Proposal Responds to Neighborhood Priorities

The aerial view of 88 Bluxome Street, courtesy of Socketsite, shows its location in SoMa.

SAN FRANCISCO—A revised preliminary project assessment for a mixed-use project, 88 Bluxome Street , (formerly known as 645 5th St.) in the SoMa neighborhood has been submitted by Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. and TMG Partners to the San Francisco city planning department . The 2.6-acre site is located on the same block on which the Central Subway station will be constructed at 4th and Brannan streets. “It is important to us to support the SoMa community through this new development. We are proud that our 88 Bluxome Street project will address multiple community priorities, while providing cutting-edge space,” said Stephen A. Richardson , chief operating officer and San Francisco regional market director of Alexandria. “This project also further enhances Alexandria’s visible pipeline of key future value-creation development projects.” The revised project assessment calls for the project to be anchored by commercial office, retail and production, distribution and repair (PDR) space to support the Central SoMa plan’s main goal of job creation along the city’s newest transit line. The proposed project includes a broad mix of uses and responds to a number of community priorities for the immediate neighborhood and the greater San Francisco area. It will provide a community recreation center, a child care center and a community garden, as well as a land dedication of a portion of the site to the city for construction of a 100% affordable housing project. “Alexandria and TMG are excited to propose a project that meets the objectives of the central SoMa plan and provides a site for affordable housing and community recreation at a time when such sites are in critical shortage. We have been working in SoMa for almost 30 years and recognize the need for projects to balance economic and community development,” said Matt Field, chief investment officer of TMG Partners. Alexandria’s entitlement, design and development expertise and experience have enabled the company to operate approximately 3.7 million rentable square feet (including current development projects) of office/laboratory space in the Bay Area. Alexandria’s San Francisco asset base, located in the Mission Bay/SoMa, South San Francisco and Palo Alto/Stanford Research Park submarkets, is 100% leased largely to investment-grade tenants as well as technology tenants. Field tells GlobeSt.com: “We think this is an ideal mix of uses for the area. The combination of commercial uses, office, retail and PDR, with community-focused uses, affordable housing, community recreation, and day care, can take full advantage of the new Central Subway station located in the same block.”