Is Treasure Island San Francisco’s new hot spot?

For years, Treasure Island sat largely forgotten in the middle of San Francisco Bay — an awkward man-made expanse better known for its contaminated soil and shuttered naval housing than anything resembling a neighborhood. 

But now, the 400-acre island is quietly becoming one of the city’s most buzzed-about enclaves, luring young professionals with skyline views, luxury condos and cake-fueled picnics.

As San Francisco struggles with an exodus of 20-somethings — driven out by high rents, urban fatigue and a post-pandemic identity crisis — some are turning to this former naval base as an unlikely escape hatch. 

The vibe is scrappy but seductive: a place where you can sip discounted cocktails with Golden Gate Bridge views at Sunset Happy Hour on adjacent Yerba Buena Island, wander through a Marina-bound ferry terminal that didn’t exist a year ago — and still find a decent one-bedroom without emptying your savings.

Once a Depression-era landfill, Treasure Island was created for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, then handed over to the US Navy, which held it until 1997. 

For decades, the land sat in limbo — part ghost town, part low-income housing. But that’s changing fast. 

Developers have begun work on the island’s transformation into a master-planned community, with 7,000 new homes, 300 acres of parkland, 500 hotel rooms, a 400-slip marina — plus retail built around what architects at SOM describe as “a diverse community with access to unprecedented open space, resource-conserving technologies and a robust network of transportation options.”

The first luxury condo development, 490 Avenue of the Palms, began selling units last fall.

Meanwhile, buzzy eateries like Mersea — a shipping container-turned-restaurant that’s ranked as the city’s best on Tripadvisor six of the past seven years — have put the island on the foodie map. 

Events like Sunset Movie Nights and the wildly Instagrammable Cake Picnic, which returned this year with 1,387 cakes, are helping to shift Treasure Island’s reputation from forgotten outpost to FOMO magnet.

With just 2,800 residents — 61% of whom are between 18 and 44, and a median age 11 years younger than the city at large — the island feels like a millennial startup in the middle of the Bay. 

A ferry now runs to downtown every 15 minutes during rush hour, replacing what was once a single bus line. 

But there are cracks in the dream. 

Treasure Island still has one of the city’s highest poverty rates, with 23% of residents below the federal threshold. Roughly 1,800 low-income tenants live in aging former Navy housing slated for demolition.

They’ve been offered replacement units at the same rent or an $8,000 payout to relocate — an offer some say feels like a thinly veiled eviction notice. 

Then there’s the fact that the island’s foundation is essentially mud and sand. Developers are racing to armor the shoreline and install drainage systems before sea levels rise too high — or the next big quake tests their optimism. And parts of the island still show traces of radiation from its military past.

Also missing is a school. There hasn’t been one on Treasure Island in 21 years, and with only about 300 kids under 18, that likely won’t change anytime soon.