S.F.'s waterfront plans get lost at sea
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
10/29/08 12:58 PM PDT
San Francisco long ago ceased being a major port town, but that does not explain one of its waterfront's lingering mysteries.
According to the Examiner, The City's cruise ship business has been booming in recent years, with the number of passengers rising by more than 300 percent between 2002 and 2006. Yet the cruise ships continue to arrive without any real port to call home, because longtime plans for a cruise ship terminal have remained, uh, terminal.
The latest to sail away is our very own Shorenstein Properties, the third company to secure exclusive development rights, only to see them depart in the dead of night. The company planned to construct offices at Pier 27 to pay for the terminal and then later to build offices at Piers 30-32 — once thought to be the golden gate for the terminal.
It's now been 15 years since San Francisco first started shopping for a new cruise ship terminal, and the plans remain lost at sea. It would seem simple to blame the country's current economic woes on The City's failure to land a development deal, but that wouldn't explain why projects have been sunk during waves of fiscal fortune.
Maybe port officials could revive plans for a floating hotel based on a famous ship. It was to be called the Titanic — and no, I'm not making it up.
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