San Francisco Business Times
From the article:
In 1992, Donald Klingbeil won accolades for Fulton Grove, a Hayes Valley project with 22 wooden-shingled townhouses lining a private cobblestone courtyard.
Back then, Hayes Valley was far from trendy and, while the project sold quickly, it barely broke even.
“At that time the consensus was that we were on the wrong side of the freeway — the Civic Center was considered to be the nicer side,” said Klingbeil.
Twenty-one years later the freeway is gone, Hayes Valley is one of the chicest neighborhoods on the West Coast, and Klingbeil is joining a rush into his old stomping grounds. Klingbeil and Elizabeth Costello, who run the San Francisco-based firm Pocket Development, are preparing to open the sales office for 300 Ivy St. — a $23 million, 63-unit project that represents one of its three substantial condominium projects under construction in San Francisco.
“It’s fun to be back in the neighborhood after such a long, long absence,” said Klingbeil.
Hayes building boom
The Ivy Street project, which will be completed in the fall, is the first of six market-rate projects in Hayes Valley that will start construction over the coming year, a burst of residential building that will bring 450 units and more than 1,000 new residents to the area. That is a lot of housing for an enclave that has added just 158 new condominium units over the past 10 years. The majority of the developments will be on formerly city-owned parcels along Octavia Boulevard that were freed up when the elevated Central Freeway was knocked down.