SF New Developments

from the San Francisco Chronicle

The numbers say a lot. When an e-mail letting potential home buyers know a deluxe high-rise was being built in San Francisco’s South Beach neighborhood 5,000 responses streamed in over the course of a weekend.

Now, as the 136-unit Watermark nears completion, interest remains feverish. Of the first 36 units released for sale, only a handful are left after just five weeks on the market.

Sales agents say the well-heeled buyers are empty nesters and upscale downsizers moving back into the city. Some are parents buying a unit as an investment and a place for their kids to live while in college. Whatever happened to dorm rooms?

Located at the intersection of Beale and Bryant streets in South Beach, this 22-story opalescent glass structure is striking in both its appearance and its location.

Overlooking waterfront property set aside for the James R. Herman International Cruise Terminal and the Bryant Street Pier, it boasts a reach-out-and-touch-it view of the Bay Bridge and is a jaunty stroll from the Ferry Building and SBC Park.

The Waterfront condos are part of a $400 million mixed-use project featuring the 100,00 square-foot cruise terminal on Piers 30-32, which will include two berths for ships ranging from 850 to 1,000 feet in length.

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