Most of the scaffolding and wrap has been stripped from Argenta, located at 1 Polk Street, off of 10^th and Market. Argenta consists of 3 parking levels, ground level retail/commercial, and 179 condos spread out over 20 floors. The central location is convenient to City Hall, U.N. Plaza, Symphony Hall, the Opera House, City Auditorium, Hayes Valley, and all public transportation.

In addition to Argenta, Australian Anka Development is also building the 55 Ninth Street Condominiums at the corner of 9^th and Market just a block away. This one will have two levels of underground parking, 3000 sq. ft. of ground level retail, common areas, and 260 homes over 17 levels.

Other plans for this mid-market neighborhood include 50 condos at 77 Van Ness, 720 condos at the southwest corner of 10^th and Market, and likely an additional 1000 units spread out amongst all four corners of Van Ness and Market.

To schedule a tour of Argenta, 55 Ninth Street, 77 Van Ness, Symphony Towers, Artani, Argenta, The Hayes, or any other of the exciting new developments being built up and down the Van Ness Corridor in San Francisco, call 415-418-8850, enter your information below, or contact me directly:
Kevin Gueco
Climb Real Estate – Vanguard Properties

picture by Jerry Royer

picture by BTinSF

Anka Property Group’s Argenta project is located in San Francisco’s Civic Center district or what is now called “mid-market”.

179 one and two-br condos on a 17-20 floor building (we can’t get confimation on the exact number of floors), 128 parking spaces and over 4000 sf of retail space as well as an 8000 sf landscaped terrace.

Anka Property Group is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

The project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2008.

No word on pricing nor start of sales as of yet but contact new development specialist, Mark Choey (415.630.0204) to be added to the interest list.

By J.K. Dineen and Ryan Tate at the SF Business Journal

With the Argenta rapidly rising at 1 Polk St., Anka Development has designs on another Mid-Market parcel: 55 Ninth St.

The Sydney, Australia-based builder has filed an application for environmental review to construct a 260-unit condo tower near the corner of Ninth and Market streets, according to the city Planning Department. Zain Booker, vice president in Anka’s San Francisco office, declined to comment because the acquisition of the parcel is still pending. Anka would not exercise its option to buy the parcel if it is unable to obtain entitlements to build there.
Click here to find out more!

The proposed development would replace a 268,000-square-foot headquarters that State Compensation Insurance Fund planned for the site in 2002, but scrapped in 2005. That office project is one of 13 entitled projects the Planning Department is reviewing as having “expired” under unenforced codes requiring developers to break ground within 18 months of approvals. State Fund has owned the 55 Ninth St. site for more than 27 years.

Read the full story here>> 

by J.K. Dineen

Two years after acquiring Fox Plaza for $140 million, Archstone-Smith is pushing forward with plans to raze the corner retail element and replace it with a 250-unit flatiron-style condo building.

The planned wedge-shaped terra-cotta and glass 120-foot structure, with retail, would replace the low-slung building that houses Starbucks and a stationery shop, according to Presidio Development Partners President Mark Conroe, who was retained by Archstone-Smith to obtain city approvals for the residential development and sell off the office part. The new building would cost about $150 million based on current construction costs.

The plans come as Archstone-Smith has completed the sale of the 220,000-square-foot office component of the complex for $42 million, or just under $200 a square foot. Palo Alto-based Broadreach Capital was the buyer. The long-anticipated sale was held up because Archstone-Smith was waiting for the city to finalize a condo map for the property, essentially breaking it up into the office space, plus three other separate pieces: 446 rental apartments, a 550-car garage, and the retail/development site.

Archstone-Smith, a national apartment REIT that agreed last month to be acquired by Tishman Speyer, will hold onto the rental apartments and the parking, according to Edward Suharski of Grubb & Ellis, who represented the seller along with Daniel Cressman.

