Developments in Development is a “weekly” column recapping real estate, housing, planning, zoning and construction news. I don’t have much of a play-by-play housing-bubble update this week except that messages continue to be mixed: On one hand, housing prices are starting to plateau, and this is attributed by some analysts to increased supply. On the other, a UCLA study says...
First published on January 5, 2012 Tomorrow, the city will unveil a new park at 17th and Folsom streets at a 3:30 p.m. ceremony. It’s worth looking back at this piece Mission Local did in September 2011 to see how much 17th Street has changed in the last decade. The park adds green to a stretch of 17th Street that...
A temporary Navigation Center uniquely serving the Mission’s homeless population is set to open its doors on Monday and will come with bolstered police patrols near its location at 26th Street and South Van Ness Avenue, as well as a private security guard on site. “We will have private security – and not make it a large police presence at...
A historic and troubled property located at 2205 Mission Street at the intersection with 18th Street is for sale again after a deal with a commercial developer fell through. Its current owner, former Facebook executive Owen van Natta, is asking $7 million for the property according to the realtor for the property. He purchased it for $5 million in 2014....
Developments in Development is a “weekly” column recapping real estate, housing, planning, zoning and construction news. A year ago today, more than 50 tenants lost their homes in a fire that consumed several buildings and left others with serious damage at 29th and Mission streets. Here are a few updates on what has happened at those sites: First, Hillary Ronen...
Tenants rights groups rallied on the steps of City Hall on Monday to oppose what they say is a weak bill to curb owner move-in evictions. The bill introduced Supervisor Mark Farrell, they argue,undermines a much stronger competing bill introduced by Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim. Under current law, landlords are permitted to evict their tenants if they or...
Developments in Development is a “weekly” column recapping real estate, housing, planning, zoning and construction news. When it comes to affordability, San Francisco is facing a tricky balancing act. Planners are making an effort in one illustrative case to make it clear to a developer who wants to replace a building on Mission Street with condos will face serious scrutiny...
Along with legislative solutions to curtail real estate speculation and luxury developments a tenant forum on Wednesday night stressed that community resistance and engagement are key to halting displacement. “There are speculators who come in with a lot of money to get us out,” said Alicia Sandoval, a counselor with the Housing Rights Committee referring to a 27 percent decrease...
Update: Bernalwood reports Cole Hardware is in talks with the landlord about possibly returning to their former location when a new building is constructed. Condos may replace the burned-out space on Mission Street that previously housed Cole Hardware. The preliminary plans submitted to the city call for a five-story building with eight apartments over a ground-floor commercial space. Eight parking spaces and 16...
New housing units will soon replace the abandoned sausage factory at 1726 Mission Street. The San Francisco Planning Commission approved plans Thursday evening for a six-story, 40-unit building on the block of Mission street between 14th and Duboce streets that will include 20 one-bedroom and 20 two-bedroom units, car and bike parking spaces and a ground floor largely dedicated to...
Developments in Development is a “weekly” column recapping real estate, housing, planning, zoning and construction news. If you build more below-market-rate projects, by all means, build it bigger, the Board of Supervisors told developers this week. HOME SF, a law that gives market-rate developers permission to build higher in exchange for adding affordable housing on-site, was passed 10-1 by the...
In its layout, aesthetic and on-site services, the new housing complex planned for 16th and Folsom streets will be geared emphatically toward housing families. Up until 2008, the site operated as the shipping warehouse for a large-scale bakery. Representatives for the developers, the Mission Economic Development Agency and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, as well as the architect and landscaper, told...
Despite the general knowledge that bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace, graffiti abatement notices seem to arrive with lightning speed. For the second time, one city department has issued a warning to another department to clean up a lot at 16th Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Last year, it was for a blighted lot, and this year, it’s for graffiti. The...
A 77-year-old chronically ill woman living at 3309 Cesar Chavez Street is being evicted from the apartment she has lived in since 1969. While the tenant oscillates between the hospital and her apartment, lawyers argue over technicalities in a case that could leave her living on her daughter’s couch. The tenant, Ana Hernandez, suffers from a multiple respiratory conditions and...
Developments in Development is a “weekly” column recapping real estate, housing, planning, zoning and construction news. A source started an interview with me this week by saying “well, the planet is on fire, but otherwise fine.” So if you’re feeling firehosed by national-level bombshell coverage and haven’t had time to keep up with all of the details of what’s happening,...
