Development
The plan for building a new arena was announced on May 22, 2012, at a Golden State Warriors press conference at the proposed site, attended by then-San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, then-NBA Commissioner David Stern, then-California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, and Warriors staff and city officials.[5] A new privately financed, $500 million 17,000- to 19,000-seat arena was planned to be located on Pier 30-32 along the San Francisco Bay waterfront, situated between the San Francisco Ferry Building and Oracle Park.[6] A month after the proposal, the South Beach-Rincon-Mission Bay Neighborhood Association criticized the site and said that a second major league sport venue in the area would make it no longer "family friendly".[7] Former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos began speaking to dozens of community gatherings in opposition to the proposed arena, stating that the project was pushed by two out-of-town billionaires and would severely impact traffic and city views.[8] On December 30, 2013, a ballot proposition was submitted to the city titled the "Waterfront Height Limit Right to Vote Act".[9] The initiative made it onto the June 2014 ballot as Proposition B, and its passage would affect three major waterfront developments, including the proposed Warriors arena.[10]
On April 19, 2014, the Warriors abandoned plans for the pier site and purchased a 12-acre site owned by Salesforce.com at the Mission Bay neighborhood for an undisclosed amount. The arena was financed privately.[11] The architect for the project was MANICA Architecture, with Kendall Heaton Associates as architect of record, Gensler as interior designer, and Magnusson Klemencic Associates as structural engineer.[12] Construction management was handled by a joint venture between Clark Construction Group and Mortenson Construction, with Jim McLamb serving as project director, Vic Watson as vice president overseeing the project, and Trevor DeLong as senior superintendent in charge of field operations.[13] Derek Cunz, vice president and general manager of Mortenson's Sports Group, and Steve Dell'Orto, senior vice president of Clark Construction Group, led their respective firms' involvement.[14] Brian Nahas served as Mortenson's senior integrated construction manager and VDC lead, while Rolando Mendoza served as the company's Director of Virtual Design and Construction.[15]
In April 2015, the Mission Bay site was opposed by the Mission Bay Alliance, which cited traffic, lack of parking, and use of space that could go to UCSF expansion among other things as their reasons for opposition. Their complaint was that the arena would be located near UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and would create more traffic.[3] To avoid the plan to build Chase Center being voided, representatives of the project worked to address these issues such as traffic and parking.[17]
On January 28, 2016, it was announced that JPMorgan Chase had purchased the naming rights of the arena and that it would be known as Chase Center.[18][19][20]
The Golden State Warriors had the official groundbreaking ceremony for Chase Center on January 17, 2017.[21]
