San Francisco is poised to recover one of its great theater and performance venues, Teatro Zinzanni, in a new mixed-use hotel project sponsored by TZK Broadway, which is a joint venture involving Teatro Zinzanni, Kenwood Investments and local hotel operator Presidio Hotels.
Artist rendering of the new location for Teatro Zinzanni, in a new mixed-use hotel project on the Embarcadero.
BY JOEL WILLIAMS
Published: October, 2018
San Francisco is poised to recover one of its great theater and performance venues, Teatro Zinzanni, in a new mixed-use hotel project sponsored by TZK Broadway, which is a joint venture involving Teatro Zinzanni, Kenwood Investments and local hotel operator Presidio Hotels.
Readers of Bay Crossings may remember that Teatro Zinzanni previously operated on the San Francisco waterfront from 2000 through 2011 at Pier 27-29. The venue thrilled audiences from San Francisco, the Bay Area and internationally with its one-of-a-kind dinner-theater performance, which was known as Love, Chaos and Dinner. Since that time, Teatro Zinzanni has been looking for a new home along the waterfront and is now finally preparing its return.
Norm Langill, the managing member of Teatro Zinzanni, told Bay Crossings, “We can’t wait to reopen in San Francisco in what will be an innovative private partnership that will allow Teatro Zinzanni to succeed as a world class entertainment venue for many, many years to come.”
The project will be the culmination of years of planning for the site, located at the intersection of the Embarcadero and Broadway. TZK Broadway’s project features Teatro Zinzanni’s historic spiegeltent and dinner-theater program in an iconic glass enclosed structure, a 192-room hotel and a 14,000-square-foot privately maintained public park for public use and enjoyment.
Darius Anderson, the managing member of TZK Broadway and Kenwood Investments, said, “We are very excited to bring Teatro Zinzanni back to San Francisco in a truly unique partnership between that important performing arts organization and our new boutique hotel. We look forward to working with the community and the city so that Teatro Zinzanni can again engage the city as soon as possible with its world-class arts and entertainment programming.”
TZK Broadway’s new hotel and theater project is now entering the city’s final entitlement phases with the publication of the project’s environmental documentation, and subsequent entitlement votes before the San Francisco Port Commission, Planning Commission, Historic Preservation Commission and the Board of Supervisors culminating with final approvals in early 2019. The project is hoping to break ground in July 2019.
In 2016, the San Francisco Port Commission and the Board of Supervisors both unanimously endorsed TZK Broadway’s overall concept and plan for the project. The project will be constructed to a minimum of LEED Gold, and will meet all of the city’s stringent environmental codes. The project will be constructed with union labor and the hotel will be operated by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, Local 2. The project has received strong support from various members of the community, from neighborhood individuals and groups to the local business improvement district.
TZK Broadway’s project has already been reviewed by the Port of San Francisco’s Northeast Waterfront Advisory Group and Waterfront Design Advisory Committee, as well as the city‘s Architectural Review Committee—and recommendations from each of these advisory boards have been incorporated into TZK Broadway’s project. Among the many suggestions incorporated into the project include the ground-floor fenestration (window and door treatment) and the building’s use of red brick veneer for the façade consistent with other buildings in the historic district. The park, an important public amenity for the project, will feature both landscaping and hardscape, with benches, lighting, pedestrian pathways to the Embarcadero, public art and other public amenities. It will be privately maintained and publicly accessible.
To get involved in helping the project, or for more information, contact Jay Wallace at jwallace@kenwoodinvestments.com or Annie Jamison at annie@zinzanni.com.
The project also includes a 14,000-squarefoot privately maintained public park.
