Welcome to Mission Moves! This originally reported roundup reports on newsy Mission moves and happenings. Send tips and curious questions to annika.hom@missionlocal.com.
Hi, friends,
I’ve been out sick, but lately there’s been a lot to talk about! Like, literally … a parking lot. And the 16th St. Mission BART Station site. And the Muni bus yard. Together, these proposed plans could bring more than 1,100 units of housing, and much for seniors and families. But I know — you were hooked at “parking lot,” right? Who wouldn’t be? So, let’s get this show on the road!
More waiting for the Marvel in the Mission
Years following the *official* slaying of the so-called Monster in the Mission, a separate and familiar beast emerges: A slow development process.
Last November, the city officially acquired the site at 1979 Mission St. from developer Crescent Heights. In case you forgot, locals dubbed the site the Monster in the Mission after the former developer, Maximus Real Estate Partners, wanted to erect a 330-unit project with only 50 affordable units. The city’s 2021 acquisition, in large part thanks to community advocacy and sunken Maximus plans, inspired hopes of a 100-percent affordable housing project in its place, called the Marvel in the Mission. Maybe it was the gaudy gravestones bemoaning 469 Stevenson St., or J.K. Dineen’s recent reference to the Monster in a Related deal, but I started thinking about the Marvel. I wanted an update.
The city will start the process of choosing a developer for the Marvel next spring, Anne Stanley, the Mayor’s Office of Community Development wrote in an emailed statement to Mission Local. From there, a developer could be chosen by next summer, Stanley added.
While 1979 Mission St. was praised by supes last year for its conversion from market-rate to 331 units of 100-percent affordable housing, one has to wonder when low-income folks will be able to move in. So far, the site has gone unused for nine years, and the city’s reputation for slow construction could put it off longer. Still, local developers have been eyeing it ever since the city acquisition. Until construction, however, it remains a whole lot of nothing.
And what about that Muni Yard development?
On the plus side, the bus yard is wheeling along. The Muni Potrero Bus Yard project that promises 575 affordable units at Bryant and Mariposa streets is still a long way from its final destination.
In 2017, the city picked Potrero Yard to be the first of a group of Muni sites that would be renovated to the tune of $2.3 billion. Still, this November, the city has just tapped its developer, signaling that construction is a long way away, according to a San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency document. “Substantial completion” is expected by 2027.
The housing project is divided into four aspects. Three of the buildings are earmarked for those earning 80 percent of the area median income or less, which equals $77,600 for an individual, and $110,850 for a family of four. Facing Bryant Street will be a 96-unit project for seniors, and towering above the yard are two housing projects consisting of 90 to 100 units that will be go to families.
Capping the project is affordable housing slated for moderate-income earners between 81 and 120 percent of the area median income; a welcome boost, considering that the city lacks most in moderate housing development. Plans for 280 moderate-income units are in the works, an amount practically equal to the previous three buildings’ lower-income unit count. An individual and a family of four who make 120 percent area median income earn $116,400, and $166,250, respectively.
Simultaneously, the plan dictates the aged, three-story Muni facilities get rehabbed.
The affordable housing developers attached to the project are familiar ones: Young Community Developers, and the neighborhood’s own Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). The rest of the team includes Presidio Development Partners, LLC and Tabernacle Community Development Corp. Plenary Americas U.S. holdings will provide equity, the document said.
From Sears to seniors
What of the elders who prefer to live on the edge? The edge of the Mission, I mean.
Nonprofit Sequoia Living bought the former Sears Roebuck parking lot at 3435 Cesar Chavez St. near Valencia Street to develop senior housing, according to a press release. The project straddles Mission and Bernal Heights, and what’ll go up there? Drum roll, please.
On the north side of the site, we have 130 senior units, developed by storied senior nonprofit developer Sequoia Living. Andddd, as first reported by the Associated Press, on the south side of the parcel, we have the 145 units slated for families, created by well-known affordable housing developer Mercy Housing.
Dave Latina, Sequoia Living’s Chief Business Development Officer, called the site an “ideal” place to develop in the release. “Besides being convenient to public transportation, it is within walking distance to a hospital, shops, markets and parks,” Latina said.
Indeed, the location is close to the Sutter Health California Medical Pacific Center Mission and Bernal campus. Now you just need a restaurant with an early-bird special, and you’re all set.
How affordable are these places really? At a recent meeting about 730 Stanyan (the old Mcdonalds at Stanyan and Haight) I learned that minimum incone is $29,000 dollars for a 1 person: not do-able for seniors in need
I thought many of the affordable housing rent was based on the income and so would be subsidized by the government to keep rent between 1/3 and 1/2 of income or lower. it would defeat the purpose of creating affordable housing and then take so much of the income that no one who qualifies to live there can afford the rent.