An article on the front page of today’s Chronicle outlines the latest — and most realistic — of the myriad development plans for the future of Treasure Island that have been set forth over the past several years that Jen and I have lived there. The latest plan, proposed by a seemingly well-off developer who promises to give the city $26 million up-front for accepting the proposal, even formed a new company specifically for this project: Treasure Island Community Development, LLC. The developer promises to morph TI into “a model for the 21st century,” certainly a far-cry from the island’s current, run-down state.
There are two hotels included in this plan, but no theme parks, which is good. Past proposals have included ridiculous ideas like theme parks, a giant replica of just the arm of the Statue of Liberty, and, of course, a hill-top mansion on Yerba Buena Island for mayor Willie Brown. The proposal includes ferry service, but I’m still skeptical of turning TI into anything more than it is today — as if Bay Area traffic isn’t bad enough to begin with. And major earthquake retrofitting would be necessary.
Still, if development won’t begin until 2005 and the project won’t be complete for another 10 years after that, I think I’ll be able to afford one of the $480,000 homes by 2015. Talk about an investment opportunity (with some serious earthquake insurance, of course).
