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Committee endorses Pier 70 term sheet; staff say environmental review and entitlements will take years
Summary
The committee endorsed a term sheet with Forest City for the Pier 70 waterfront site, describing a multi-phase plan that could add roughly 1,000 housing units, significant office and creative space, parks and infrastructure; fiscal analysis found the project fiscally feasible for environmental review but flagged roughly $98M of feasibility gaps for certain placemaking parcels and parking.
The subcommittee endorsed a term sheet that sets high-level business terms between the city and Forest City for redevelopment of a roughly 28-acre portion of the Pier 70 waterfront.
Emily Lask (Office of Economic and Workforce Development) framed the project against the port's Pier 70 preferred master plan: priorities include preserving historic resources, creating waterfront open space and recruiting creative and job-generating uses. Forest City's Jack Sylvan described a mixed-use concept with a creative core, historic rehabilitation, roughly 1,000 residential units with an affordable component, about 2.25 million square feet of office and approximately 270,000 square feet of ground-floor creative uses and makerspace.
Brad Benson (Port special projects) summarized the term sheet and a fiscal feasibility analysis: city staff estimated CEQA and rezoning costs at about $20 million and infrastructure costs around $160 million. The proposed financing package relies on land proceeds, community facilities/IFD bonds and state-authorized tax-increment capture; Forest City would finance early entitlement and horizontal infrastructure costs and receive an 18% cumulative return on equity, with port and developer splitting later land proceeds per the term sheet.
Budget analyst Mr. Rose said the waterfront site project is "fiscally feasible under charter chapter 29" for purposes of proceeding to environmental review, but identified a feasibility gap of about $98.4 million for parking facilities and certain placemaking parcels in historic buildings. Staff and developers said the entitlement, CEQA and DDA negotiation period will take two to three years and that full buildout could occur across 10—15 years.
Speakers from housing advocacy, labor and advisory groups testified in support during public comment; labor representatives praised local-hire commitments and Forest City's outreach. Supervisors accepted budget analyst amendments incorporated into the proposed legislation and approved the term sheet endorsement without recorded opposition. Staff said they will return with detailed financial plans and stepwise entitlements after environmental review.
