Kaiser Permanente is gearing up for a major redo of its San Francisco presence along the Geary corridor, rolling out plans for a 14-story, all-electric hospital tower with roughly 300 private beds directly across from its long-standing Geary campus. If the project clears city and state review, Kaiser would consolidate inpatient care into a roughly 623,000-square-foot facility and convert its existing 1954-era hospital into medical office space. Kaiser officials say the current Geary hospital would stay open throughout construction, and they are pitching the project as a boost for construction jobs and business activity in the Anza Vista stretch of Geary and Divisadero.
What Kaiser is proposing
The concept calls for a new hospital that would include an expanded emergency department and a parking garage at 350 St. Joseph’s Ave, replacing a Kaiser medical office building and two existing parking garages on the site. The new tower is sketched at about 14 stories and roughly 623,000 square feet, a sizable jump from the current hospital’s roughly 367,000 square feet and nine stories. Perkins & Will is serving as the architect on the concept, and Kaiser says the project would be its third all-electric hospital, following similar efforts in San Jose and Sacramento, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Timeline and messages from Kaiser
Kaiser has told nearby residents it plans to submit formal proposals to the Planning Department by the end of May and is targeting public hearings and approvals in the first half of 2028. Construction is slated to start in the second half of 2028, with potential completion around 2033. “We’re at the beginning of the beginning,” Abhishek Dosi, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser’s Golden Gate Service Area, told neighbors at a community meeting. Reactions in the room were split. Some residents warned that a 14-story tower could throw long shadows and alter wind and greenery at street level, while others argued the project would finally put underused lots to better work. Those project details and community comments were reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The campus today
Kaiser’s San Francisco Medical Center at 2425 Geary Blvd. is currently a nine-story campus with 239 licensed beds, according to state facility records. The existing Geary hospital opened in 1954 and covers roughly 367,000 square feet. Under the new plan, inpatient care would move into private rooms in the proposed tower, while outpatient and administrative services would shift into renovated space on the current campus. These operational details are documented in state records and Kaiser’s public materials, per the California Department of Health Care Access and Information and Kaiser Permanente.
Why it matters for neighbors
A project of this size is not a quick in-and-out. Large hospital developments trigger extended city and state review, and Kaiser has previously relied on Institutional Master Plans and community task forces to guide long-range campus changes. City planning documents note that seismic safety rules and long-term facility planning have pushed hospitals across the region to either overhaul older campuses or build replacements, which is a big reason health systems keep rolling out major capital projects. The city’s planning materials on Kaiser’s campus layout offer additional background on how this fits into the broader medical landscape. As Kaiser files formal plans with the Planning Department and state regulators, neighbors and city officials will get more detailed information, and the public will have its say during environmental review hearings.
Next steps
For now, Kaiser’s proposal remains a concept on paper. The organization says it expects to file its formal application by the end of May. If the application is accepted, environmental review and public hearings would follow. Residents and other stakeholders will have multiple chances to weigh in as the project moves through the permitting process toward the targeted 2028 approvals timeline.
