San Francisco

With the vast majority of the baby-boomer generation inching closer to the retirement age, American cities are finding that focusing on senior housing is a necessity. This also means that senior housing companies have a great opportunity at growth, one that Sunrise Senior Living is acting on. The company is ready to unveil its latest community in Burlingame, in the San Francisco metropolitan area.

Even if you had no knowledge of the fact that Milpitas is set to have a growing industrial market, you’d get a hint from the fact that Stephens & Stephens, LLC is refinancing a Class B R&D asset it owns in the area. The Milpitas R&D market’s has been dipping in terms of availability rates and vacancy number over the past few quarters. Colliers International noted that industrial activity in the sector was accelerated during the first quarter, besting last year’s fourth quarter numbers fivefold.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, an entity that owns a number of hospitality facilities in the Bay Area, recently continued the expansion of its portfolio. Tuscan Fisherman’s Wharf was acquired for $122 million and will join six other San Francisco-area venues, part of Pebblebrook’s expansive West Coast hotel portfolio.

Vue Fremont and Waterstone at Fremont are two multifamily properties located in Fremont, on the southeastern end of the San Francisco Bay. Both properties are currently owned by Pacific Urban Residenital, and find themselves in one of the fastest growing residential markets in the entire country.

A testament to Silicon Valley’s white hot office market at the current moment is a recently completed deal for THE Campus office park in San Jose. The asset was acquired by MCP Trimble Campus LLC, an entity controlled by MetLife Real Estate Advisors.

The Mission is facing a very testing moment as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is set to discuss the recently proposed Mission District Housing Moratorium during the upcoming month. Although analysts are predicting that the measure will not pass, the proposition will most likely return as a November ballot initiative. One of the moratorium’s most staunch supporters is Supervisor David Campos, who is of the opinion that a temporary market-rate housing stop is absolutely necessary, but the proposal is rapidly gathering opposition.

San Francisco’s century-old City Hall was recently awarded the highest level of LEED Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The building is now the oldest property in the entire country to have been granted LEED Platinum Certification for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance. The rating comes as the result of an ample effort carried out by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the U.S. EPA and the City Administrator’s Office to raise the efficiency of the asset.

With the area’s office market continuing to be viewed as one of the strongest in the country, developers are clamoring to secure as many opportunities as possible. A case in point being this week’s announcement that TMG Partners and Alexandria Real Estate Equities have formed a joint venture for the acquisition of an office development site located in the proximity of the Moscone Center, the largest convention and exhibition complex in the city.

The completion of a South of Market district redevelopment project was recently announced by the University of the Pacific. The institution is now set to relocate its operations closer to downtown San Francisco. The project cost the developer around $151 million, the program being subsidized through a fundraising campaign, as well as the sale of two Pacific Heights assets owned by the university. The funds were also sourced from commercial lease revenues. The 40-year-old South of Market building had been under the ownership of the University of the Pacific since 2011, when it was acquired for $47 million.

The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge East Span was recently given the 2015 Grand Conceptor Award at this year’s Engineering Excellence Awards. The award was announced during the Engineering Excellence Awards Dinner and Gala held in Washington, D.C., an event sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies. Attended by around 600 people, the black-tie event was hosted by comedian Rex Havens and acknowledged the accomplishments of around 170 engineering projects across the world.