The bright red building at 2567 Mission St., known as the Red Building, has hit the market for $7.2 million.
The building is owned by a shell company, 2567 Mission Street LLC. It’s controlled by Tom Van Loben Sels, who has managed properties for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta. The latter has owned several properties on Mission Street.
The true owner of the building — whose identity Marcus & Millicap, the real estate company handling the sale, declined to confirm — stands to gain more than triple their investment: The LLC purchased the building in 2012 for $1.665 million.
The three-story, mixed use building has, in the recent past, housed a variety of businesses: a bridal shop, an online privacy nonprofit and even a purported porn studio.
In 2017, Klatch Coffee, an upscale cafe franchise, attempted to set up shop in the building, but the process was slowed when the Mission Economic Development Agency appealed its proposed zoning change.
In its request, MEDA wrote that the cafe would “exacerbate the gentrification and cultural displacement problem” in the area. (Klatch, famously, offers a $75 cup of coffee.)
MEDA subsequently withdrew the appeal after Bo Thiara, the owner of Klatch’s other San Francisco outlet on Franklin Street, signed an agreement with a neighborhood coalition dictating the future Mission cafe’s decor, hiring practices, and price points.
Thiara declined to answer questions, but the cafe’s plans appear to be on course, despite the pending sale of the Red Building. Klatch Coffee signs are plastered on the building’s window, letting passersby know they are “coming soon.”
Knowing that Klatch gave in to MEDA, I will NEVER buy anything from them. Cannot reward Gestapo tactics.
What is up with the sadly butchered building at 18th & Mission that used to look like a giant stove (2205 Mission)?
I was asking about a DIFFERENT butchered building- the former stove store at 18th & Mission, stripped of its art deco facade & then abandoned. This & the hulk across the street from the New Mission Theater are the building equivalent of abandoned cars. How can it be legal to buy these buildings, start to deconstruct them, & then leave them to blight Mission Street?
By the way, take a look at the attractive facade on the MEDA headquarters at 24th & Capp–it used to be Flag Mama & Futbol Papa, now sports plywood covered windows, embellished with graffitti.
We’ve got you covered: https://missionlocal.org/2018/08/the-tales-of-two-once-grand-san-francisco-theaters-diverge/
JE
MEDA is now in the interior design business as well… forcing it’s aesthetic ideas onto new business as a prerequisite to open in the neighborhood? This is not normal.