Alice Suet Yee Barkley

Alice Barkley specializes in steering real estate development projects through the complicated approval process in San Francisco, and has been at it for over 30 years. Ms. Barkley was trained as an architect and started her legal career with the San Francisco City Attorney's office, enabling her to develop a unique insider's perspective on the land use process. She is particularly well suited to understanding a project from the developer's perspective and has a long track record of mapping out successful political strategies to complement her almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Planning Code. Representative projects include the 1987 conversion of the Hills Brothers Coffee roasting facility to a mixed-use development of residential, office and retail space. She has also worked on the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco, the Kaiser North Wing and Medical Office Building, and the Lady Shaw Senior Center.

Recent Work / Representative Matters

Adaptive reuse of the Hills Brothers Coffee Plant at The Embarcadero. This project also involved legislation to exempt the office component from the Downtown Plan office annual limitation.

Adaptive reuse of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building as the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Stockton Street. 

Entitlement work for the San Francisco Medical Center of Kaiser Permanent including the North Wing Addition to Kaiser's Geary Street hospital; the new Kaiser Medical Office Building on Geary Boulevard that required amendments to the Planning Code to increase the FAR, height and permitted uses; and the new outpatient Clinic Building on Divisadero Boulevard that also required reclassification of property and approval from the Redevelopment Agency to construct a replacement residential building at 2139 O'Farrell Street.

St. Regis Hotel/Condominium at Third and Mission. This project is located in the redevelopment area.

A 185-unit residential development on an 8.02-acre site at 800 Brotherhood Way for Mission Valley Group.

Residential Development on the Old Shriner Hospital site for Riding Group/Catellus.

A 300-unit residential building at Fourth and Freelon Streets. This project involved amending the Planning Code to allow market rate housing units, increase the height limit, dwelling unit density and creating special affordable housing requirements.

Affordable housing projects including 84 low-income senior housing units above the Broadway Tunnel that required reclassification of the air right above the Broadway Tunnel from Public Use to residential use, negotiate a lease from the City and County of San Francisco, and as well as setting up strategy to defeat a referendum against the reclassification of the air right.

Various residential and mixed-use (residential/retail) development ranging from 2 to 64 units, including units in the Eastern Neighborhood Plan Areas.

Advising client on Planning and Building Code issues.

Memberships