Former Nuclear Test Site in San Francisco Becoming $8 Billion Neighborhood
San Francisco has seen a dramatic influx of tech workers in recent years and the population surge has contributed to the area’s infamous real estate crisis. To combat the lack of availability, new communities are popping up around the city. In the waterfront neighborhood Hunters Point, one is rising on a former nuclear test site.
California-based developer Five Point is transforming the retired San Francisco Naval Shipyard into a mixed-use development featuring 12,000 new homes and five million square feet of office and commercial space. The “micro-hood” will cost $8 billion to build. There have already been 234 homes sold — approximately 80 percent of the completed units — and another 49 condos are on the market.
The 800-acre community has a range of inventory averaging $860 per square foot, which is nearly $200 less than the average price elsewhere in San Francisco, according to Business Insider.
The neighborhoods surrounding the shipyard have been in redevelopment since 1999. The project has taken a long time because it involves cleaning up radioactive contamination. During the 1940s, the shipyard hosted a federal nuclear program that included a lab testing the effects of radiation. When it closed in 1994, it left behind toxic waste that required years of cleaning up. Clean-up is still ongoing, but construction has already begun on the parcels where clean-up is finished.