It made perfect sense when, in 2015, a construction company named Shangri-La Builder Inc. bought the dilapidated parking lot at 4805 Mission St. and began to build a five-story building — apartments and ground-floor retail — on the site.
The spot is a prime location in the Excelsior, right on the corner of Russia Avenue and Mission, less than a 10-minute walk away from grocery stores, restaurants and the neighborhood library.
What makes less sense is why, 4805 Mission still isn’t finished, more than a decade later.
The building looks tantalizingly close to completion. Its apartments and retail space appear ready to move into, at least from the outside. It has windows, balconies and what seems to be a roof deck with panoramic views of the city.
But it’s had all of this since at least 2021.
In fact, 4805 Mission has declined since then. The windows on the ground-floor retail space, once covered with paper, are now barricaded behind a wall of plywood that has been covered in layers of graffiti and peeling advertisements. Places where the building has been tagged have been covered with mismatched paint, giving it a patchwork appearance.
Neighbors call it an eyesore. Some have been filing complaints for years.
“4805 Mission Street has been a blighted property for at least 10 years,” one resident wrote to the city in 2025. “The Excelsior neighborhood is tired of being a dumping ground for property owners who cause harm to our community.”
Recent developments indicate its long-overdue completion may yet be on the way. San Francisco’s Department of Public Works last month approved a Street Improvement Permit – worth $3,614 — authorizing Shamrock Engineering Concrete, a San Francisco-based construction company contracted by Shangri-La Builder Inc., a Dublin-based construction company in the East Bay, to reconstruct the sidewalk, curb, gutter, and curb ramps along the building, and to cut two new vehicle entrances into the curb, a small but necessary step to bring the building into ADA compliance.
District 11 supervisor Chyanne Chen, whose district includes the Excelsior, said that her office is aware of the situation at 4508 Mission and has been “actively tracking this project.” “We all want to see the building completed with new homes, local businesses and a safe, welcoming street level,” said Chen.
But the blight of 4805 Mission long predates Chen, who only took office in January 2025.
Liming Liu, CEO of Shangri-La Builder Inc., did not respond to a request for comment. Former District 11 supervisors Ahsha Safaí and John Avalos, who both represented the neighborhood during the decade-plus of construction, also have not replied.
City records show a long, slow attempt to pressure Shangri-La into completing construction. Since July 2015, 4805 Mission has received 26 complaints to the Department of Building Inspection, describing the building as “a source of chronic blight” and a “health hazard.”
These complaints resulted in six hearings and seven orders of abatement — a legal directive that can be issued by the Department of Building Inspection or other city agencies when building or housing violations remain unresolved after a notice of violation was issued.
Those orders of abatement, which date back to July 2022, describe 4805 Mission as “an unsafe building or a public nuisance.”
At none of the hearings was the owner, or a representative of the owner, present.
Shangri-La Builder Inc. was ordered to register 4805 Mission as a vacant or abandoned commercial storefront and building for a fee of $711, according to its first valid order of abatement in July 2022, facing a penalty of nearly $2,844 if ignored. That registration fee went up to $818 and penalty fee hiked up to $3,272 in 2023. It remains unknown if Liu or anyone at Shangri-La Builder Inc. ever paid the fees.
After 2023, two more hearings were held about 4805 Mission — in December 2025 and February 2026. As was the case earlier, both hearings were unattended by Liu or any other representatives at Shangri-La Builder Inc. On Feb. 10, 2026, the building department cited the building as an “unsafe structure” with an outstanding penalty of $6,764.
‘I just don’t understand how it could sit that long’
To neighbors of 4805 Mission, the building has become a symbol of neglect the neighborhood feels by the city.
Patricia Barraza, who has lived in the Excelsior since 1979, has watched the building rise, stall, and sit unfinished for years.
“It’s just been an eyesore,” said Barraza. She’s taken matters into her own hands, and tried to contact Shangri-La Builder Inc. on her own, and gotten no response. “It seems really annoying, at least for those of us that live there and have to pass by every day.”
“I just don’t understand how it could sit that long,” said Julie Clima who has had a front-row seat to the stalled construction as the manager of the Italian American Social Club, which sits directly across Russian Avenue from the building. She has never seen the owner of the building on site, she said. “It’s just crazy.”
Tom Murphy, who oversees the Jerry Day festival in McLaren Park and owns property in the area, agreed.
“It’s an absolute eyesore,” said Murphy, who said he watched the building fester for years. “And it’s not fair to all the businesses around there and all the other property owners around there.”
“If you put this on any other corridor,” he said. “it would not have been overlooked for so long.”