Kofi Bonner's attracted a major financial backer for Lennar.

Lennar attracts major backer for S.F. projects
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Lennar Corp., the busiest housing developer in San Francisco, landed a significant investor for its proposed mega-projects at Hunters Point shipyard, Candlestick Point and Treasure Island.
Scala Real Estate Partners has signed letters of intent, one step short of binding contracts, to secure an at least 30 percent equity interest in the developments. Collectively, the projects include at least 17,000 housing units, 700,000 square feet of retail and entertainment, 350 acres of open space and, should the 49ers agree to stay in San Francisco, a new football stadium.
The Irvine investment and development company, founded by former executives of the Perot Group's real estate division, will initially invest tens of millions of dollars in the projects, co-managing partner Frank Zaccanelli said.
Kofi Bonner, regional vice president for Lennar, said that the majority of a $200 million fund announced by Scala in October 2007 would eventually land in the San Francisco projects and that the two companies would have equal ownership interests.
If completed, the agreement would satisfy a requirement made by the city when it renewed Lennar's exclusive negotiating agreement for Candlestick Point: that the company secures a partner with the financial wherewithal to ensure that the estimated $1.4 billion project would move forward no matter the market conditions.
Some have raised concerns about Lennar's ability to make good on its promises amid the mortgage meltdown and real estate downturn. Late last year, the Miami home builder reported the worst results in its 53-year history, a $513.9 million third-quarter loss after writing off nearly $1 billion to account for depreciating assets.
"It's hard to attack the project on its merits, so for those who have chosen to attack Lennar, (the agreement) shows this project isn't about them or any other single developer," said Michael Cohen, director of the mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. "This project is about smart land use for southeast San Francisco."
Voters will likely be able to weigh in on the estimated $1.4 billion Candlestick Point project on the June 3 ballot. Backers turned in 14,000 signatures, nearly twice the amount required, to the city's Department of Elections on Feb. 1. Supervisor Chris Daly is pushing a competing measure that would require half the housing developed in the area be sold or rented at below-market rates. That's twice the level Lennar has proposed, and Bonner calls it a poison pill.

Kofi Bonner hired Carmen Policy - Matier and Ross made a mistake

Former 49ers President Carmen Policy has just been recruited by Mayor Gavin Newsom to lead the city's effort to keep the team from exiting for the South Bay - bringing the veteran football executive's long journey to build a stadium in San Francisco full circle.
Policy headed the $100 million bond measure drive in 1997 that would have helped pay for a stadium at Candlestick Point. The voters approved it, but the stadium never got built.
Now Charmin' Carmen will serve as San Francisco's go-between with the Niners and the National Football League. He will also help lead a referendum headed for the ballot next June to allow construction of a stadium at Hunters Point, along with a housing and retail development at neighboring Candlestick Point.
"I consider it unfinished business," Policy said of the assignment.
"I'm absolutely thrilled Carmen will be joining our team," Newsom said. "Carmen's track record speaks for itself."
While Policy will be reporting to the mayor's office, Lennar Corp. - which is behind the stadium and Candlestick developments - will be footing the bill for his work as well as for the ballot referendum.
Policy was at the side of then-49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo when the 1997 bond measure narrowly passed. But then came DeBartolo's fall from grace as he was caught up in a federal bribery scandal involving the former governor of Louisiana.
Team ownership transferred to DeBartolo's sister Denise and her husband, John York, Policy left to run the Cleveland Browns, and now - after many years of butting heads in San Francisco - the Yorks plan to move to Santa Clara.
Last month - on the very day Policy appeared on a Commonwealth Club panel to talk about the Niners' stadium plans - Newsom invited Policy to breakfast to ask him to help the city try to keep the team.
Policy agreed, but only on the condition that both the league and the Yorks would deal with him - assurances he soon got.
"There's still a lot of work to be done in terms of infrastructure, cleanup and financing (at the Hunters Point site), and if Carmen can help make progress in that direction, it's a very positive move," 49ers spokeswoman Lisa Lang said. "But it doesn't change the current situation of what we're doing in Santa Clara."
The arrangement allows the Yorks to continue pursuing the South Bay stadium while San Francisco works to assure the league that it has an alternative plan lined up in case the South Bay effort falls flat.
It also means that the Yorks won't actually have to campaign for the San Francisco deal - a commitment that virtually would force them to stay in the city if voters approved the plan.
"So we will be stomping the streets of San Francisco and campaigning, while they sit back and let everyone do the heavy lifting," Policy said.
Much of that lifting, by the way, is already being done by Lennar's local development rep, Kofi Bonner, who - yes - worked under Policy in Cleveland.

