With just weeks to go before its Planning Commission hearing—and an appeal over LGBTQ historic grounds on the table—developer Group i is bulking up the pool of community benefits it will offer if it receives approval to construct a major condominium, hotel and retail complex at 950-974 Market St.

The Chronicle now reports that the developer, which also owns (and recently restored) the Warfield building, is in the process of purchasing the surface parking lot at 180 Jones St. in the Tenderloin for $4 million.

Rather than setting 37 (15 percent) of its 242 proposed Market Street condos aside for affordable housing, as originally proposed, Group i is proposing to gift the Tenderloin parcel to the Mayor's Office of Housing, to build 68 affordable studios.

In addition to the land grant, Group i would pay $14.8 million in affordable housing fees, $2 million more than required by law. According to the Chronicle, that would still leave the city $2 million short on constructing the studios at 180 Jones.

If Group i's development plan is approved with this revision, 50 percent of the Jones Street studios would be available to renters making $30,000 (40 percent of the area median income) and the other half would be set aside for renters earning $45,000 (60 percent of AMI). By comparison, the original affordable housing plan for the project proposed offering 15 percent of the condos to individuals earning $60,000 a year (80 percent of AMI).

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim helped broker the deal, which mirrors the one she helped push through for another Mid-Market developer, Shorenstein Residential, this summer.

A 100 percent affordable complex with units at lower price tags will likely appeal to many neighborhood residents heading to the Oct. 27th Nov. 3rd public hearing. But it looks like the new deal won't alter the position of activist Brian Basinger, who is set to argue an appeal that the project would destroy buildings that once housed now-closed gay bars and contributed to the neighborhood's LGBTQ history.