San Francisco city officials got an extra year since Safeway first announced its intention to close its Fillmore location, the neighborhood’s only full-service grocery store.
But the store closed last month, its pharmacy shutters on Friday, and the city is no closer to a plan for meeting the community’s demands.
At a hearing Monday, rookie District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said he wants to “right the wrongs of the past” and move quickly to fill the historically Black and immigrant-populated neighborhood’s need, but officials from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Planning Department, and Human Rights Commission indicated today that it could take years to get a new store on-site.
Many of those officials who spoke struggled to answer basic questions from Mahmood about the site, its status, and its history.
Representatives from Safeway, which owns the property, were not present at Monday’s hearing of the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee.
Safeway intends to sell the 3.68 acre lot on Fillmore near Geary Boulevard for a mixed-use residential and retail development.
Last year, the grocery chain had initially announced the store’s imminent closure within two months. But, after public outcry and discussions with city leaders, Safeway agreed to remain open until 2025. The 94115 zip code, where the store is located, is home to more than 30,000 residents, about 4,000 of whom are “critically low income,” according to Cissie Bonini, the chair of the city’s Food Security Task Force, who spoke today.
Board chambers were filled with residents and activists demanding action from the newly elected Mahmood. At the end of the hearing, many expressed frustration with the lack of answers or solutions.
“Someone needs to be accountable, and right now I don’t think anyone’s actually accountable,” said one public commenter.
Daniel Landry, a community organizer on the African American Reparations Advisory Committee, said the hearing was unhelpful without Safeway present.
”You can’t work with or negotiate with someone who’s not at the table,” Landry said.
Safeway still owns the land, and has been shutting down operations since last month. The current status of the development is unclear; no planning applications have been filed for the lot and no permits have been pulled.
A spokesperson for Safeway told Mission Local that its agreement with the developer still stands, and the company anticipates an “exciting proposal.” Align Real Estate, the site’s expected buyer, did not respond to a request for an update on the status of the sale or development.
Neither company was called to the hearing by Mahmood, who organized it. Throughout the hearing, speakers from different city departments said they, too, were unsure what was going on with the site.
Mahmood told Mission Local that he has been trying to get in contact with Safeway since taking office, but that he has not yet met with the company. The hearing, he said, was just “the first step” toward transparency and considering options.
Diana Ponce de Leon, the Director of Community Economic Development of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, said the city is considering short-term solutions, like increasing food giveaways alongside local nonprofits. But nothing is concrete. The Human Rights Commission, which held town hall meetings over the past year and has been in “open discussions” with Safeway, still has no solid plans on uses for the parking lot.
In the meantime, the city has been providing residents information about getting deliveries from pharmacies, Ponce de Leon said, and the Municipal Transportation Agency can provide shuttles and taxi discounts for seniors and disabled people to access grocery stores and pharmacies.
Bringing in another grocer to the location could take a long time, according to Rachel Tanner from the Planning Department. Even if Safeway were to temporarily lease the land to another chain grocery store, for example, the permitting process could take up to 18 months.
Mahmood, for his part, told Mission Local that he will explore legislation to waive certain permits to allow faster leasing of spaces like the one in the Fillmore.
Community members, as well as former District 5 supervisor Dean Preston, have suggested the city use eminent domain law to take over the land and reclaim it. That process could take even longer, according to the city attorney’s office.
The Safeway lot and the Fillmore District have seen redlining and exclusionary practices push out Black and immigrant residents and businesses. Between the 1940s and 1970s, the city razed much of the neighborhood in the name of “redevelopment,” then blocked the neighborhood’s large Black population from buying land there, ultimately contributing to an exodus of Black people from the area.
Since there are no immediate solutions, residents are concerned that the soon-to-be-vacant building and lot could become a blight on the neighborhood.
Police have already struggled to get cooperation from Safeway to clear abandoned cars, tents, and rowdy people from the lot due to the land being private property. Northern Station Captain Jason Sawyer said there was a stabbing at the lot just a few days ago.
