The San Francisco Port Commission will undertake its final review and approval of Kenwood Investments' and Teatro Zinzanni's new hotel and theater project at its September 10 hearing.
The new hotel and theater project planned for the Embarcadero and Broadway is expected to obtain final approval this month. It will mark the return of Teatro Zinzanni to the waterfront after leaving in 2011.
BC STAFF REPORT
Published: September, 2019
The San Francisco Port Commission will undertake its final review and approval of Kenwood Investments’ and Teatro Zinzanni’s new hotel and theater project at its September 10 hearing.
Avid readers of Bay Crossings will recall that we reported on this project back in October 2018. The project before the port commission this month has not changed since our earlier reporting—it remains a 192-room hotel with the 40-foot height limit maintained, a new permanent theater space hosting Zinzanni’s award-winning dinner theater program, and a new 14,000-square foot park.
Since our initial reporting, Kenwood Investments, its hotel partner, Presidio Hotel Group, and Teatro Zinzanni have completed the project’s environmental review and have presented the project to the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Commission, both of which approved the project unanimously. The City’s environmental review of the project, finalized in December 2018, concluded after a two-year study period that the project’s potential impacts would not have a significant effect on the environment.
The San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission, in its April 2019 review of the project, found that the project’s design, materiality, scope and aesthetics were all compatible with the City’s stringent historic preservation standards and with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Development in Historic Districts.
The planning commission, in its May 2019 review of the project, unanimously found that the project qualified for a conditional use authorization for its hotel use and that it met all other planning requirements.
After the planning commission’s unanimous approval, Planning Commissioner Dennis Richards said, “It was a love fest. The tent portion is going to become an iconic landmark. It’s like no other thing we are going to have in the city. It’s almost going to be like Coit Tower.” Commissioner Richards added, “We don’t get many projects like this. Nobody spoke against it. It was the perfect project at the perfect time.”
Zinzanni operated on the San Francisco waterfront at Pier 27-29 from 2000 through 2011 as a successful entertainment venue.
The project is the culmination of many years of planning for the site, located at the intersection of the Embarcadero and Broadway. The project will be built to a minimum of LEED Gold, and will meet all of the City’s stringent environmental codes and regulations. It will be constructed with union labor and the hotel will be operated by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, HERE Local 2. The project has received strong support from the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association, Gateway Tenants Association, North Beach Neighbors, Chinatown Community Development Center, RENEW SF, Top of Broadway CBD, SF Hotel Council, SF Travel (the Convention and Visitors Bureau), organized labor and thousands of San Francisco residents.
Darius Anderson, the managing member of TZK Broadway and Kenwood Investments, said, “We are very excited to create a new hotel and new home for Teatro Zinzanni on the Embarcadero, and we look forward to working with the community and the City to complete our project so that Teatro Zinzanni can again soon thrill audiences with its world-class arts and entertainment programming.”
Norm Langill, Teatro Zinzanni’s managing member, told Bay Crossings, “We can’t wait to reopen in San Francisco in what will be an innovative partnership that will allow Teatro Zinzanni to succeed as a world-class entertainment venue for many, many years to come.”
To get involved in the project, or for more information, contact Jay Wallace at jwallace@kenwoodinvestments.com or Annie Jamison at annie@zinzanni.com.
The new waterfront project’s design was specifically created with a mind towards the current neighborhood’s aesthetics and compatible with the City’s stringent historic preservation standards and with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Development in Historic Districts.
