Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Pucheadquarters topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Supervisors advance funding package for SFPUC’s new 525 Golden Gate headquarters
Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee recommended the Board approve a roughly $190.6 million PUC headquarters project at 525 Golden Gate and a companion resolution authorizing distribution of a preliminary official statement for certificates of participation financing. The committee accepted a technical amendment to allow reimbursement of prior expenditures.
The San Francisco Budget & Finance Committee voted to send to the full Board a set of measures to finance and construct the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s new headquarters at 525 Golden Gate Avenue.
DPW project manager Bridal Mabratu walked supervisors through the 13‑story project, calling it a “world class energy efficient structure” and describing program elements including a SCADA control center, an emergency operations center, a childcare facility and public exhibition space. Mabratu said the building is approximately 277,000 square feet with about 257,000 rentable and is being pursued for LEED Platinum certification.
The PUC and city finance officials laid out a $190.6 million projected project cost and a proposed financing structure that combines proceeds from recent building and land sales, certificates of participation (COPs), and enterprise fund balances from the water, wastewater and power businesses. Todd Wristrom, SFPUC’s chief financial officer, said the financing package was modeled to avoid net rate increases for utility ratepayers and that the COP structure was selected in part because it matches the mixed enterprise credit backing the project. “One of the most important things for the PUC in particular was to look at our rental streams, and we wanted to be able to ensure ratepayers that this new building would not result in any net additional rates or net additional cost to them,” Wristrom said.
Office of Public Finance staff requested a technical amendment to the bond‑related resolution to include standard reimbursement language authorizing the use of debt proceeds to reimburse prior expenditures; the committee accepted the amendment without objection. Nadia Sasse, Office of Public Finance, said the city is also exploring a negotiated sale and Build America Bonds alternatives to get the lowest borrowing cost, and that market outreach could lower the true interest cost materially before a planned September offering.
Supervisors asked for details about total appropriations, capitalized interest and local hire commitments. The committee heard that $43.7 million had already been appropriated, the appropriation on the table is intentionally conservative to cover financing costs including an estimated capitalized interest amount (the office estimated about $20.7 million for the construction period), and that only a portion of the project’s construction packages have been bought out to date (demolition awarded to Cleveland Wrecking Company; KMD/Stevens JV holds the A/E contract). DPW said the CM/GC contract with Webcor allows negotiated direct LBE subcontracts and that CityBuild will be used for outreach and local hire pipelines.
Public commenters, including civic‑center stakeholders, praised demolition of the derelict state building and said the new headquarters would help stabilize the Civic Center/Tenderloin area. The committee voted to forward Items 1 and 2 to the full Board with recommendation (Item 2 as amended).
The Board is scheduled to consider the items at the next full meeting, where finance documents and any final sale mechanics will be finalized and disclosed.