The new development and the Broadreach bet on Fox Plaza comes at a time when investors are pouring capital into the Civic Center neighborhood at an unprecedented clip. Hill Cos. recently paid $13.3 million for 10 United Nations Plaza. Miami’s Crescent Heights plans to begin construction this year on a $350 million, 720-unit two-tower condo development. Australia-based Anka Property Group is out of the ground on its $140 million, 179-unit One Polk St. And Adco Group is pumping $35 million into repositioning the San Francisco Mart from a interior design exhibit space into office.

Read the full story here>>

Quote:

SAN FRANCISCO Alleys of transformation A European-style plaza is emerging from gritty area of Old U.S. MintCarl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, June 10, 2007For years, the two alleys that border the Old U.S. Mint in downtown San Francisco were cautionary tales in urban planning as they gradually declined into seediness after the Mint museum closed its doors in 1994. The little stub of Mint Street, and the block of Jessie Street that runs from Mint into Fifth Street near Mission Street, had nothing but potential. The reality, however, was grim. There were drugs, there were derelicts, there was public urination. The two little alleys were a big mess. But now, the two streets are being reborn into something called Mint Plaza. Cars have been banned from a block of Jessie, and it will be transformed into a small plaza, like something in Europe, with restaurants, green trees, outdoor dining and a new atmosphere. Mint Street, which runs off Fifth into Jessie, will get a new look, too — with new pavement, new parking arrangements, and a cafe or two. “This is the greatest thing that ever happened around here,” said Joey Chait, managing partner of the Provident Loan Association. Provident is kind of a San Francisco classic, housed in a building faced in white terra-cotta at the corner of Mint and Mission. It had a cameo role in “The Maltese Falcon,” Dashiell Hammett’s famed detective novel. The little alley complex around the 1874 Old Mint was once one of the brighter corners of Hammett’s San Francisco. Hammett himself worked around the corner on Market Street and knew the little alleys well. Up the street at the corner of Mint and Jessie was a five-story brick candy factory, and next to that, on Jessie, was the San Francisco Fire Department’s Station One, the busiest in the city. The firefighters there thought of themselves as elite. “Alley Cats,” they called themselves. The fire station was relocated some years ago. A kind of urban bleakness gradually set in, and the two streets went downhill. About 1997, the Martin Building Co. started managing various properties in the area — mostly along Jessie. An old department store warehouse is being converted into offices and residences, and so is the 10-story building over the old firehouse. MORE http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg…AG46QCQFD1.DTL

(Courtesy of Martin Building Co.)
Jessie Street, near the Old U.S. Mint on Fifth Street, is the site of a $3.5 million renovation project.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) – Starting today, drivers will no longer be allowed on a portion of Jessie Street near the Old U.S. Mint in downtown San Francisco, as work begins to turn the roadway into a pedestrian-only space for outside dining, music festivals and farmers markets.

The San Francisco-based Martin Building Co. has been working for two years to develop the 290-foot-long stretch of Jessie between Mint and Fifth streets into a European-style piazza called the Mint Plaza.As part of the plan, Jessie will be closed to vehicle traffic. Construction on the Mint Plaza will begin next week, and the plan is to open the new 18,000-square-foot public space in September.

“It’s a pretty beat-up street. There’s not a single tree,” said Michael Yarne, director of development at Martin Building Co., which owns four of the nearby buildings. “Our goal above everything else is to bring a lot of people there — from residents in the area to employees and visitors — for it to have a true public life there.”

Despite complaints from a few large-scale neighboring businesses, which stand to lose valet-parking routes when Jessie Street is closed, the Board of Supervisors approved the project in April.

Martin Building Co. is paying for the $3.5 million plaza through a special property-tax assessment — called a Mello-Roos Community Facilities District — on the four historic buildings the company owns along Mint Street, two of which have been rehabilitated into market-rate housing units.

This fall, when construction is complete, Martin Building Co. plans to donate the plaza to The City. A newly established nonprofit, Friends of the Mint Plaza, will raise funds for the lifelong maintenance of the space by charging organizations that want to rent it.

