2198 Market Street at Sanchez
An insider tipster has alerted the Biscuit that the large parcel of land located at the corner of Sanchez and Market next door to the Castro SFFD Station House #6, the historic 115 year old, Auguston Nordin designed, Swedish American Hall and Cafe Du Nord has been acquired in a long term lease by Greystar Development & Investment.
The land tract, 2198 Market Street, once the always bustling, family owned, Tom Fong Shell Gas Station and, in more recent years, has been home to the seasonal branch of Delancey Street Christmas Trees. If all goes according to plans this lot will be a massive, mixed use, new build sporting 85-87, condo/apartments in a variety of sizes and 4000 square foot retail space.
This blockbuster of a development would mark the fourth such new build in the works for the neighborhood. That translates into nearly 230 new, high market rate rent units between Sanchez and Castro on Market Street unfettered by rent control. Many residents have expressed real concerns about how all of these new buildings and the tenants who'll occupy them will affect the density, environment, quality of life, and limited parking in our already crowded Castro community.
According to current status the development hasn't allocated any low income or subsidized units within it's plan. Instead they're choosing to give money for off-site affordable housing that can be used at the discretion of the City. Developers have made vague references to building some sort of 'public use' parklet which is the trend of late throughout the City creating good will in the neighborhoods of the new build by offering green space. All of the rules and regulations for new builds, and specifically within Castro, can be found here in the City's Sec. 416: Market and Octavia Area Plan and Upper Market Neighborhood Commercial District Affordable Housing document.
Lease holder, Greystar, is a billion dollar investment group, national developer and property manager whose headquarters are in North Carolina. They have a satellite office in the Embarcadero to manage concerns throughout the Bay Area. Within the confines of the City they manage the 2nd largest apartment complex in California-and hotly debated reconstruction project-Sunset District's Parkmerced.
This development along with the other three in various stages of approval or build within the Castro has been championed by Supervisor Wiener and received his office's seal of approval.Note: This is a revision of my post from this morning. Biscuit readers were quick to point out some gross inaccuracies and missteps on my part-in particular erroneous accounts of the current state of the Parkmerced redevelopment plan and how it deals with current tenants. Also if developers create green space forgives them the mandated obligation of having low income units either on site or contributing to new, offsite low income units. Heres the link to the FAQ sheet Parkmerced has posted on for reference if anyone has questions or concerns. I was operating off of faulty information. Those items have been removed and correct information supplied. Apologies if this caused undue stress on our readers and thank you for your patience. -Waiyde