Hmm...If Hunter's point residents like the plan, then what's the problem?

Hunters Point residents happy with redevelopment plan
Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, March 26, 2007

(03-26) 21:22 PDT -- Bayview-Hunters Point residents found plenty to like Monday night in a plan to rebuild their community around a new football stadium -- even if the South Bay manages to snatch away the football.
Many of the 40 or so people at a community planning meeting said their main concern was that progress shouldn't depend too much on the team forsaking plans to relocate to the South Bay.
"It's time to move the project forward," declared Linda Richardson, who chaired the meeting of two local advisory committees, which held a joint meeting at the Southeast Community Facility a few blocks from the proposed project site.
"We love the 49ers, and we want to accommodate the team so they will stay here, but we can't be held hostage," she said.
People raised a familiar list of concerns such as parking, environmental contamination at the site, need for affordable housing, transportation and jobs for local residents. But the main question on many residents' minds seemed to be how much optimism might be justified given the financial and political realities - and a long history of disappointments.
"It's gonna happen - it has to happen," said Olin Webb, who said he has lived in the area since 1944.
Rev. Arelius Walker, pastor of True Hope Church of God in Christ on Gilman Avenue, said the project could "truly impact Bayview-Hunters Point, this entire area, in a very positive way."
Despite suspicions that previous redevelopment plans would displace long-time residents or funnel profits and jobs to outsiders, Walker said the community is more than ready to support the new plan, envisioned as a partnership of the team, the city and the Lennar Corp. development firm.
Michael Cohen of the Mayor's Office and Kofi Bonner of Lennar presented a "conceptual framework" and architectural drawings that portrayed a stunning transformation of blighted waterfront.
"The majority of people here think it's a great idea," Walker said. "I mean, what else is there waiting in the wings?"
Cohen even predicted the storied football franchise can be persuaded to reverse field and stay put given the "inevitable challenge" of building a new stadium in Santa Clara.
Richardson insisted that isn't necessary for the basic idea to move ahead through what she described as a "meticulous" planning process in the next two years.
"For the first time in the history of San Francisco we have a truly public-private development partnership that can benefit all residents," she said as the two-hour meeting adjourned.
She also underscored one of the more certain facts of life in San Francisco urban renewal projects: "There will be questions," she said.
Angelo King, chair of one of the local citizen committees, was among the first to bear that out, saying he welcomed the creativity of the project in broad sweep, but wanted to get into the details on "jobs and opportunities" for residents.
Others may want to cheer on the team as well as the redevelopment plan, but King said "our job is to review and critique."
That is expected to begin in detail at a series of meetings starting later this week. Even if all the questions are answered, construction wouldnt start until 2009.
E-mail Carl Hall at chall@sfchronicle.com

By Christine Haughney
From The Wall Street Journal Online

Lennar Corp. seemed to have snatched two dream properties when it paid $2 for the right to rebuild two former military bases in one of the nation's most expensive housing markets.

But Lennar executives have learned there's nothing easy about turning vacant military land into profitable housing developments. At Hunter's Point, a former Navy shipyard in southern San Francisco, Lennar faces demands to build more affordable houses for an economically depressed population as it tries to market homes in an area many San Franciscans consider environmentally unsafe.

Even at the closed Mare Island Navy shipyard in suburban Vallejo, the builder's success in selling homes with sweeping bay views has been overshadowed by criticism that it should have first developed job-creating commercial sites.

"It's not for the weak of heart," says Tim Ford, executive director for the Association of Defense Communities, a group based in Washington, D.C., that advises communities on base redevelopment. "It's something that you have to be able to look past all of the problems and realize the potential of a piece of land."

Lennar's experience is being closely watched because it has made the biggest plunge among home builders as the U.S. government shutters more bases.

