San Franisco Mint Revisited

February 12, 9:09 AMTimeshare ExaminerMark Silverman

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Today’s SF Chronicle has a story on San Francisco landmark’s by Carl Nolte.
The below segment on the SF Mint caught my attention.

The mint dates from 1874 and once was the largest federal building west of the Mississippi. The building once housed a third of all the nation's gold supply. It's closed to the public now, but the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society has plans to turn it into a museum. In the meantime, enjoy the Greek Revival grandeur of the Granite Lady.
Head north on Fifth, turn right on Market Street, go into the Westfield San Francisco Centre, take the escalator to the fourth or dome level.
 

 

 Six years ago, the Mint was being evaluated for at three plans for retrofitting and renovating the property. They included a plan for low income housing, a plan to turn the upper floors into high end fractional timeshare, with the lower level being converted into a first of its kind coin collectors museum, which would have been in keeping the history of the building, as well as generating tremendous revenue and high end visitors to the City. Click here to read my original story six years ago from the San Francisco Examiner)

And of course the plan that was selected called for the building to be converted to a multi-cultural San Francisco Historical Museum, at a cost of $50 million.
 

A conversation with Jim Lazarus, Vice President of the SF Chamber of Commerce, who spear headed the successful museum plan today indicates that the cost has increased to more than $90 million. They are still about $50 million shy of the goal. A commemorative coin expected to generate $9 million dollars brought in less than $5million.
Progress has been made on completion; the architectural plans have been approved, the environmental impact reports are near final approval, and the non original interior parts of the building have been cleared. If things go well, they would like to open by 2012.

Moving the San Francisco Visitor center, with its 700,000 visitors each year may drive additional visitors to the new museum when it opens. That revenue, souvenirs, after hours special events and museum memberships will be the primary source of support.
If things go well, according to Lazarus, the building may be self-sufficient.

Of course, given my area of expertise, I favored the plan that would have the dedicated coin collection museum, rather than just a small section, and the fractional conversion.
San Francisco has been one of the earliest urban adopters of timeshare.
And current financial circumstances aside, at least two developers have come in and opened prime fractional projects, the Ritz Carlton Club on Market Street, and Fairmont’s conversion at Ghirardelli Square,
It is safe to speculate that the plan in place for the mint would be up and running and generating revenue and jobs for San Francisco today, not opening in another four years with a hope, if all goes well, of breaking even.

There is precedent, by the way, for successful marriage of timeshare and preservation of historical urban landmarks; Marriott’s conversion of Boston’s historic Custom House generates thousands of visits each year. The project was a 1999 National Preservation Awards winner. (Click here to read my story from six years ago on the Custom House, from the San Francisco Examiner).