Jones Lang LaSalle

Global real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle is acting as project manager for the construction of the long-awaited West Dublin/Pleasanton station on the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit line. Ben Sansom investigatesHeadquartered in Chicago, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is a real estate services and investment management company with global reach, and a history dating back to 1783 when its founder, Richard Winstanley, set up an auction business in London. Today the organization employs more than 30,000 people, operates in 700 cities across 60 countries, and provides a diverse range of services.In the United States alone JLL has 44 corporate offices and operations in dozens of other cities. The Northern California office, for example, operates out of San Francisco, employs 876 staff members, and has offered a full range of services since 1978. The San Francisco office is currently engaged in partnership with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), a commuter rail system that serves the San Francisco Bay area. The system consists of five rail lines stretching 104 miles in total. Four of them connect the San Francisco Peninsula with Oakland, then separate to reach out to the surrounding area. The fifth line operates exclusively on the mainland, directly connecting Richmond in the north with Fremont in the south. Acknowledged to be the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the US, BART currently boasts 43 stations, and JLLÔÇÖs partnership with BART is to construct a new station on the Dublin/Pleasanton line, along with parking facilities.The original plans for the Dublin/Pleasanton line included an intermediate station serving the western end of the two communities. The foundations were laid, and some of the train control facilities were installed, but financial constraints meant that further construction was postponed, and though the line was opened in May 1997, the site lay abandoned for almost 10 years. New funding arrangements and the development of more ambitious plans for the site have, however, breathed life back into the plans for the station. A transit-oriented housing development is being planned, to be built on a 14-acre area of land around the station that was originally owned by BART but has been sold to real estate developer Windstar Communities. The proceeds of the sale, along with the long-term lease rental income that was negotiated into the contract, have formed the bulk of the financing for station construction. Windstar Communities has permission to build 309 apartment units in Dublin and 350 in Pleasanton, along with a 150-room hotel and a 7,500-square-foot restaurant in Dublin, plus offices and shops. Meanwhile, Jones Lang LaSalle is to build the station and two associated parking garages that will provide 740 car spaces on the Dublin side of the road and 420 on the Pleasanton side.JLL began working on the project again in 2006, almost 10 years after the line was first opened to the public. The project broke ground in June 2007, the first steel column went up in June 2008, and though it has been long delayed, the station is scheduled for completion later this year at an expected cost in the region of $80 million.The station is to be named West Dublin/Pleasanton, though there will be no change to the name of the terminus, which is just over a mile and a half further east along the line at Dublin/Pleasanton. Located in the median between the east and west flowing lanes of Interstate 580 just west of Interstate 680 at the Golden Gate Drive interchange in Dublin, the ground level of the station will be a single platform positioned between the tracks, while the upper level will be a passenger concourse. The exterior face of the station will include a revolutionary new material called Kalwall, which has already been used with great effect at BARTÔÇÖs San Bruno and South San Francisco stations. Kalwall has two interesting properties: it allows sunlight to pass through, while diffusing it and eliminating glare and harsh shadows. The result is that natural daylight will reach the lower levels of the station as a balanced wash of light rather than as a harsh glare. This in turn should lead to energy savings by minimizing the amount of artificial light required.┬á