The incentive for home builders: The government assumes responsibility for much of the costly environmental cleanup and sifting through competing community demands for the abandoned bases, limiting the builders' exposure to delays. Builders pay to construct roads and other infrastructure improvements. They profit by selling the redeveloped plots of land or newly-built homes.

At stake is the economic viability of areas around the 22 more major bases that have been ordered closed by President Bush. Among them: Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and Concord Naval Weapons Station near Oakland, Calif., both due to shut down by 2011.

While other national home builders -- including Toll Brothers Inc., based in Horsham, Pa., and Actus Lend Lease, Nashville, Tenn. -- have looked at the bases slated for closure, Miami-based Lennar is the national developer furthest along in the redevelopment process. As the nation's third-largest home builder based on number of homes built, Lennar has plucked five military-base redevelopment projects in California, which company officials say offered bases with the best large parcels near major cities.

Lennar took ownership of Mare Island land in 2003 and Hunter's Point in 2005 for $1 apiece. An affiliated company, LNR Property Corp., is helping with nonresidential redevelopment of the bases' combined 1,100 acres. The price reflects the risk of the two projects, which require more infrastructure investment than bases more immediately available for home building. In contrast, Lennar paid $649 million in 2005 for the former El Toro Marine Air Corps station, covering 3,700-acres in real-estate hotbed Orange County, Calif.

To be sure, Lennar expects both Mare Island and Hunter's Point to pay off. After investing $80 million in Mare Island, it has sold 178 homes for an average of $700,000 apiece, or nearly $125 million. It splits the profits with the city of Vallejo. The company expects to invest a similar amount at Hunter's Point. It projects a profit there by mid- to late 2007 after starting home sales.

And while military-base redevelopment represents a tiny part of Lennar's business -- in 2005, it had sales of $13.8 billion and profit of $2.4 billion -- some analysts say the move gives the company an edge over competitors. "This is not going to make or break the company," says Stephen Kim, a managing director at Citigroup Investment Research. Still, he adds, Lennar is gaining valuable experience learning to negotiate, particularly in San Francisco, a fertile area for social activism but a lucrative market for home builders. "The more resistance there is," says Mr. Kim, "the greater potential for a competitive advantage to emerge."

Lennar executives acknowledge they've encountered unexpected problems and delays in negotiating with the military, local governments and community groups. "Everybody -- including the Navy, the cities and us -- all have gone through a learning curve," says Emile Haddad, president of Lennar's Western region, which oversees these projects.

Standing on the highest mound of Hunter's Point amid neat piles of concrete left from razed military buildings, Kofi Bonner, president of Lennar's urban land division for northern California, points out the abandoned industrial warehouses where Hunter's Point opened as a shipyard in 1867. It closed in 1974, triggering three decades of rancorous on-and-off discussions over its reuse and sporadic industrial use. The area lags behind San Francisco as a whole in average household income ($41,994 compared with $55,221) and housing values (a median of $119,600 versus $396,400).

Lennar executives have pledged that a third of the 1,238 homes planned for Hunter's Point will be affordable, measured by the median household income for Hunter's Point. The home builder also has sponsored seminars on cleaning up poor credit records and joined with an affiliated mortgage company to help residents buy homes with a minimal deposit.

But some community leaders say that's not enough. Lennar's housing "may be affordable to some people, but it won't be affordable to people here in Hunter's Point," says Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the Bayview local newspaper.

Lennar's promise to create 1,000 permanent jobs over the next decade, with initiatives such as attracting the film-production industry to the base's abandoned warehouses, also has met with community skepticism.

Meanwhile, Lennar faces a marketing challenge. Though the Navy spent $400 million to clean up the area polluted partly by a national radiation-defense lab, Hunter's Point still has lower life expectancy and higher hospitalization rates for chronic diseases like diabetes compared with the rest of the city, according to Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, director of environmental health for San Francisco's health department.

"Some people are convinced that the shipyard is a radioactive, pulsating volcano of ill winds and vapors," says Scott Madison, a local businessman who chairs a citizens advisory committee.

Even along the well landscaped streets lined with Victorian homes on Mare Island, Lennar has encountered community resistance for getting its plans to build 1,400 homes off the ground faster than its efforts to build job-generating commercial and industrial space to replace the 10,000 jobs lost when the base closed in 1996.

