Smaller Warriors Arena Still Faces Big Fight

Backers of the Golden State Warriors' new waterfront arena are prepping for a fight -- with a smaller fighter.

Design 3.0 of the Warriors' proposed new home at Piers 30/32 along The Embarcadero waterfront is now 125 feet high in the center and 110 feet along the perimeter, with more public space -- enough to fit "three Union Squares," a team spokesman said -- to make it a "smaller version of Dolores Park in the water," reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

PHOTOS: Warriors Update Design of Waterfront Arena Project

The original design was 135 feet high, the newspaper reported.

The open space -- 60 percent of Pier 30/32's 13 acres -- covers a practice facility, a 500-space parking garage, and a fire station, the newspaper reported.

The Warriors want to complete construction in time to occupy the arena for the 2017-2018 NBA season, the newspaper reported.

But to hit that deadline, the new design will have to receive approval from members of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission -- and will also have to survive challenges from opponents like former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos.

Agnos, fresh off a victory over a real estate project at 8 Washington Street -- which was defeated by a nearly 2-to-1 margin at the November ballot -- says that Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber are less interested in an arena than they are in the real estate opportunities in the area.

In addition to an arena, Lacob and Guber want to build two 105-foot hotels, a 175-foot condo tower, and 120,000 square feet of retail space, the newspaper reported.

That's a $1 billion real estate project -- or a "mega real estate project" for which the arena is "window dressing," Agnos said.
 

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