Proposed Development in San Francisco Tracking a Six-Year Low

Having peaked at 116 in 2014, the number of newly proposed plans for major developments in San Francisco has been trending down ever since, a trend which shouldn’t catch any plugged-in readers by surprise.

And with fewer than 20 preliminary proposals for major projects in the city having been submitted to San Francisco’s Planning Department since the beginning of the year, as mapped above and which is the fewest in the first five months of a year since 2011 (and 40 percent below the average since), we’re currently on track for a six-year low in activity.

While the passage of San Francisco’s Central SoMa Plan should, or at least could, ramp up activity in the second half of the year, keep in mind that the majority of plans for the most significant developments envisioned to rise within the boundaries of the plan area – such as the pair of swoopy towers envisioned to rise up to 400 feet in height upon the Creamery/HD Buttercup parcels at the corner of Townsend and Fourth, the big redevelopments of the Flower Mart and San Francisco Tennis Club sites, and even the 18-story hotel to rise upon the shuttered LuLu site – have already been accounted for as having been newly proposed in years past.

And of course, actually breaking ground once a project is approved is another matter (as is the overall pipeline of development in the city). We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.