"We would like to see the industrial go up first," says Craig Whittom, Vallejo's community-development director. A Lennar spokesman says the company has attracted more than 85 businesses that employ 2,000 and is on schedule to bring in a promised 6,784 jobs by 2013.

Vallejo officials also are pressing the home builder to preserve 502 buildings and features of the Mare Island base that the city considers historically significant. Lennar already has spent three years categorizing every building for its landmark status, architectural integrity and contributions to the Mare Island historic district.

Despite the frustrations at the two bases, Lennar's Mr. Haddad says he's optimistic both projects will help the communities and be financially rewarding for the home builder. "One thing that I love about my job," he says, "is that I can ultimately see the results of my efforts through tough times."

Kofi Bonner's on the Technorati Blog Directory, well, not him but a blog with Kofi's name. It's called -- well, it's the one you're reading that's called Kofi Bonner. It's -- Technorati Profile -- claimed too!

Kofi Bonner, the Vice President of Urban Land with Lennar Corporation, will speak about the 49ers stadium project on February 21st at the City Club in San Francisco 155 Sansome Street. "We are honored and excited to have Mr. Kofi Bonner, Regional Vice President for Lennar Corporation, one of California's leading housing developers, discuss Lennar's development plans on Treasure Island, Hunters Point Shipyard, and Candlestick Point," writes Ms. Hala K. Hijazi, the organizer of the event.

(10-08) 04:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Confirming months of rumors, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency has arranged to hire Oakland interim city manager Kofi Bonner to be Mayor Brown's chief troubleshooter - to expedite construction of Mission Bay and the 49er stadium and mall projects.
Agency commissioners Tuesday voted to budget $160,000 to pay a year's salary for a job labeled chief economic development policy advisor.
Executive Director James Morales said Bonner would start Oct. 20.
Meanwhile, the Oakland City Council has named Robert Bobb as permanent city manager, according to Kandace Bender, Mayor Brown's press secretary.
Both the hiring of Bonner and the financing of his salary were arranged by Mayor Brown, who at various times has said he has wanted Bonner to work on this side of the Bay.
"It looks like a done deal," Commissioner Manny Rosales said, calling the panel "a rubber stamp commission."
Commissioner Leroy King said, "Yes, I'm rubber stamping the mayor," King said. "Everything we do on this commission carries out the policy of The City (and the mayor)."
All commissioners agreed that Bonner, who until March 1996 was deputy executive director of the San Francisco agency, is "eminently qualified" for the new spot. They unanimously approved the matter.
The means of financing Bonner's salary is unusual.
Commissioners agreed to remove $16,000 each from the budgets of 10 redevelopment projects to fund the deal.
Later, the mayor will reimburse the agency from his coffers, they were assured by redevelopment agency fiscal officer Steve Agostini. Until August, Agostini worked in the mayor's office.
Fiscal machinations aside, all hands agreed that The City is re-acquiring an exceptional bureaucrat.
When Oakland lured Bonner away from the redevelopment agency, former agency president Jon Kouba said, "It's a great loss of a talented man."
In Oakland, Bonner was planning a Pan Pacific Exposition whose co-sponsor, Jeffrey Heller, Tuesday lauded him as
"one of the most effective manager-administrators I've ever known. He has a can-do attitude and knows how to work with neighbors to get things done."
Educated at UC-Berkeley, Bonner earlier headed redevelopment activities in Emeryville, where he led the way for such projects as a new Amtrak station, a shopping center and expansion of the Chiron Corp. plant.
In San Francisco, he is expected to replace Rudy Nothenberg as Mayor Brown's troubleshooter in getting such projects as Mission Bay and the 49er stadium and shopping mall off the ground.
Mission Bay, a 315-acre community of homes and a UCSF campus, has taken the better part of two decades to get under way in a warehouse district south of Market Street.

