Final Approval

Plans for the soaring, 1,070-foot-tall Transbay Tower received their final approvals from the Planning Commission Thursday, clearing the way for construction of what will become the city's tallest building.

The decision also may have opened the door to the desperately needed funding to build what planners say will be the crown of the downtown skyline at 101 First St.

"This is the culmination of five years of work," said Paul Paradis, senior manager for Hines, the Houston developer of the tower. "It's cause for real celebration."

It's also a welcome bit of good news for Hines, which saw its deep-pocketed investment partner in the project, insurance giant MetLife, pull out this summer. Since then, a Sept. 30 deadline for Hines to provide the public Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which owns the land, with a non-refundable $5 million line of credit has passed with no action taken.

Negotiations are continuing, said Adam Alberti, spokesman for the authority.

But while Paradis declined to discuss details of the tower's financing, he said the commission's actions could provide a real boost in attracting investors.

"An entitled piece of land in San Francisco is a valuable asset and investors realize that," he said.

The 61-story tower is the centerpiece of an effort to re-envision the city's downtown.

The new office building will be part of a 145-acre Transit Center District that will include commercial high-rises, residential towers, hotels and retail space, all wrapped around a planned Transit Center that will be the hub for local and regional bus lines, as well as the underground terminus for the proposed Caltrain extension and the statewide high-speed rail line.

The new center is part of an effort to create what the plan for the area calls a "dynamic urban center." Expanding the city's traditional downtown, with its emphasis on high-density office building, to the transit-rich SoMa neighborhood would make the Transit Center "the center of downtown, reinforcing the primacy of public transit in organizing the City's development pattern."