The Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center’s location at 348 Precita Avenue is up for sale and the arts organization is teaming up with the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) to make a bid on the property.
If they are able to buy it, the center on the ground floor and the upstairs tenants would be able to remain in place.
Precita Eyes owns its primarily location at 2981 24th St, where its popular mural tours of the Mission begin. Its Precita Avenue location serves as a studio and community center.
MEDA’s Karoleen Feng, Director of Community Real Estate, said the organization is hoping to put in a market-competitive offer for the property on Precita Avenue. The owners are asking for $995,000. MEDA would pay for the building over the course of three years using a seller’s note and a first mortgage from a private lender. It also plans to crowd fund some of the purchase price.
The San Francisco Community Land Trust would take an advisory role in the acquisition, helping MEDA explore different models of organizing tenants. Tenants would form a limited equity cooperative if the building is purchased by a non-profit.
Precita Eyes Mural Arts first opened its arts center on Precita in 1977 and is the oldest tenant in the building. Two of the three residential tenants in the units above have lived in the building for decades, and the third for six years.