Daly starts Candlestick renovation initiative
Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A Newsom administration-backed redevelopment plan for Candlestick Point and Hunters Point shipyard is drawing opposition from Supervisor Chris Daly, who is backing a ballot initiative that would require half the homes in the project to be sold or rented to lower-income residents at below-market rates.
Daly has helped organize a signature drive - to begin today - to qualify for the June ballot an ordinance setting affordability standards for Lennar Corp.'s proposed 10,000 new homes and commercial development at Candlestick and the nearby shipyard. The proposed Lennar project - designed in cooperation with the Newsom administration with an eye toward keeping the 49ers playing in San Francisco in a new stadium at the shipyard - already is headed toward the same June 3 ballot.
Lennar has proposed that 25 percent of the homes be affordable to residents earning less than the city's median income and says that the Daly-backed measure would be not be economically feasible.
The Daly-backed measure "is essentially a poison pill," said Kofi Bonner, president of Lennar's urban land division in San Francisco. "No private developer is going to be able to create something on this scale of development, including parks and infrastructure, and be able to provide 50 percent affordable housing."
Daly said members of the Bayview-Hunters Point community came to him for help in drafting the new initiative, expressing concerns that the Lennar plan did not meet the housing needs of area residents. He said federal funds would likely be available to build the lower-income housing the measure requires.
"Hopefully, the way it is designed, you would see the community getting good access to affordable housing in ways they haven't before," Daly said of the initiative, called the Bayview Affordable Housing Initiative.
Daly said the Lennar proposal headed to the ballot doesn't legally require that homes be sold or rented at specific levels of incomes. The measure he is pushing would mandate 50 percent of the homes be sold or rented at prices within reach of residents earning 30 to 80 percent of the city's median income, or $64,267 for a family of four.
"Their initiative leaves too much up to the powers that be at City Hall," Daly said. "It makes a lot of promises without any real legal requirements."
To qualify for the June 3 ballot, supporters of both the Lennar project and of the Daly-backed affordability requirements need to submit 7,168 signatures of registered city voters to the city Department of Elections by Feb. 4.
The Lennar-led group, called the African American Community Revitalization Coalition, has had a head start, having started its signature drive in late November. Backers say they have collected more than 12,000 signatures.
In May, the Board of Supervisors, in a 9-2 vote, approved a preliminary development plan in which Lennar would build homes, shops, industrial and commercial space, the stadium, parks, roads and sewers at Candlestick and the shipyard. The city, in turn would contribute public land and subsidize portions of the project by tapping a city affordable-housing construction fund and by issuing bonds backed by future property tax revenue from the site.
Both Lennar and Newsom administration officials say the project would go forward with or without the 49ers agreeing to be a part of it.
The Lennar-backed ballot initiative asks voters to approve the outline of that plan and also repeals measures passed by voters in 1997 that approved $100 million in public financing and land-use rule changes to allow a new 49ers stadium and shopping mall at Candlestick.
Two members of the Board of Supervisors who are ordinarily aligned with Daly on housing issues said they think he is demanding too much of the Lennar plan and as a result will not back the affordability initiative.
"The question is whether the project pencils out financially, and that seems like a pretty steep hill to climb," Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said. "I would not be inclined to support it."
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick said the Lennar plan is not perfect, but it has a number of community benefits that would be lost if required to provide the amount of affordable housing Daly is seeking.
Bonner said the Lennar project is estimated to cost $1.4 billion. The company would expect to eventually make a 20 to 25 percent rate of return on its investment, he said.
Both measures would have Lennar rebuild the run-down and crime-plagued Alice Griffith apartments owned by the money-strapped San Francisco Housing Authority and make the new units available to current residents.
Lennar's development plan also is billed as a means to encourage the San Francisco 49ers to abandon plans to move their team to a new stadium the team hopes to build in Santa Clara.
Last week, the Santa Clara City Council voted to proceed with negotiations with the 49ers to build a football stadium, but there are financial and political hurdles still to be crossed.
The team wants to build the stadium on city land that Great America uses for parking its amusement park there - and the company is seeking major financial concessions. There is also a $51 million gap between what the city says it can pay and what the 49ers would like it to contribute.
E-mail Robert Selna at rselna@sfchronicle.com.

Kofi Bonner Profile in SF Chronicle

Faces of Business 2007: Kofi Bonner, Lennar Corp. vice president
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 1, 2008

By the late 1980s, city officials had chosen the ideal locations for Emeryville's mega-stores and office complexes. They just couldn't find many developers interested in building them.

