WeWork, an Elon Musk-founded company and seven other bidders are competing to develop a 22-building, 30-acre site at San Francisco’s Presidio. The bids are part of The Presidio Trust’s request for proposals to turn derelict historic barracks comprising Fort Scott into a $100M to $200M “Campus for Change” that will address environmental and social challenges. One of the buildings at Fort Scott at San Francisco's Presidio The site is considered one of the largest developable sites in San Francisco after Mission Bay and downtown, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The coworking giant's vision for the Fort Scott site would be to create a 150K SF campus with 2,000 desks, mainly for the use of nonprofit organizations. WeWork’s Fort Scott campus also would incorporate a WeLive — which would become the company’s first co-living site in San Francisco — as well as a WeGrow, a school for children. The company has partnered with Lela Goran Group as the development consultant. This latest move from WeWork is part of its ongoing expansion in the Bay Area. It most recently moved into its first campus in Marin County and has rapidly expanded its downtown office presence as well. WeWork’s footprint in San Francisco now exceeds 1M SF. Elon Musk’s OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company, partnered with Kilroy Realty Corp. — which owns 14M SF of office along the West Coast — in a proposal that would lead to an office campus and temporary housing for AI researchers. The project could potentially be designed by Page & Turnbell, according to the bid. Other proposals for the Fort Scott site came from Equity Community Builders and World Economic Forum, California Clean Energy Fund and EPIC Institute, John Stewart Co., Renewable Nations Institute, Seneca Family of Agencies and a group consisting of Concrete Preservation Institute, Cross Street Partners, McCormack Baron Salazar, UMBC Training Center, Ayers Saint Gross, Urban Strategies and American Communities Trust. The winning developer would be tasked with revitalizing the historical buildings and adhering to LEED Silver standards, adding a transit center and providing public food options, the San Francisco Business Times reports. The Presidio Trust will consider the proposals during a July 25 public meeting and ask bidders to provide more detailed proposals at a later time. CORRECTION, JULY 6, 10:31 P.M. ET: A previous headline in this story incorrectly stated WeWork and Elon Musk’s OpenAI bid on the San Francisco Presidio site together. The two bid separately. The headline has been updated.
WeWork has partnered with development consultant Lela Goran Group to bid to turn derelict historical barracks in San Francisco's Presidio district into a $100m to $200m “Campus for Change”. The project is being led by the non-profit group Urban Commons, which hopes to transform the former military base into an urban campus of more than 10,000 students and faculty from across California. Elon Musk’s Open AI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company, is also bidding for the development.