The company that owns the other half of the parking lot is already planning to fence off its portion, and has ramped up its own private security there, said Vallie Brown, the Human Rights Commission’s Director of Strategic Partnerships and a former District 5 supervisor.
Regardless of what happens after Safeway vacates its store, said Captain Sawyer, “We cannot just abandon and walk away from that parking lot.”
Hey guys let’s have a MEETING.
Everyone will be there — oops except the people who are the whole reason why we’re MEETING. I guess we’ll just have to have another MEETING!
Kill them with meetings so we can do what we want with the r3ql estate. Bwah ha ha.
The members of the neighborhood are why Safeway left. Maybe some self reflection is needed for them?
Now that is an ignorant and a racist remark.
Dean Preston was a big supporter of chessa (former DA) and his “don’t prosecute shoplifters” plan…. Now like Whole Foods in SOMA, Safeway is gone. Too much theft, too much crime.
Businesses don’t like disorder. They leave, and people who reply upon those businesses are the ones who lose out.
This is just what happens to the downtown retail core, but on a smaller scale.
Unfortunately, voters voted for people like Dean Preston, who caused this mess. It will take 10 years to dig out from the damage they caused.
P.s. and those same “progressive” folks have prevented Whole Foods from opening a store in city center (old sears store at Masonic and Geary)…curious if that now changes.
Isn’t Dean Preston the Supervisor who secured funding for the oasis at Stanyan & Haight which provided private tents, showers, laundry facilities, on-site social worker(s) & security to assist people to get back on their feet?
(I’m leaving multiple comments under my own name in response to various comments.
I hope that Mission Local will find it in its heart not to zap my comments.)
yeah i’m sure the fake neuroscientist bilal will save the day. i hope you can hear the eyeballs rolling into the back of my skull since he is a liar.
Get a clue.
RLE: Thank you for demonstrating the great depth of thought of our progressive class.
People !! Safeway is Pure Evil !! Please do not shop at Safeway !! Go to Trader Joe’s or anywhere else !! That Safeway has Always been Horrible as is the One at Church and Market !! Safeway took over the Andronico’s in my Neighborhood and It is Equally HORRIBLE !! I won’t Shop there anymore !! Safeway is THE WRONG WAY !! Let them go, Good Riddance !!
The Fillmore, Japantown, Western Addition and Tenderloin relied on the Fillmore Safeway as their affordable grocery store for 4 decades.
The neighborhood is at a crossroads, and the looming closure threatens to push it in the wrong direction. Ensuring that the community has an essential grocery store should be a top priority — not just for the Fillmore community, but for the city’s commitment to equitable access to basic services.
For Safeway’s owner, Cerberus Capital Management, an NYC-based private equity firm with $60 billion under management, the Fillmore store isn’t even a rounding error. For diverse neighbors in Western Addition, Japantown and the TL, the Fillmore Safeway is more than just a store; it’s a lifeline. In addition to reasonably priced fresh food inclusive of many cultures, the Fillmore Safeway provided banking services and a pharmacy. Seniors on fixed incomes, families juggling tight budgets, and individuals without easy access to private transportation relied on this Safeway and walked to it. The loss of this store creates a food desert in a neighborhood already grappling with economic disparities and gentrification and forces residents to travel further for groceries or rely on overpriced corner stores with limited selection.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Align Real Estate, the San Francisco-based developer in contract to buy the property from Safeway, plans to build 1000 housing units and retail at 1535 Webster, but has not committed to including an affordable grocery store. In the words of Supervisor Dean Preston in a letter to Mayor London Breed: “Such a development would be unaffordable to nearly all residents of the neighborhood, and could compound years of gentrification and displacement.” Furthermore, Align Real Estate is unlikely to build anything there until interest rates come down. It’s easy to imagine they will fence the property and post armed guards to patrol it for the next several years, further endangering and harming local communities. Remember how Safeway acquired the site: for a pittance after forced urban removal and then redlining. Shameful then. Shameful now.
Cerberus is a hedge fund with $88b in assets under management (Whale Wisdom), and $3.46b in managed 13f securities — the disproportion meaning they’ve got a lot going on aside from private/public equity. Cerberus owns controlling interest in Albertsons, around 30%.