The fruit-processing plants, porcelain factories, steel mills and train yards that made the city an industrial powerhouse in the mid-20th century meant that any new construction required a good deal of costly cleanup. It also entailed navigating the labyrinth of overlapping regional and state regulatory agencies, something most builders then had little to no expertise in.
Recognizing this, Kofi Bonner, then Emeryville's redevelopment director, took on the role of liaison between business and government. Since the regulators didn't talk to one another, he talked to each of them and in turn, ushered builders step-by-step through the complex and lengthy process. It helped spark a building boom in a city where some authorities had advocated mothballing large tracts of tainted land.

"At the beginning, they were just finding their way - it was sort of dark out there," said John Flores, Emeryville's former city manager. "Kofi was instrumental in helping developers get through that maze."

People can - and do - argue about Emeryville's aesthetics and livability, but there's no doubt the city has transformed from a toxic relic of the industrial era into a thriving retail, life sciences and commercial center. Now Bonner is trying to do much the same in another Bay Area community, but from the other side of the table.

As regional vice president for Lennar Corp., he is overseeing the redevelopment of Hunters Point Shipyard and, should the company get the nod from voters, Candlestick Point.

The ambitious projects would transform the impoverished southeastern corner of the city with: 8,000 to 10,000 new homes, commercial space equaling four Transamerica Pyramids, retail space totaling about half of the Westfield San Francisco Centre, open space amounting to a third of Golden Gate Park and a sparkling new NFL stadium.

"That would create an uplift in the self-esteem of the overall Bayview," Bonner said. "It's a chance to make a significant difference in a fabulous city."
Throw in Treasure Island, and Lennar has 17,000 units of San Francisco housing planned, making it the city's most active developer. Critics, however, say the company isn't providing enough housing that's affordable, and it remains a question whether Lennar's recent financial woes will undercut its and the city's ambitions.
Instant credibility
Bonner, 51, was born in Ghana, moved to England when he was 5 and returned to his native country at 15.
As a university student in the poverty-plagued nation, he became intrigued by the ways design and urban planning can improve people's lives, specifically through the construction of affordable housing.

"I was looking for cheaper ways to build homes at a mass scale for obviously poor people," he said.

That search drew him, at 25, to UC Berkeley, where he would earn a graduate degree in architecture. He stayed on for a master's in city planning.

After his time in Emeryville city government, he worked at the San Francisco redevelopment agency, became the head of economic development and an interim city manager in Oakland, and served as director of economic development under former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

In 1998, the Cleveland Browns hired him as executive vice president and chief administrative officer, overseeing construction of the team's $300 million stadium. He served as a director at MBNA Corp., the holding company acquired by Bank of America, before accepting the job at Lennar in 2005.

This background is in stark contrast to the typical home-builder executive, more often an MBA who worked up through the corporate ranks. Bonner is one of the rare executives for whom a statement like this doesn't ring hollow: "I started out my professional life building affordable housing, so no one can say they care more about affordable housing."

That gives Bonner, and by extension Lennar, "instant credibility," said Jesse Blout, director of the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. (Blout was once a student of Bonner's in a course he taught at Berkeley. The subject: Initial planning for Bayview-Hunters Point.)

"And that's not just with us, with our office and the mayor in general, but also with members of the board of supervisors and most importantly, with the community," he said.

