Prologis Firms Up Plans for Caltrain Railyard Redevelopment

Prologis is moving forward with one of San Francisco’s most ambitious post-pandemic development efforts.

The San Francisco-based logistics giant plans to submit an application with the city to redevelop the Caltrain railyards along Townsend Street in South of Market with roughly 2,500 homes and 4 million square feet of commercial space, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The proposal would transform the 20-acre site around the Fourth and King Caltrain station into a dense mixed-use district with office, retail and potentially a hotel.

The railyards have been eyed for redevelopment for more than a decade, but the latest proposal marks one of the first major mixed-use megaprojects to enter the city’s pipeline since the pandemic slowed large-scale development. Prologis and Caltrain began more seriously exploring redevelopment in 2021.

Today the active rail yard effectively acts as a physical barrier between the SoMa, Showplace Square and Mission Bay neighborhoods. Prologis’ vision stitches those areas together with new housing, offices and transit improvements spread across multiple buildings, including an 850-foot tower that would rise above a rebuilt Caltrain station.

The project’s first phase would span about 2.5 million square feet at parcels at Fourth and Townsend and Seventh and Townsend, which anchor the rectangular site. If constructed, the proposed tower would become one of the tallest buildings in San Francisco.

Prologis said it expects the entitlement process with the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Caltrain’s board to take roughly two years. City planners previously estimated early construction could begin around 2028. Prologis looks to tap a mix of public and private financing to make the development happen.

The development is expected to unfold in phases, which could take as many as two decades to complete. Later phases hinge on a separate infrastructure project known as the Portal, a 1.3-mile rail extension designed to connect Caltrain to the Salesforce Transit Center. Once built, the extension would allow tracks now running across the railyards to be moved underground, freeing the land for development. The Transbay Joint Powers Authority currently expects the line to open around 2035.

Though San Francisco is on the hook by the state to build more than 82,000 new units by 2030, new apartment starts in the city have essentially stalled amid rising construction costs and an uncertain tariff-ridden future. The development pipeline appears to be rebounding, however, with both office and residential markets improving over the last 12 to 18 months, as has investor confidence in the city, according to the Business Times. — Chris Malone Méndez