Potrero Yard Modernization
A $1B electrified bus facility joined with 400+ affordable homes, delivered as a public private partnership.
- $1BModernization program for the electrified bus facilitySource: SFMTA, Potrero Yard Modernization Project
- 400+Affordable homes joined with the facility, in the project record's safe formSource: SFMTA, the housing above the yard
- 99Year ground lease that keeps the land publicSource: SFMTA, Potrero Yard Modernization Project
The problem
San Francisco's oldest bus yard had to be rebuilt for an electric fleet, on public land the city could not afford to waste. A working yard and a housing crisis occupied the same ground, and the usual answer was to choose one.
What was built
He delivered all approvals for the Potrero Yard Modernization, described in the project record as the first United States transit public private partnership joining an electrified bus facility with 400+ affordable homes, on a 99 year ground lease. The Potrero case is now a teaching case in graduate seminars at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
How it was done
Keep public land public, and make it do double duty.
- Keep the land
Hold the site in public ownership on a 99 year ground lease.
- Stack the uses
Put the working bus yard and 400+ affordable homes on the same land.
- Deliver the approvals
Carry the partnership through every approval a project of this scale needs.
Documents and artifacts
Credits
- OrganizationSan Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
- His roleChief Strategy Officer