The Port of San Francisco and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the Recommended Plan for the city's waterfront in August 2026. The plan puts the cost at $17.8 billion in 2026 dollars and covers 7.5 miles of shoreline from Aquatic Park to Heron's Head Park.
Hotels trade along that shoreline. The plan gives each reach a protection standard and names no construction calendar. Both facts bear on a revenue manager setting rate for 2029.
Two Numbers Behind the $17.8 Billion
The cost splits into $14.1 billion of design and construction and $3.7 billion of real estate. The 2024 Draft Plan carried $13.5 billion in 2024 dollars, which the Port equates to $14.7 billion in 2026 dollars, made up of $14.6 billion of design and construction and $100 million of real estate.
Design and construction fell by $0.5 billion between the two estimates. Real estate rose by $3.6 billion. The federal government may pay up to 65 percent of the construction cost once Congress approves the plan.
The Stage the Programme Sits In
The study began under a new start Congress approved in 2018. USACE published the Final Report on 31 July 2026 with a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register.
The Recommended Plan holds 20 percent design maturity and a conditionally certified Class 3 cost estimate. A rule the Chief of Engineers put in place in early 2025 requires 35 percent design before a project receives a Chief's Report to Congress. Port staff estimate $200 million to $400 million and several years to bring the full 7.5 miles to that level.
The published sequence runs from study to authorization. Congress takes up the plan. Preconstruction engineering and design runs from 2026 to about 2030. Construction proceeds in phases from about 2030. The plan marks those dates approximate.
What Each Reach Gets
The plan divides the waterfront into four reaches. Fisherman's Wharf runs from Aquatic Park to Telegraph Hill. The Embarcadero runs from Telegraph Hill to the Bay Bridge. South Beach and Mission Bay run from the Bay Bridge to Potrero Point. Islais Creek and Bayview run from Potrero Point to Heron's Head Park.
Protection levels differ by reach. The Embarcadero seawall would defend against 3.5 feet of sea level rise. South Beach, Mission Bay, Islais Creek and Bayview carry 1.5 feet. Fisherman's Wharf sits on higher ground and takes floodproofing plus short floodwalls, and those walls extend up to 3 feet above the ground surface.
Ground-Floor Inventory and the Two-Foot Wall
Several measures change a building at street level. The plan raises buildings along the water's edge, including the Ferry Building and the historic bulkhead buildings, and raises the Embarcadero roadway. It adds walls up to 2 feet tall around pier perimeters. KQED reported the Ferry Building would rise by 7 feet.
The Recommended Plan names no hotel and allocates no measure to an individual property. An operator reads the elevation standard for its reach. The door, the loading bay and the terrace wait on later design.
The Hotels Inside the First Actions
The plan names Early Resilience Actions around Rincon Park and on portions of the Mission Creek, Mission Bay and Islais Creek shorelines. Four hotels sit within 350 meters of the Ferry Building, measured in a straight line: 1 Hotel San Francisco at 209 meters, the Hyatt Regency at 258, Hotel Griffon at 317 and Harbor Court at 340.
The Fisherman's Wharf cluster sits further north along the same shoreline. Hotel Zoe measures 2,169 meters from the Ferry Building, Hyatt Centric 2,299, Marriott Fisherman's Wharf 2,369, Hotel Caza 2,454 and the Argonaut 2,685.
Rate Work With No Works Calendar
The plan leaves four items to later phases: detailed designs for flood defenses, designs for waterfront streets and open spaces, timing and sequencing of construction, and the funding plan.
Rate work inherits that limit. A hotel cannot price a closure it cannot date. Two inputs carry the record: the protection standard for the reach, and the authorization stage. The standard sets how high the defenses must go. The authorization decides whether construction lands inside a ten-year hold.
Guest Communications
Two statements survive a check. The waterfront has a federal study with a recommended plan and a cost estimate. Congress has authorized neither the project nor its funding.
A property that tells a group it will be unaffected by 2030 holds no document for the claim. A property that names the year works reach its block carries the same exposure.
What an Operator Can Diary Now
Three dates exist. The Federal Register notice ran on 31 July 2026. The Port Commission took the update as item 12A on 11 August 2026. Jacobs holds the programme advisory contract at a not-to-exceed $40 million over five years, with an option for five more years and a further $40 million. Congressional authorization gates everything after that.
The Monitoring and Adaptation Plan carries the rest. It tracks sea level and climate indicators and sets when later actions, defending 3.5 to 7 feet, become due. An operator holding a 20-year ground lease can build a schedule from those triggers.