Warriors to build new arena, move back to S.F. Matier & Ross Arena: Private financing for home on S.F. waterfront to open in 2017

Piers 30-32 have been in need of a renovation. The America's Cup organizers would have been the ones to make a renovation of the dilapidated piers happen. Piers 30-32 have been in need of a renovation. The America's Cup organizers would have been the ones to make a renovation of the dilapidated piers happen. Photo: Sean Culligan, The Chronicle Photo: Sean Culligan, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Warriors to build new arena, move back to S.F. 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

The Golden State Warriors are jumping across the bay, with plans for a privately financed, $500 million waterfront arena that would allow the team to play its home games in San Francisco for the first time in more than four decades.

The NBA franchise would leave Oakland for a 17,000- to 19,000-seat arena that would be built on Piers 30-32 near the foot of the Bay Bridge, a short walk from downtown, and open in time for the 2017-18 season.

"It is going to happen - let there be no doubt," Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob said Monday.

The arena would also host conventions and entertainment events such as concerts, Lacob said. Plans for the site also include 100,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.

Although the actual design has yet to be worked up, team President and CEO Rick Welts said that "this will be an architecturally significant building, resting on an iconic site."

The crumbling, 13-acre pier is owned by the Port of San Francisco, which now uses it for parking. Under a deal between the team and Mayor Ed Lee's administration, the port would hand the Warriors a long-term lease in exchange for the team building the arena and investing heavily in fixing the pier.

In addition, the team is seeking control of a port-owned, 2-acre lot across the Embarcadero from the pier, which is also now used for parking. The Warriors haven't said what they would do with the land.

The arena and return of the Warriors would be a coup for Lee, who has been looking to ease the pain of the 49ers' impending move to Santa Clara.

Finding a new home for the Warriors has also been a priority for Lacob and fellow owner Peter Guber, who bought the team 17 months ago and want to raise the Warriors' profile nationally and tap into the entertainment market locally.

"We're jumping up and down. ... I just don't see how we can do it better," Lee said Monday in a conference call interview with Lacob, Guber and Welts.

The mayor called it "my legacy project," and said, "I'm going to be on top of it personally."

He added, "To be candid, this takes a little of the sting out of the Niners situation."

Team executives say the model for the deal is the 1996 agreement between the city and the Giants, who were granted a 66-year lease of port land to build their new stadium.

No new taxes

The new arena would not require any money from the city's general fund or new taxes, Lee and team officials said.

"At the end of the day, our investment group is financially responsible for building this," Lacob said. "And it will be done."

The team will have to overcome a number of hurdles, however, before its waterfront arena hosts an NBA game.

For starters, there is the sad state of Piers 30-32, which despite its plural name is actually one dock. The Warriors believe it will cost as much as $100 million to make the pier capable of supporting a massive arena.

The Warriors are proposing to put up all the costs in exchange for a long-term lease to the site. The team hopes to recoup the money eventually in the form of rent credits from the port or other givebacks, and from having sole access to the arena's revenue stream.

Approvals tricky

And then there is the approval process.

The entire Board of Supervisors co-signed a letter from Lee and the Port Commission earlier this month inviting the Warriors to come to San Francisco. But the city is notorious for a Byzantine commission system that can alter development projects - or hold them up for months on end.

The Warriors have set a tight time frame, hoping to break ground in two years and finish the arena in another three years, when the team's lease at the Oracle Arena in Oakland expires.

"I know the time frame is serious and I know a serious amount of investment is reflected here," Lee said, "and I'm not going to allow anyone to squander the opportunity here."

The new arena will also need approvals from the state Lands Commission and regional Bay Conservation and Development Commission. That means having to show that the project would serve the region and include a maritime element, which the Warriors say could be a new marina, or ferry and water-taxi service to the arena.

The Warriors have brought in two City Hall veterans to help steer the project to approval, Jesse Blout and Michael Cohen, who each served a stint as former Mayor Gavin Newsom's economic development chief. Their resumes include the development project at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

What about parking?

One issue they'll no doubt be dealing with on the arena project is parking - or the lack of it. The Warriors say they intend to provide some parking, but mostly for fans willing to pay a big premium.

For everyone else, the team says 6,000 cars can fit into public and private lots and garages within walking distance of the site. Officials say that's more than usually park now for games at Oracle.

They also say that the Embarcadero BART and Muni Metro station would be as close to the arena as the Coliseum Station is to Oracle, and that the new downtown Transbay Terminal is likely to open about the same time as the arena.

Lee and the Warriors argue that it will all be worth it in terms of construction jobs and a jolt to the local economy.

"It's huge," said Joe D'Alessandro, head of the San Francisco Travel Association. He calls San Francisco the only major U.S. city without an arena that can accommodate everything from concerts to circuses.

D'Alessandro said the business executives who make up his group recently identified a new arena as a top priority, along with an expansion of the Moscone Center. The group said 44 percent of the convention planners it surveyed around the country would be interested in renting an arena.

Oakland loses out

The loser in the deal, of course, would be Oakland - the city the Warriors have called home for the last 41 years, but have never put on their jerseys.

Fred Blackwell, Oakland's assistant city administrator, said the Warriors met with city officials last week and assured them Oakland was still in the running for the team's new home.

"We asked them straight up whether or not we were still in the game, and they told us we were," Blackwell said.

Given all the obstacles the team will likely face in San Francisco, he predicted the fight for the team is far from over.

As for whether the team plans to change its name back to the San Francisco Warriors?

Not right now, Lacob said. And in the long run, "we will do whatever the fans think is right."

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Matthai Kuruvila contributed to this report.