The Flats have officially arrived, and they’re redefining what it means to live luxuriously in the Bay Area. This limited collection of only 14 estate-sized residences blends historic grandeur with fresh, contemporary design. Think sprawling, single-level floor plans with direct elevator access, uninterrupted views of the city’s most iconic landmarks, and finishes that toe the line between laid-back elegance and high-design sophistication. It’s a rare kind of living – intimate, inspired, and immersed in nature, yet unmistakably urban.

In San Francisco, where new developments are as rare as affordable housing, the lack of land and high cost of building continue to make the market even tighter. “Right now, there are very few new development/construction units available in the market based on historical numbers,” said Krysen Heathwood, senior managing director, Western region, Compass Development Marketing Group. “Additionally, there are no new developments coming out of the ground. Therefore, there will be a dearth of inventory in the coming years.”

When selling the first new townhomes on Yerba Buena Island this past month, developer Chris Meany of Wilson Meany discovered that one of the buyers was a couple who had very different ideas about where they wanted to live.

The wife was very tied into San Francisco’s art scene and couldn’t imagine living anywhere that felt removed from the action, while the husband wanted to follow his obsession with water sports and live further afield. They ended up compromising on Yerba Buena Island, a development of just 266 homes on a natural island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland.

It is 75 percent public open space, with miles of hiking trails, a protected swimming cove and an aptly named Hilltop Park at its peak. Yet it is less than 10 minutes, via ferry, to San Francisco’s Embarcadero and a mere mile’s drive over the Bay Bridge to downtown.

Yerba Buena Island, the new San Francisco, California, neighborhood developed by Wilson Meany and Stockbridge Capital Group, has debuted its newest completed residences: The Townhomes within The Cove Residences enclave. Designed by Hart Howerton and featuring interior concepts by Meyer Davis, this exclusive collection of attached single-family architectural townhomes merges a timeless modern nod to the classic San Francisco row home with a seamless blend of Bay views, market-defining amenities, and sustainable living.

In 2011, Yerba Buena Island, sitting between downtown San Francisco and the East Bay and accessible via the Bay Bridge, introduced a 20-year development to create two residential neighborhoods serving 8,000 people. “With the arrival of the initial Townhomes within The Cove Residence enclave at Yerba Buena Island, our vision of an urban village is truly coming to life,” Chris Meany, managing partner at Wilson Meany, said in a statement.