The order the island chose
Treasure Island finished its ferry landing first. The lodging and the ticketing layer have not followed. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority funds a package of transit shelters and public restrooms at the southwest corner, where the causeway meets Yerba Buena Island. Those two items complete a transit hub the development group already operates: the terminal, a public plaza, and bus stops for Muni and for services with no start date.
That order carries a cost. Housing came first and rented. The hotel rooms the entitlements allow have not been built. The terminal timetable now sets the daily ceiling on how many visitors the island can absorb.
What four million dollars buys at the curb
The project page splits the funding into a $3 million Federal Highway Administration grant and a state share from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program. That state share read $1 million in the page's 10 June 2026 capture and reads $1.6 million on the page today.
The construction contract went to Thompson Builders Corporation at $3,047,000, with a $152,350 contingency allotment, for a total of $3,199,350. Resolution 26-01 adopted the award on 22 July 2025. The engineer estimate was $2,950,000, and the award ran 3.3 percent above it. One bid arrived.
The bid items show where the money sits. Restroom lines account for $2,157,000, or 70.8 percent of the award. Shelter lines account for $890,000, or 29.2 percent, across 42 items and two locations. The largest single line is restroom earthwork at $566,500. The island is buying plumbing, ground improvement and shelter.
Housing arrived first
The island's own leasing page carries the absorption figures. Isle House reads 95 percent leased. The Bristol reads 70 percent sold. 490 Avenue of the Palms is now leasing, and Hawkins carries no availability figure. The same page lists a 105-unit veterans rental, Star View Court at 138 units, and more than 2,000 below-market homes planned.
The resident base the terminal serves has arrived and keeps arriving.
The lobby the island has not built
Entitlements allow up to 500 hotel rooms across Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. No hotel operates on either island. The venue directory lists nine spaces, and none of them publishes a seated capacity or a rate card. The project's own scope statement lists two items, transit shelters and public restrooms. Neither is a ticket window.
A visitor who lands at the new shelters finds a plaza and nine event venues. A visitor who wants a bed takes the boat back.
The ceiling fourteen sailings set
Fourteen weekday sailings leave in each direction. Island departures run from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The last boat from Gate B at the San Francisco Ferry Building leaves at 8:20 p.m. and lands at 8:28. The fare is $5 each way and $10 round trip, under-fives ride free, and the gate takes a card or cash. Clipper cards do not work there. Six bicycles ride per trip.
Muni route 25 runs to the Salesforce Transit Center every 20 minutes with no published end time. The agency's description names ferry, bus, island shuttle service, bicycle and pedestrian pathways among the connections the hub serves. An evening event on the island ends inside that 8:20 p.m. frame.
What the calendar says now
The project page lists construction starting in Fall 2025 and completing in Fall 2026, and describes the work in the past tense. The 10 June 2026 capture of the same page read a Summer 2026 completion. No completion notice for the shelters and restrooms has been published.
The conclusion worth weighing
Sequence decides the return on four million dollars. A terminal that opens ahead of the lodging and the ticketing layer walks passengers through a facility built for a visitor economy that has not arrived. Three moves would change the arithmetic. Publish the completion date for the shelters and restrooms. Publish a seated capacity and a rate card for the venues, so a group can plan an evening against the 8:20 boat. Set a hotel schedule against the 500 entitled rooms.
The island ambition is measurable. Its arrival capacity today is fourteen sailings a day, and its visitor bed count is zero.