Oyster Point hotel proposals taking shape

The initiative is the most recent development proposed in the area designed to pair with a project offering 2 million square feet of space reserved for housing as well as commercial space for biotechnology companies.

As staging work gets underway for the transformative mixed-use development, South San Francisco officials believe the time is right to consider the future of adjacent amenities.

“Now that we are going forward and construction is planned to happen in the next few months, we felt it was a good time for the city to move forward with our plans for the hotel,” said Alex Greenwood, the city’s director of Economic and Community Development.

Eight builders initially responded to a city request for qualified applicants, said Greenwood, and that list has been cut in half since May.

Teams from the remaining applicants met with officials Monday, June 26, and received approval to spend the coming months crafting more specific proposals for the sort of hotels they could build, said Greenwood.

JMA Ventures, OTO Development, Shashi Group and Ensemble Real Estate Investment are the four companies interested in building the hotel. Greenwood said each are encouraged to spend the rest of the year polishing their projects.

“We hope to conclude this process by the end of the year or maybe early 2018,” said Greenwood. “Everything would be brought back to a series of public meetings and the selected team would go into an exclusive negotiating rights agreement next year.”

JMA Ventures offered to build two hotel towers with 350 rooms and 18,000 square feet of community meeting space. Ensemble Real Estate Ventures proposed a luxury hotel with 250 rooms and 20,000 square feet of meeting space, according to Greenwood.

As many as 340 hotel rooms and 5,000 square feet of meeting space were offered by OTO Developments. Shashi Group proposed two towers housing 250 rooms with thousands of feet of meeting space as well, according to Greenwood.

Greenwood said the projects would work well in tandem with the massive commercial and residential development, while offering to fortify the city’s hotel revenue stream that has been a boon for the city’s budget.

“The hospitality industry is one of the really important parts of our economy and we have 3,000 hotel rooms in the city, so it’s an industry that employs a lot of workers and offers good jobs,” he said.

According to South San Francisco’s most recent budget document, officials anticipate the hotel industry should generate almost $15 million for the city’s general fund next year through taxes paid by travelers.

“Transient occupancy tax is one of the top five sources of revenue for our city and a very important ongoing part of our vitality,” said Greenwood.

Beyond the opportunity to make more money for the city, officials are hopeful the hotel pairs nicely with the development proposal aiming to rejuvenate the Oyster Point area.

Such an effort ramped up last year when Chinese firm Oyster Point Developments, LLC purchased — for $1.5 billion — the rights to construct the project which was previously entitled to Shorenstein Properties.

Greenwood said he hopes the interested hotel builders spend the rest of the year developing projects befitting of the vision from officials to enhance the Oyster Point region.

“We want something that is stunning for our waterfront and really points the area in an upscale direction,” he said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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