The Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, an agency governed by the city and county of San Francisco, is selling $24.5 million of taxable bonds and $35.7 million of tax-exempt bonds to launch another phase of the Transbay Program, a roughly two-decade old transportation and housing project intended to transform an “underdeveloped” neighborhood.
The sale comes as San Francisco continues its efforts to turn underutilized commercial areas into bustling mixed-use neighborhoods. The Bay Area city is grappling with an affordable housing crisis and an office exodus that was exacerbated by a hiring slowdown in the tech industry and a broad shift to remote work during the pandemic.
When plans for the Transbay Program were adopted, “the project area was largely underdeveloped,” said Joshua Switzky, acting director of citywide planning in San Francisco. “It was sort of a backwater, kind of low intensity commercial area adjacent to downtown, and there were a very small number of residential units in the area.”