Cerberus does not care one iota about SF squawking. The failed Albertsons/Kroger merger sheds light on how they operate. Cerberus is looking to exit Albertsons (Safeway) and will strip the company of assets and saddle it with debt. The disclosure required for the proposed merger showed how they planned to pay $4b in dividends to shareholders ahead of the merger, despite having $2.5b cash in hand. Smooth, right? It’s called a “dividend recap.”
Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus is a gun nut who turned Remington Arms into AR-15 juggernaut, then put them out of business. But hey, who doesn’t love a billionaire gun nut? Could be Trump made Feinberg our Deputy Secretary of Defense.
This is what is getting lost in most of the discussion, the controlling interests in this closure do not care and further will never have direct contact with anyone who advocates for the neighborhood. Bilal, Lurie, the Reverend and countless others who may actually have compassion and concern for the community won’t ever even get within 6 degrees of separation to the decision makers. SF did fend off international corporate development interests for a few decades longer than some cities but the capitulation to the influence of development and tech interests has decimated the connection between local influence and decisions like this. SF is another line item on a balance sheet of global investments.
Newbie Mahmood only scheduled the hearing after local residents from the Fillmore, Japantown, Western Addition and the Tenderloin demanded an emergency hearing. Mahmood arranged for various city department admins to present but none of them could answer specific questions to do with the devastating impact on local folks and +3500 seniors; no groceries, no meds, no banking. City reps offered zero specifics about plans for current, mid or long term activation of the site. After the sock puppet show, a diverse and angry group of over 50 concerned community members spoke during Public Comment. All agreed: for +40 years, Safeway has been a terrible neighbor. No reps from Safeway or Align Real Estate in the People’s House today. Why not? This AM, KGO local newscaster Kristen Sze reported that “a private developer at Align Real Estate wants to turn it [the site]into a market rate development.” Some nasty, dirty back room dealing is going on here. And now people are even more angry and engaged. Stay tuned.
Who the hell is gonna pay market rate where they can’t even keep a grocery store open?
The grocery store itself was not paying market rate, notably.
If the store could not even make money on that basis, then clearly it was not economically viable at a market rent either.
Who says the store didn’t make a profit? Show me where it says that or you made it up.
Duh. It’s by design. Cerberus Capital Investments bought Safeway in 2015. They have been running Safeway stores into the ground ever since. Don’t blame the community; they don’t own the store and land and don’t make management decisions.
“No reps from Safeway or Align Real Estate in the People’s House today. Why not?”
Because from their perspective there was no reason to attend. The store is already closed, it is not reopening, and the site will be sold. It’s a fait accompli.
And who wants to show up to a rowdy mob to get yelled at? The store closed because it was not economically viable. And how many of those at the meeting were willing to put in their own money to subsidize operations?
None.
You’ve seen the financials proving it lost money, then? No. You’re taking a claim at face value and running with it.
If the developer builds 1,000 units of housing, then somewhere between 20%-30% would be low income units. So the new development should include 200-300 units that are reserved for people making less than 50% median income, and some up to 80% median income. It’s also in the developers interest to build space for a neighborhood grocery store (given the significant need in the area), but a company would have to want to move in. Given the fact that another store hasn’t already stepped up to fill the gap left by Safeway closing, it’s hard to say if that would happen. But odds are that a new development would have a trader joes or whole foods.
A few hundred low income apartments are great for the neighborhood, but it’s going to be rough until those are built, which is at least 4-5 years away from leasing.
Supervisor Mahmood: “Let them eat Instacart!”
Naming a hedge fund after the Hound of Hades is too appropriate. I did not realize how much some neighborhoods were deprived until moving to BVHP where lack of decent groceries was just one of many incivilities. Before it closed, the local Safeway sold expired goods. The manager explained that expired food from other Safeways was sent there and it still lost money due to theft. After it closed everyone begged for a grocer. The SF Produce Market was there, but only for wholesale. Supervisor Maxwell convened public meetings and cajoled property developers, but city staff kept repeating that demographics were “unfavorable” for retailers. Were we too poor for exploitation?
