After roughly a decade of stop-and-go planning, the long-anticipated remake of the former UCSF Laurel Heights campus is finally inching toward real construction. Prado Group’s Presidio Highlands, at 3333 California Street, is slated to turn the quiet hilltop site into a park-focused mixed-use neighborhood with hundreds of homes, ground-floor shops, and a large childcare center. If current schedules hold, the developer anticipates vertical construction to commence in late 2026.
What the project will include
According to Prado Group, the 10.27-acre site is entitled for up to 744 residential units and about five acres of publicly accessible open space. Plans call for senior housing on site, a sizable childcare facility, and roughly 35,000 to 49,000 square feet of community-serving retail and restaurant space meant to bring new life to Laurel Village. Prado’s materials also highlight new pedestrian links and landscaping intended to stitch the formerly walled-off campus back into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Timeline and first phase
The initial phase, marketed as Presidio Highlands, will total roughly 152 homes across three buildings, and construction permits were pulled in December, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Prado Group told the paper it is fully entitled and expects to start vertical work in late 2026, a milestone that would finally put shovels in the ground on a site that has sat mostly idle for years. The first phase also includes new retail along California Street and a public plaza that nearby residents have been requesting for a long time.
Source: Prado Group
How the city unlocked the site
Momentum picked up after the Board of Supervisors' budget committee advanced two special tax districts that allow developers to use future property tax increments to cover upfront costs for utilities, streets, parks and affordable housing. City legislation and meeting records establishing an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District for the 3333 and 3700 California Street area, along with a parallel district for Stonestown, are laid out in San Francisco’s Legistar. The resolutions also authorize the city to seek judicial validation of the financing plans, a standard legal step for new tax districts. Supporters say the mechanism is designed to close the financing gap that has stalled many of San Francisco’s larger projects.
Source: Prado Group
Where this fits in San Francisco’s housing push
The city’s 2022 Housing Element requires San Francisco to plan for about 82,069 new homes by 2031, according to the San Francisco Planning Department. Large developments such as Presidio Highlands and the Stonestown master plan make up a crucial slice of that pipeline, although the city still faces a steep gap between what is on paper and what is likely to be built. Recent coverage has noted that mega projects collectively represent a major part of any rebound in housing production. The San Francisco Chronicle also reports that the Stonestown tax district would cover roughly $438 million in public improvements, underscoring how much public infrastructure money is tied to these big redevelopments.
Source: Prado Group
Neighbors, trees and next steps
Neighborhood reaction has been mixed. Many residents and nearby institutions have welcomed the promise of new childcare, shops, and neighbors, while others have raised alarms about tree removals and the overall scale of change, concerns first aired during earlier hearings and covered in detail by Hoodline when large-scale tree removals were proposed for the site. Reporting over the last two years has also followed Prado’s broader strategy to convert idle medical campuses into housing, framing 3333 California as part of a broader shift in development activity on the city’s west side.
With permits now pulled and the financing tools in place, the project is headed into pre-construction and site preparation. Both city and developer timelines currently point to late 2026 as the earliest window when major construction activity will finally hit this long-dormant corner of Laurel Heights.
