Housing Treasure on a San Francisco Island
Anywhere else it would be just a want ad. Here, it reads like a fairy tale--or a practical joke: Apartment for rent, two bedrooms, two baths, living room, dining room, garage, yard, storage, kitchen appliances, ample street parking, 180-degree water and city views, utilities included, pet OK.
Yet it’s true. More than 700 apartments on Treasure Island, a former naval base in the middle of San Francisco Bay, will hit the parched rental market at below-market rates over the next 18 months. At least 50 of the units will be ready in May.
The offering is big news in a city with a rental vacancy rate of just 1%. And it marks the first step in the city’s effort to transform the island’s modest military barracks into a residential community in the bay.
“This island has been off limits to the public since 1939, so there’s an enormous amount of interest in it,” said Annemarie Conroy, a former San Francisco supervisor now serving as executive director of the Treasure Island Development Authority Project.
More than 200 people each day have been calling the agent handling the apartments since word got out about the pending vacancies.
“Our phone lines are tied up with calls,” said Loren Sanborn, vice president of Jon Stewart Co., which is refurbishing and leasing the Treasure Island apartments. The intense interest took her by surprise.
“Our voice mail filled up immediately and we had to field calls ourselves,” she said. “We finally hired a temp just to handle it all.”
Many of the units have garages and covered parking. All are surrounded by playgrounds and grassy lawns. And they are priced at below market value: about $1,550 for two bedrooms, $1,800 for three bedrooms and around $2,000 for four bedrooms.
On Telegraph Hill, a San Francisco neighborhood that faces Treasure Island, a one-bedroom apartment with no parking rents for $1,800. Three- and four-bedroom apartments in the city are practically nonexistent.
“Parking, storage, a yard and a view? No kidding?” said Kathi Kamen Goldmark, an author escort and founding member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock ‘n’ roll band that includes authors Stephen King, Amy Tan and Dave Barry.
“That sounds like an amazing deal, especially for San Francisco,” she said. “It’s everything you fantasize about when you’re living in one of the tiny little apartments here.”
Starting this spring, about 50 apartments a month will come on the market, each newly painted and carpeted. Firefighters, teachers, police officers and other support staff working on the island get first crack at 35% of the 766 units. Another 25% will be offered to staff, faculty and students from a group of Bay Area colleges and universities. The remaining 40% will go to the general public, with priority given to people who work and already live in San Francisco.
Location Has Some Drawbacks
The first wave of Treasure Island settlers will have to do without frills such as grocery stores, gas stations, dry cleaners, coffee shops and retail stores. However, as the apartments fill up, officials say, merchants will move to the island to cater to residents’ needs.
Access to the island is via the Oakland Bay Bridge, a traffic nightmare during morning and evening commutes. However, city buses serve the island hourly, and the realty firm plans to provide a shuttle. The city hopes to provide ferry service in the future.
And then there are the apartments themselves. Designed with utility and not beauty in mind, they are little more than vinyl-sided boxes and rectangles clustered in small groups. They were built for Navy personnel and their families and do little to take advantage of the island’s prime location and spectacular views. In one four-bedroom unit, the living room faces a fenced-in yard and you have to look out an upstairs bedroom window to see what you’re missing--a panorama that stretches from the Oakland Bay Bridge, across San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge, the hills of Sausalito, Angel Island and beyond.
“That’s the Navy for you,” said Bob Mahoney, the city’s facilities manager at Treasure Island. “I guess they figure they spend their lives dealing with the ocean and when they’re home, they want to look at land.”
But Treasure Island officials aren’t concerned about the lack of luxuries. The island’s 500-plus acres offer a respite from San Francisco’s high-density, high-intensity style. The island has baseball fields, boat launches, a marina, basketball courts, a barbecue area with horseshoe pit, soccer fields, 40 miles of roads for biking, skating and jogging and its own elementary school.
The U.S. government still owns the base, which was targeted for civilian use in 1993. San Francisco is taking over operation of the island and will eventually buy the land. Future development plans remain uncertain, but in the meantime the apartments will be available for at least seven years.
“People will see the positives and make do without the amenities at first,” Conroy said. “The mailing address would be Treasure Island. It will be an exciting place to live.”
But not for everyone. “If I had to get on a bridge every time I wanted to get a latte or a loaf of bread, I would blow my brains out,” said Jason Friedman, a Bay Area writer.
Landscaping, dishwashers and soccer fields can’t compete with the gleaming hardwood floors, high ceilings and huge windows of his Inner Sunset apartment.
“No, I don’t think I’m going to go out there.” Friedman said. “You won’t get any competition from me.”
