In a move that's sure to change the face of San Francisco's waterfront, the Board of Supervisors has given the green light to a plan that will see Embarcadero Plaza breathe new life as a rejuvenated Downtown park. The unanimous thumbs-up heralds a public-private handshake between the City, powerhouse real estate firm BXP, and the community-focused Downtown SF Partnership to pump new energy (and a decent chunk of change) into a space that's been begging for a makeover.
BXP is tagged to throw down about $2.5 million just for the design phase, while Rec and Park hooks arms with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) to scrounge up between $15 million to $20 million of the taxpayers' cash. Additionally, BXP and Downtown SF Partnership will put their fundraising hats on to rake in another $10 million from private donors, and you've got quite the community piggy bank for this project. District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter was all praises, saying, "With today's legislation, we're one step closer to breaking ground on a new world-class park at Embarcadero Plaza," per the SF Recreation and Park Department.
The new park's design is far from set in stone, with the partners pledging to get the community in on the gig through public meetings, the first of which is set to run tomorrow.
And let's not miss the forest for the trees here: this whole shindig falls snugly into Mayor Lurie's master plan of zapping Downtown with some much-needed pep and bridging the gap between the hustle of city life and water-adjacent zen, "With the Ferry Building just across the street and the Bay Bridge in the backdrop, Embarcadero Plaza’s strategic position between Downtown and the iconic waterfront has always been its greatest asset," Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg told the SF Recreation and Park Department, with voters having already locked in up to $41 million for sprucing up public spaces via the Proposition B bond measure last year.
