Photo by Tony Perrie.

A reader notified us today that’s a new development regarding plans to demolish the Elbo Room and build a new 5-story condo project. The project’s sponsors Kerman and Morris architects are holding a pre-application meeting next week.

Owner Matt Shapiro stated in February that the Elbo Room has no intention of closing down and these project plans are simply preliminary. Shapiro owns only the bar and not the building. While Socketsite has reported that details plans for the project have been drafted, this project has yet to be approved by the Planning Department.

“Whether they get approval from the city and how long it will take is really anyone’s guess,” wrote Shapiro in an email to Mission Local on Monday. “The one thing that is definite is our lease goes for another year.”

A pre-application meeting is a required piece of community outreach for projects of a certain size. According to the Planning Department, the “meeting’s intention is to initiate neighbor communication and identify issues and concerns early on.” Given the number of dismayed comments from readers when we first reported of the Elbo Room’s potential closure, we imagine there might be one or two concerns raised on the pre-application meeting. This is the Mission, after all.

The meeting will be on November 6 at 6 p.m. at the Mission Station Community Room.

We’ll update this post with more details as warranted.

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Daniel Hirsch is a freelance writer who has been living in the Mission since 2009. When he's not contributing to Mission Local, he's writing plays, working as an extra for HBO, and/or walking to the top of Bernal Hill.

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7 Comments

  1. Another dive bites the dust…. maybe you can find a better dive in Modesto ? After all you think anything new is “boring”, might as well leave the city now…..

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  2. That building was always a dive for decades/eons. And it seemed as though that LL didn’t care. I’m sure whatever replaces it will look nicer, seriously.

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  3. Where were all the Mission progressives when the Dovre Club was getting evicted from the Women’s Building? Oh yeah, they were the ones doing the evicting. I have no sympathy.

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  4. The Mission is soo cool and funky and edgy. Let’s destroy the cool buildings, drive out locals, dissolve the culture and put in new boring buildings, and cocktail lounges……???!!!

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  5. Seriously, what’s left??? Hmm, let’s see…

    Great bars: Casanova, Dalva, Kilowatt, Delirium, Elixir, ABV, Mosto…

    Great music venues: Amnesia, VIracocha, Brick & Mortar, The Chapel…

    Don’t get me wrong; I’d hate to see Elbo Room go, but we’ve also seen some damned fine additions to the neighborhood lately. I’d put Vestry/Chapel at the top of the list.

    To every thing, turn, turn, turn…

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  6. Very very sad to read this. The Elbo Room is one of the last interesting places left on Valencia Street. I’m very sad to hear another great local business may close and be replaced by an extremely ugly condo (presumably for rich people?). I wish the owners very much luck in fighting this – I hope they will. I’m so sick of seeing all the best things in this neighborhood disappear.

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