Pier 70 developer seeks 600 more homes in major expansion

Brookfield Properties is seeking 600 additional homes at Pier 70, pushing one of San Francisco’s biggest waterfront redevelopments into a larger housing buildout on the Central Waterfront. The site spans about 69 acres between Mariposa Street and 22nd Street, east of Illinois Street, at the foot of Potrero Hill and Dogpatch.

The added homes would not stand alone. Port records show the 28-acre project area is already planned for up to 1.0 million to 1.9 million square feet of residential space, 1.0 million to 1.75 million square feet of commercial space, 115,000 square feet of retail, 60,000 square feet of PDR and 6.5 acres of open space. A 600-unit increase would raise the maximum unit count by about 28 percent, making the proposal one of the clearest signs that Pier 70 remains a living entitlement rather than a fixed blueprint.

That matters because Pier 70 has been moving through city approvals for more than a decade. The Port lists the project schedule as a 2010 master plan approval, a 2011 exclusive negotiation agreement, a 2013 term sheet, a 2014 Proposition F ballot measure, a 2017 final environmental review and entitlements, 2018 phase-one design and permitting, and construction starting in 2019. Brookfield now describes the site as a historical and sustainable mixed-use development on Port-owned land listed as the Union Iron Works Historic District on the National Register.

The company’s materials also frame Pier 70 as a mixed-use community with restaurants, art and maker studios, homes, offices, lab space and retail, not a single-purpose housing project. That broader plan is part of what gives the expansion weight for nearby neighborhoods: more residents on the waterfront, more demand on transit and streets around Dogpatch, and more debate over how a former industrial shipyard should turn into an active neighborhood while preserving public access and historic character.

The project’s industrial past is long. The site has about 150 years of continuous shipbuilding and repair history, and early leasing has already begun to turn parts of the district into an occupied neighborhood. Brookfield secured the first seven tenants at Building 12 in 2023, a concrete step that shows Pier 70 is already shifting from promise to use even as the housing program grows again.