MARKET STREET PLACE in San Francisco (27/58)

935 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103

The backhoe is digging. New fencing is up. And construction crews are on site.

Market Street Place, the most highly anticipated new retail development since the expanded Westfield San Francisco Centre opened in 2006, is off and running.

The $150 million, 250,000 square-foot retail project doesn’t have any tenants yet, but advocates of the much-hyped Mid-Market revival, including Mayor Ed Lee and SupervisorJane Kim, hope that the development will fill in a key derelict block between Fifth and Sixth streets.

On Wednesday the developer, Cypress Equities, will celebrate the official groundbreaking

“Our contractor is mobilized and we are going,” said Cypress Equities CEO Chris Maguire.

The project will be completed in July of 2016.

“We have a very good amount of interest in the project,” he said. “We are in negotiation with a number of tenants. We want to make sure we have the right mix. We want to get it right the first time — you really do want to be careful.”

An announcement on specific tenants is probably two or three months away, he said.

The project will likely have two floors of food: one on the fifth level, which will have 18-foot ceilings and expansive patios, the other on the basement level, which could be more of a food court concept.

Originally Cypress had chased value-based retailers such as Target, Marshalls, JC Penney and Nordstrom Rack. All four of those stores considered the property, but ultimately went elsewhere. Instead, Cypress is talking to fashion-forward retailers.

“It’s not luxury, but its not discount,” Maguire said. “We have a great mix — some not in the city at all and others that would be a relocation.”

Maguire pointed to the success of the Hall, the pop-up food emporium at 1018 Market St. that has been drawing crowds with beer, wine and an array of six food stalls. That could serve as an inspiration for what happens at Market Street Place, he said.

Mayor Ed Lee, who will likely make the rebirth of Mid-Market a central theme of his reelection campaign, said “We have waited a long time to see a project at this critical site, and I am thrilled to see construction begin.” He added that the transformation of Mid-Market “is something we don’t take for granted and is something we stay focused on every day.

Architect : Gensler’s San Francisco architectural