Island Could Be Treasure in San Francisco Bay

From the western shores of Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, the view stretches past Alcatraz Island to the muddy-red span of the Golden Gate Bridge and the expanse of Pacific Ocean.

To the left, the Bay Bridge leads to the hilly San Francisco cityscape. The surprisingly unspoiled Marin County headlands rise to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

For half a century, this stunning view belonged to thousands of sailors en route to World War II, Vietnam or other duty assignments. Away from the shoreline, the impression changes dramatically, showcasing a fading military world.

Boards shutter former barracks and facilities where officers, including Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, once trained. Abandoned signs such as “Retail Store” adorn some of these forlorn buildings. Rust corrodes metal structures once integral to the Navy’s mission.

“Here’s one of the most potentially gorgeous places anywhere,” said David Godfrey, president of California Business Associates, a business brokerage. “That’s what it looks like, an old Navy base. It’s got to be redeveloped.”

The Navy pulled out in 1997, but Treasure Island’s rebirth has been slow, the result of a sluggish military transfer schedule, the federal bureaucracy regulating waterfront property and the often tumultuous ways of local business.

San Francisco also is trying to balance coming up with a totally new face for the island with allowing some people to live and work in the existing facilities.

“Development in San Francisco is not easy,” said Annemarie Conroy, director of the Treasure Island Development Authority.

The goal, she said, “is to make this place make sense in the interim and produce revenues while we are battling the Navy and also working with the developer to come up with a reasonable, justifiable plan.”

Treasure Island, connected now to Oakland and San Francisco by the Bay Bridge, came into existence from 1936 to 1939 when engineers dredged up sand and gravel to create the world’s then-largest man-made island -- at 403 acres -- next to the natural Yerba Buena Island between San Francisco and Oakland.

The herculean engineering allowed San Francisco to showcase itself to the world in a $50- million exposition from 1939 to 1940. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited, and actress Judy Garland and composer Irving Berlin performed. “Romantic and epochal events such as the Golden Gate International Exposition are justly regarded as milestones of human progress,” one 1939 book gushed.

World War II ended the island’s civilian use, and by the time the military left it was a much less attractive place.

Today, formerly homeless people live in about 200 onetime military apartments a five-minute drive from downtown San Francisco. A grid of streets crisscrosses the island and connects drab former Navy housing, training facilities and sports fields.

“I was, ‘Oh my gosh, I love it already,’ ” Barbara Collins, 47, said when she first arrived from a shelter. “You leave your car door unlocked or front door or toys outside and they’ll be there when you get back.”

Lawrence Hensley, 58, arrived after six years on the streets with a cocaine and heroin addiction. “It’s like a treat,” he said of the apartment he rents for $247 a month.

Hollywood has made a few movies here. One of the island’s vintage buildings doubled as a Nazi airport in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Treasure Island also boasts a job training program, a new marina and 700 other apartments for the public. But there is almost no commerce, just a convenience store and a cafe.

City officials and developers have a far more grandiose plan consisting of 2,800 modern apartments, a luxury hotel, a cluster of retail stores, big parks to attract locals and tourists and ferry service to San Francisco.

“That place is potentially unbelievably priceless,” real estate expert Godfrey said. “Putting in commercial property and high-end condos or properties would be economically most feasible.”

City officials say that a major effort lies ahead before new buildings go up, including a $60-million-to-$80-million environmental cleanup and infrastructure work that will cost $300 million to $400 million.

Earthquake reinforcement is key, as Treasure Island has compacted from 13 feet above sea level when built to 9 feet today. Parts of the island lost 2 feet in a 1989 earthquake.

Treasure Island director Conroy estimated that it would take 10 to 15 years to realize the new development vision, but some residents are impatient about the lack of progress so far.

“There are limited recreational, educational and cultural activities for the children who live on Treasure Island, children who are extremely isolated due to the island’s geography,” resident Susan DeVico said.

To criticism of the pace of renewal, Conroy simply replies: “Development takes time.”