My mom live close to Safeway. Now she needs to go further to get any food…. can anyone help to put some stores to get better food for senior living people and low income people please?
Thank you
Hello, has your mom tried the new Trader Joe’s at the corner of Fulton and Laguna? You can shop affordably there. I believe there is also a parking garage at the facility if you shop by car. Good luck!
Hard to imagine Safeway leasing to competition. I wouldn’t be surprised if they include a deed restriction in the sale that stipulates no grocery store as surely they are hoping to retain many customers at the nearby location.
Markets are failing San Franciscans, unable to provide life essentials such as grocery and medications as Safeway and Walgreens nationwide closings are creating food and med deserts in San Francisco.
San Francisco needs to take a page from the Community Land Trust and work to capitalize grocery and med coops and establish them in food and med deserts.
Hedge funds and Wall Street are not going to allocate capital to provide life essential needs to our neighbors, the margins are growing as thin as a twink on meth, so the government is going to have to step into the breach.
In addition to the savings from eliminating profit, it would be possible for the City to offer up partial subsidies to lower income residents at these coops for food and meds.
thats too bad, and what is unfortunate is that SF is not getting better
the momentum of the downward spiral is almost unrecoverable
The Fillmore Safeway always suffered from retail theft. It was unpleasant to shop there after the store installed transit station like turnstiles to enter, posted multiple security guards in store, barricaded all but one entrance (fire safety hazard much?), and locked up everything from alcohol to personal care items and even cleaning products. I shopped there for years, this is the truth. Last May, Trader Joe’s established a new store at the corner of Fulton and Laguna, which is only 2 blocks from the Fillmore Safeway. The prices are much better than Safeway’s ever were, and the shopping experience is peaceful. There are security outside and at the front doors, but sadly this seems to be what’s necessary at many San Francisco retailers these days. The neighborhood also has 2 farmers markets on weekends at the DMV lot on Fell and the Fillmore Center plaza. To say the neighborhood is a food desert is not accurate. The communities of the Western Addition and Hayes Valley waited 10 years for a another affordable grocery store to arrive, and Trader Joe’s finally filled the void. Finally, there are at least 2 churches I’ve observed in the neighborhood that have food distribution pantries on a regular basis.
I don’t understand the sense of crisis about Safeway leaving the Geary/Fillmore location. Trader Joe’s at Masonic and Geary is an 8 minute bus ride away on the #38. Lucky Supermarket is 17 minutes away on the #38 and #43. There are numerous smaller but not tiny grocery outlets, produce stores, etc nearby. And disabled or elderly residents can get paratransit options door to door. That is not to mention the many senior services and grocery run services that churches and non-profits can and do provide.
I find this whole issue a non-issue, one that various “activists” can grandstand about, but not much else.
I live in the neighborhood. While it’s understandably sad that residents of a nearby senior living center and the long-established community have lost a Safeway, it’s prices were not cheap, everything in the store was increasingly locked up, lots of shoplifting was happening, and the parking lot had several illegal vendors selling stuff from their cars. Last May, a new TraderJoe’s finally opened at Laguna and Fillmore, only several blocks from the Safeway lot. That TJ’s is bustling with shoppers and has several security people posted outside and in store. I have not seen any shoplifting there, and customers range from student types to workers, parents, and seniors. As far as food assistance, I used to see some group giving out food at a church just up from Safeway, and there is also food distributed by a nearby church on Pierce St. The neighborhood already has 2 small, weekend farmers markets on Fell and Fillmore, albeit quite expensive. Hopefully community leaders can help inform residents about these options and help facilitate transport or maybe shoppers for those who are less mobile.