Mistrust of developers

The value of that credibility is hard to underestimate in the hothouse of San Francisco land use politics, where each supervisor, department and neighborhood activist has a long list of hopes and short list of reasons to trust most developers. Bonner's willingness to show up at the smallest neighborhood meeting and explain why Lennar can and can't do certain things has helped build trust and consensus on the Hunters Point plans, city officials and neighborhood leaders say.
"That has shown great character on his part," said Angelo King, chairman of the Bayview-Hunters Point Project Area Committee. "He's balancing the needs of a major corporation against the needs of a community, and I think he's managing it well."
Certainly none of this was lost on Lennar when it hired Bonner. But they didn't buy a free pass.
After construction began at Hunters Point, several residents charged that the company and its consultants didn't do enough to limit asbestos-contaminated dust. And while Lennar has set aside more than 30 percent of the first development phase as affordable according to city standards, some argue too much will remain out of reach for people in the neighborhood. "We need more affordable (housing)," said Bayview-Hunters Point advocate Olin Webb, who is otherwise complimentary to Bonner and Lennar. "We need to make sure the community stays."
Large loss and layoffs
Bonner's credibility also can't alter market realities.
Amid the credit crunch and real estate downturn, Lennar reported the worst results in its 53-year history, a $513.9 million third-quarter loss after writing off nearly $1 billion to account for depreciating assets. It has cut 35 percent of its staff and sold more than 10,000 lots or units to shore up its balance sheet. Its stock plummeted nearly 70 percent this year.
"What we're worried about is they're going to stop," said Melita Rines, who chairs the India Basin Neighborhood Association. "They're going to pull out, and we're going to be stuck with a big parking lot full of dirt."
City officials are monitoring Lennar's fiscal health and remain confident it has the reserves to follow through on its promises, said Michael Cohen, the city's director of Base Reuse and Real Estate Development. He also pointed to Lennar's well-capitalized partners, including engineering company Mactec, retail specialists Kimco Realty Corp. and Wilson Meany Sullivan (best known for renovating the Ferry Building).
"I have a strong sense we could move forward without missing a beat," Cohen said.
Bonner insists that Lennar remains committed to its San Francisco projects, noting that the city hasn't been nearly as hard hit by the real estate slowdown as the rest of the country. He also sees strong parallels between the doubts expressed now and those that could have derailed Emeryville's redevelopment.
"They had a sense of the possible. They didn't hold themselves back by saying, 'Oh this is too polluted, how will we ever do it?' " he said. "Now look at it, all in the span of 15 to 20 years, which is the amount of time we're talking about in Hunters Point."

Yes. This is Kofi Bonner's new blog using Blogger and Technorati Profile

Kofi Bonner | Bonner With Lennar in SF Bay Area | 49ers Stadium Issue

After a stellar career as an executive in the National Football League and with a credit card company, my friend Kofi Bonner is back in the San Francisco Bay Area as Director Of Urban Land for Lennar Corporation. Here's some background on the person who was once Interim City Manager for Oakland from the SF Business TImes.

Kofi Bonner is back.

Lennar Corp. has hired the former Bay Area planning and political whiz to help in its Hunters Point and Treasure Island developments and search for fresh Bay Area opportunities from San Jose to Sacramento.

"It's wonderful to see the old faces. Many have moved onward and upward and are as cantankerous and loving as ever," said Bonner. "It's great to be back."

Known for his aggressive role in redeveloping Emeryville during the 1980s, Bonner also served as the head of economic development and interim City Manger in Oakland before becoming an economic adviser to San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

In 1998, Bonner moved to Ohio to head business development for the Cleveland Browns, and last year accepted a director role at MBNA before the $10.3 billion Lennar lured him back to the Bay Area to take the newly created post of executive vice president.

"We're pleased to welcome Kofi back to San Francisco to join our team. He is an important addition in Lennar's current and future development plans in the Bay Area," said Tom Sheaff, regional vice president of Lennar Communities' Bay Area division, in an email.

Bonner will serve as lead negotiator in the Hunters Point redevelopment -- a multi-million dollar project that Lennar as been working toward since 1999. The first phase is beginning, with demolition of buildings slated for later this month followed by six months of grading and paving. The first 1,600 housing units are expected to be available in 2008.

Bonner will also serve as Lennar's chief negotiator for its Treasure Island development -- a $1 billion project it is partnering on with Kenwood Investments.

Although Lennar won the exclusive right to negotiate on Treasure Island with San Francisco several years ago, a final deal has yet to be signed. The city is still negotiating with the U.S. Navy to take possession of the island -- a not-so-minor detail that must be resolved before Lennar can strike an arrangement with the city.

Bonner said he is spending time both getting up to speed on these projects and re-connecting with old friends and colleagues, including former Mayor Willie Brown, Oakland developer Phil Tagami, architect Jeffrey Heller and TMG's Michael Covarrubias.

He's also been touring the Bay Area, admiring the changes that have transpired since he left.

"There has been a lot of development," he said, noting Emeryville, Mission Bay and the BART line to SFO have most impressed him. "It's great to see how the area has evolved."

Lizette Wilson covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.