Aggressive plans for San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center, which include accommodations for improved Caltrain service and a terminus for California high speed rail, are in jeopardy as developers and city officials have reached an impasse.
The new center, dubbed by some as the Grand Central Terminal of the West Coast and itself not in immediate harm's way, was to be the focal point of a $2.6 billion Caltrain extension for San Francisco, to serve a host of new skyscrapers and other development.
But local media report developers are balking at the original agreement, and may sue the city, even as the city Board of Supervisors affirmed original terms of the tax district, and after all parties had agreed to a rough outline of the deal including some modifications over payment schedules.
The Transbay Joint Powers Authority had planned to use economic development as a lever to issue up to $1.4 billion in bonds. About $200 million in funding is on hand to complete the Transbay Transit Center itself, slated to open in late 2017. But improved rail access could be thwarted if local matching funds aren't in place to tap about $1.5 billion in federal and state contributions.