A York Street warehouse, built in 1900, sold recently and its new owners hope to demolish it and build a six-unit residential project.
City documents show developers intend to remove the two-story structure and put up a three-story residential building at 1354-56 York St., between 25th and 26th streets.
The project’s contractor, Hamid Alaghemand, who owns the contracting company Area Development Inc., said 1354 and 1356 York St. will be located in the same building, but will be separate from each other. The ground floor will be a garage and an entrance that reserves one parking spot per unit.
That means the current warehouse will be knocked down, Alaghemand said. Passersby might have recognized the present warehouse by the spray-painted mural of green and blue cars on the garage. In 2010, the StreetSmARTs program commissioned artist Nico Berry to paint it and pay homage to the building’s history as a former mechanic’s shop and artist studio.
If all goes to plan, future residents of 1354-56 York St. will join an historic part of the Mission District. The building will be a stones’ throw away from the O’Donnell-Fowler Homes Historic District, which includes the row houses from 1328-46 York St. that were eligible for historic status based on their strange mix of architectural styles, as well as Richard Segovia’s famed Latin Rock House.
On June 6 at 6 p.m., developers will hold a pre-application meeting on Zoom to discuss the project with the community and present architectural plans. It’s the first of many Planning Department steps required to get a building constructed in San Francisco.
Community members are welcome to tune in and ask questions, Alaghemand said. For more information about the meeting, contact Alaghemand at hamid@areadevelop.com, or the Planning Department.
I have lived on this block since 1969 and it was never a mechanics shop although the previous owner stored his classic cars inside. I knew it as a working mattress sterilization company and even before that it was a cleaning and dyeing company. You can see the old sign for cleaning and dyeing company on the side of the building . The concerns of the neighbors on the block are is there any chemical leached into the dirt?
There used to be a huge rusted vat that was used for the chemicals.
This warehouse has been untouched due to all the chemicals that seeped into the ground while it sterilized mattresses. At that time there was no regulation with poisons chemicals. There is also a creek that runs underneath that if the dirt is moved it will spread all the way to the water. Affecting all our our fruit trees and everything we plant.
This is a horrible idea that the city is so desperate they will cover up all this mess just to build more. We understand the need for more housing but sacrificing all of our neighbors health is not the answer. One this block we have three avocados trees, several fig trees and lots of lemon and lime trees. This is a horrible idea. They have also set up a zoom meeting that is hard to access and most of our senior neighbors will not be able to log onto. This new owners have also started work without permits on something so sensitive. The new owners have also placed the permit so high the neighbors can’t read what is being done. Just drive by and see for yourself. Trying to keep all our neighbors in the dark, and make it as difficult as possible to join the meeting. So they can just build.
Sorry to see it go- I understand the need for housing, but I miss the disappearing industrial architecture in the neighborhood. That building in particular had a certain air of mystery about it. There are some pictures of the interior from it’s real estate listing: https://kenkwokteam.com/listings/1354-York-Street-San-Francisco-CA-94110-76405720 The vaulted brick rooms, which I’m guessing were related to the bleaching/dying processes used by the business that built the original structure, are pretty amazing. A seismic nightmare, but amazing!