With the America’s Cup World Series Regatta Races Kicking-Off Next Week, We Offer a Well-Deserved Congratulations to the City of San Francisco and America’s Cup Organizers!

Construction is well underway as the City prepares to host next week’s preliminary races in advance of the 34th America’s Cup event in the summer of 2013. This event is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators and generate substantial economic activity and for the first time in the sport’s 160-year history, the races will be held in San Francisco’s inland bay rather than the open ocean. As the lead consultant preparing the extensive CEQA and NEPA environmental analyses and documentation and permitting support, ESA completed the work in record time, enabling the America’s Cup projects and races to proceed as scheduled.

Preparations for the America’s Cup involve upgrades to several piers along the San Francisco waterfront long in need of refurbishment. The new $92 million, 88,000 square foot James R. Herman Cruise Terminal at Pier 27 is designed to meet LEED Silver certification and is currently under construction and will serve as the cornerstone of the America’s Cup Village in 2013. New public access enhancement features along the waterfront will enable greater pedestrian circulation and improved shoreline viewing, and the expanded shoreside power facilities will reduce air emissions associated with certain port activities long after the 2013 event. City and federal agency partners, along with the America’s Cup Event Authority and Race Management, have developed a series of sustainable management strategies and practices, both on-shore and on the water that will set a new standard for events of this type and magnitude in the region and beyond.

“The hard work by our partners across the City and at the America’s Cup Event Authority and Race Management, as well as by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, combined with community input, has been key to ensuring that the 34th America’s Cup will be the most sustainable, exciting and financially sound series of events in San Francisco history,” said San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee.

The America’s Cup World Series Regatta Races features 45-foot catamarans crewed by many of the same racing teams that will be competing in the 2013  “main event.”  San Francisco will host two of these World Series Regatta races next week and in early October, with others at venues around the globe.  Larger and faster 72-foot catamarans will race in the America’s Cup Louis Vuitton Challenger Series, Defender Trials, and Finals Matches in San Francisco from July through September in 2013.

For more information about ESA’s environmental compliance and permitting services or our work on the 34th America’s Cup, contact Gary Oates at goates@esassoc.com or at 415.896.5900.