Safeway should be brought up on charges. Red lining is against the law. I can remember when HUD came through the western district with the lies of upgrading the neighborhood for the betterment of the people. Instead many ppl. We’re trick out of their Victorian homes, never able to return to their neighborhood they helped build up in 40s. When HUD, got away with that lie of redevelopment. The ball was set in force to start moving people of color out of many neighborhoods in S.F. like the Bayview H.P. district another great thriving place where many Black Americans, had homes, businesses, just like the western district. Safeway, could have done alot more other than close down one of the main Safeway that has been a main stream for years. Many people who are now seniors, and six generations families, are now inconvenienced when it comes to grocery shopping, purchasing medications. Which Safeway will be next? Market and Church streets. People stay woke. As a native of S.F. for 74yrs. Truth be told Rev. A.Brown, it’s time to deal with Safeway, the way they are dealing with our communities. Sue them for discrimination. It’s plain and simple. And as far as losses, to the store. This isn’t the first time a big giant like this has gone through. This is just a easy escape for stores like Safeway, Macy’s, Etc.
brought up on charges ?
who does SF ever prosecute ?
Safeway is overpriced. A discount grocer and a division of that space into 2 or 3 other additional retailers might make more sense. Grocery Outlet?
What retailers? Lol. There’s not a lot out there willing and able to jump into even a carved up lot on a grocery store site.
Grocery Outlet is already saving a neighborhood from a Safeway abandonment in North Beach. Can’t expect them to bail us out every time…
North Beach is a long way from Fillmore… But there are other retailers that could get in there too if they saw a viable formula. Safeway stores are huge though and other smaller retailers probably can’t use all that big box space individually. It’s not my idea, this is actually proposed for other places big boxes have vacated. Smaller sq/fts, smaller operations, smaller rents, smaller budgets. You can do all that AND get cheaper food options than Safeway was selling, done right. Ever buy organic produce at Safeway? It’s like Mollie Stones, Whole Paycheck. They could do a rotating farmers market, they could do all kinds of things. I don’t think Safeway leaving has to be a disaster.
Shuttles & taxi vouchers are a reasonable measure, and what about establishing more Farmers’ Markets & food banks in the area??
Mission Local never has a plan, either, aside from sanctimonious finger-wagging.
ML showed up to the hearing that the supervisor called, and told us all what happened there. That’s a valuable service.
If you’re not interested in knowing about it, well — nobody’s making you read this site.
they’re a news outlet. go cry to bilal.
Nobody has a plan. It is a loss-making, low-margin store in a high-crime area. There is no plan because there can be no plan. The most valuable thing about that location is the off-street parking.
It’s actually not a high crime area, that’s just another fabrication.
well thats great
there must be a line forming to take that location and open a new and better grocery store, can we vote to approve the best candidate?
The browbeatings will continue until morale over having stores run over by petty theft improves.
I’m not sure that it’s mission local’s job to “have a plan”. Nor frankly is there a feasible plan at this point. The dye was cast in 2021-22 when retail theft (and the homeless in the area) got out of hand. Margins are tighter in the grocery Business with amazon taking much of the more profitable margin business, and rampant theft (and not wanting to deal with the homeless people) I am sure turned the store into a loss maker.
Sorry, business’s close loss making stores, and a city like San Francisco deserves it when they let crime and homelessness destroy the feasibility of making any money.
There was a year window to try to fix the problem (end the retail theft push away the homeless and try to figure out some replacement grocery if possible) but dean preston was not interested in anything but attacking business. So the window closed.
People without homes, without jobs, who turned to shoplifting occurred on Mayor Breed’s watch ,so now that London has been voted out, isn’t this also Mayor Lurie’s problem to solve –with business know-how?? Good luck, Lurie & Mahmood!
The entire city yearns to solve this complex situation & where there’s a will, there’s a way. What about sending a delegation, one that includes people who are homeless, to Reno &/or Sacramento to study how other cities solve their problem of homelessness meets hunger meets shoplifting meets substance abuse?
What about Safeway gives/leases part of the Safeway lot to agencies that teach unhoused people to build ther own tiny houses & learn carpentry skills?
What about community gardens?
This isn’t Aladdin or Les Miz. Too many crackheads were stealing steaks.
Other cities solve this by building housing and/or encouraging their homeless to come here. Drug tourists aren’t interested in job training.