Once it opens for business, the edges of Mint Plaza will be lined by up to six cafes. The cafes will have outdoor seating balanced by green-design principles and landscaping.

The plan is to host farmers markets, art exhibits and music and film festivals in the plaza, which is being designed to complement the surrounding National Historic Landmark buildings, including the old Haas Candy Factory, the former San Francisco Firehouse No. 1 and the Hales department store warehouse. The Old U.S. Mint, which broke ground in 1869, is slated to reopen to the public in 2011.

“Our vision for Mint Plaza focuses on carefully preserving the wonderful attributes that already exist while creating an energized urban living room that will serve both the immediate neighborhood and the entire city,” said Patrick McNerney, founder and president of Martin Building Co.

Mint Lofts still selling – about 10 units left. Call 415.336.9359 for more information.

The Mint Collection recently had a Broker Preview party. The model homes were staged and available for viewing. The homes had m odern industrial design and finishes often seen in projects built by the Martin Building Company–including polished concrete floors and stainless steel fixtures.

Amenities include a fitness center, which overlooks a fully furnished and landscaped roofdeck that includes a grilling area and a custom spa. In addition, the building has exclusive use of a City CarShare Mini Cooper, which is kept on the premises and is available to all residents.

The Mint Collection is comprised of four historic buildings surrounding Mint Plaza, which are being converted into luxury residential, commercial and live work spaces. The location is close to Union Square, Yerba Buena Gardens, world class restaurants, nightclubs and a thriving art scene. Mint Plaza will closed to automobile traffic, with plans for a wide range of uses, including art, theater, music, cafes, restaurants and street fairs.

The project is approximately 50 percent sold. Some units come with parking in the building, others can get leased parking at the nearby 5th and Mission Garage.

For more information or an appointment see this development, call Lisa Fuller at 415.336.9359, or use our contact form below:

Mint Lofts Units are priced between $664 psf to $1155 psf

As of 2/28/07 about 50% were reserved and as of this week (3/21) are currently going into contract June scheduled move-in 50 Total units (4-5 units per floor)

* 6 studios

* 6 two-br’s

* rest are 1br’s

Some Features

* Gym on the top floor with a roofdeck patio overlooking the city
* Floors 5-10 are live/work lofts
* Other floors are residential only
* Larger units have leased parking
* The city is turning Jessie St into a Plaza and not allowing vehicular traffic any longer and several restaurants are planned to open on this plaza including a Peruvian restaurant among others
* The SF Mint across the street is being turned into the SF History Museum
* 24 Hour Security and concierge service M-F
* There is a “water-element” in the lobby
* Jenn-Air fridge, Thermador D/W, Oven/Stove in the units

Sample prices
* #201 1229 sf $960k leased parking windows on three sides!
* #301 1245 sf $1M leased parking windows on three sides!
* #401 1245 sf $1.020M leased parking windows on three sides!
* #502 1978 sf $1.4M no parking 2BR/2BA
* #504 1394 sf $975k no parking
* #604 1394 sf $1.025M no parking
* #701 1237 sf $1.020M leased parking windows on three sides!
* #805 993 sf $870k no parking corner unit
* #903 1130 sf $810k no parking 1BR
* #904 1108 sf $920k no parking 1BR
* PH 1900 sf $2.6M leased parking 2 levels

http://www.mintcollectionsf.com for more details and floorplans

San Francisco Business Times – April 21, 2006

by J.K. Dineen

Developers will be flocking to the San Francisco Honda at 10 South Van Ness Ave. in the coming weeks, but they won’t be car shopping.

The property is about to go on the block and is expected to fetch north of $50 million, according to brokers. Colliers International‘s Tony Crossley has the listing.

The Boas family has hired Brand + Allen architects to study the parcel, which has an interesting place in San Francisco history. It was the site of the old Fillmore West where The Band’s last concert was played and captured by director Martin Scorcese in the classic film “The Last Waltz.”

The site could accommodate a 400-foot tower and up to 600 housing units, according to architect Koonshing Wong.

[original article here]