Treasure Island, a man-made island off the coast of San Francisco, looks more like a postapocalyptic wasteland than a Bay Area suburb.
But as demand for housing in the area continues to climb, developers including Lennar — now the largest homebuilder in the US — turned to Treasure Island in hopes of creating the next big real-estate destination. The dilapidated land mass is getting an extreme home makeover.
In 2011, the city of San Francisco approved a proposal to add 8,000 homes, 500 hotel rooms, 300 acres of parks, 140,000 square feet of retail, and 100,000 square feet of office space to the island over 15 years. The development project comes with a price tag of $5 billion.
With construction on infrastructure underway, we decided to spend the day exploring Treasure Island — and learned there’s more to this former toxic-waste site than meets the eye.SEE ALSO: This little-known Silicon Valley neighborhood is suddenly one of the hottest housing markets in America — take a look
You can live in San Francisco your whole life and never set foot on Treasure Island.
Treasure Island sits in the San Francisco Bay between mainland San Francisco and Oakland.
It doesn’t get many visitors outside its two major attractions: a flea market held on the last weekend of the month and a music festival that draws tens of thousands of fans. (The festival was postponed this year because of the massive development project underway.)
On a visit, I learned that Treasure Island is closer to downtown San Francisco than my San Francisco apartment is. I reached the island from SoMa in about 15 minutes by bus.
You can see the length of the island from the exit road off Interstate 80. It’s small.
The island was built on a rocky bank just north of Yerba Buena Island. It served as the fairgrounds of the 1939 World’s Fair, which celebrated the city’s two new bridges.
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Source: Tech Insdier