Candlestick Point Redo Moves Forward as Standalone

Candlestick Point, the 280-acre redevelopment of the former home of the San Francisco Giants that was proposed nearly 15 years ago, may finally break ground next year.

Irvine-based FivePoint Holdings was awarded entitlements by the city in 2010 to build a massive mixed-use project on the former site of Candlestick Park in tandem with the redevelopment of the neighboring 500-acre San Francisco Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point.

The original plan, which centered on the Shipyard site, envisioned a combined total of 10,000 new homes and more than 5M SF of commercial space. The lion’s share of the commercial space was earmarked for the Hunters Point development.

The Hunters Point project was stalled by a failed remediation effort at the Shipyard, which was used by the U.S. Navy in the mid-20th century as a lab to study radiation and nuclear weapons. In 2018, the Navy agreed to retest soil samples for contamination from irradiated ships, an effort that is still underway.

In an earnings call this month, FivePoint Holdings CEO Dan Hedigan disclosed that city and county officials have begun the approval process to “rebalance” the entitlements for the Candlestick and Shipyard projects, enabling Irvine, California-based company to proceed with redevelopment without waiting for the Shipyard project to catch up.

The developer has asked the city to transfer 2M SF of entitled commercial space from Hunters Point to Candlestick Point, where FivePoints is planning to build a new innovation district with R&D labs, surrounded by a new residential community with 7,200 homes.

“We are seeking the rebalancing to enable the development of Candlestick as a standalone project. This rebalancing will allow us to begin the development of Candlestick without having to wait for the Navy to complete these remediation activities at the Shipyard,” Hedigan said during the call with investors.

“With the current momentum to complete the rebalancing, we’re now turning our efforts to identifying a partner to work with us on this amazing piece of property to begin the process of creating the larger mixed-use communities that have always been envisioned for these irreplaceable sites along the San Francisco Bay, starting with Candlestick,” Hedigan said.

The developer also is asking for the flexibility to build out the project in response to demand from the market.

“When we talk about the rebalancing, it really gives us flexibility to be able to meet the market. And if the market is more residential-oriented, it’ll be more residential. If it’s more commercial, it’ll be more commercial,” Hedigan said.

“What we’re really doing is working with the city to say, let us have an opportunity to work where the market is strongest but we need flexibility to do that,” he added.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to vote in September on FivePoints’ request to transfer the commercial space to Candlestick and a related request to grant the developer additional time to complete the redevelopment of Candlestick Point, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

If the approvals are granted, work on the project infrastructure is expected to begin next year. The former site of Candlestick Park, which was demolished in 2015, currently is used as a safe parking area for RVs.