Investing for free, sort of.

An attempt to open the investment, and profits, of redeveloping the Hunters Point Shipyard to various Bayview leaders has had to change course.

The community builder program, part of the city’s original plan to develop the shipyard, paired prominent members of the Bayview community, some of them religious leaders, with construction companies. Originally, each would have shared the cost of construction, investing potentially millions of dollars, to be paid a management fee—three percent of construction’s total profits—a net gain of several hundred thousand dollars for a lot of 25 homes.

Because of the tightening credit market, those who would be community builders have had trouble coming up with the cash.

Trying to preserve the program, Lennar Urban, the company overseeing the shipyard’s development, has shifted the entire cost to construction companies. This will allow several Bayview leaders, including Bishop Lee of the Shiloh Full Gospel Church and George Davis, the executive director of the Bayview Multi-Purpose Senior Center, to participate in the redevelopment even though credit is tight.

However, some worry that without skin in the game, community builders will reap an investor’s benefits without having to contribute to the redevelopment.

“(Community) builders need to put up the equity,” said Christine Johnson, the head of the housing branch of the Community Advisory committee, which oversees the redevelopment on behalf of Bayview residents.

Without that incentive, Johnson said, community builders won’t contribute resources to their respective projects.

Cheryl Smith, the director of community affairs for Lennar Urban’s Bay Area division, said the community builders would be expected to play a managerial role.

“This is not a handout from Lennar,” Smith said.

However, Smith was vague as to what exactly each community builder would have to bring to his project.

As plans currently stand, over 10,000 homes and 3.5 million square feet of retail space will be constructed on the former shipyard.

When pressed by Johnson in a CAC meeting on April 23, Smith defended the program, saying it was important for community members to contribute to, and benefit from, the redevelopment.

“My kids will see other people in this community being involved in developing their neighborhood,” Smith said. “To me, that’s significant.”

Women-Owned Businesses in the Bayview

Third Street, Bayview’s main corridor, has seen six new businesses open over the past year. Five of them are owned by women.

The five businesses, all located within the same few blocks on Third Street, have close ties. The owners of two of them, Auntie April’s Soul Foods and Trendsetters II, are sisters (their stores are next door to each other).

Beyond that, the owners of four of the five are friends, and were before deciding to open their own businesses.

These five businesses are part of a larger trend. The nonprofit Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center offers classes and financial to new business owners. Antoinette Mobley, the Center’s Third Street Corridor Manager, says the bulk of people in the center’s classes have been women.

They are also local. Bayview’s reputation tends to discourage outside business owners from setting up shop in the neighborhood. The benefit of this, Mobely says, is that Bayview businesses owners tend to be residents.

“They don’t have that fear factor,” Mobley said. “This is where they live; they’re not going to be intimidated by it.”


View Women-Owned Businesses on Third Street in a larger map

"For some reason, honey, it's the women who are doing all the work."
-Antoinette Mobley