A group associated with tech investor Neil Mehta and his partner Cody Allen has purchased the building at 2035-2047 Fillmore St. for around $8.6 million, according to city records, adding yet another storefront to Mehta's growing footprint on the corridor. The building once housed Aquatalia, A-Pizza, and Mio, and has sat largely empty since 2022.
Built in 1926, the property is considered an intact example of Mediterranean Revival commercial architecture, with leaded glass transom windows and rope-molded Corinthian columns, according to SF Cultural Heritage. Before it hit the market for $8 million in August 2022, the first time in more than 50 years, the building had served as home to its owner's Japanese mochi confection factory. The latest purchase was first reported by The New Fillmore, and per that outlet's account, the vacant storefronts are expected to be combined to house a single restaurant.
The building's future is complicated by an ongoing historic-landmark review. In June, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution extending by 90 days the deadline for the Historic Preservation Commission to evaluate formal landmark designation for the 2035-2047 Fillmore St. storefronts, according to SF Quorum. That designation could make any renovation or reconfiguration of the space more difficult, according to the San Francisco Standard, which first reported on this latest acquisition.
A Growing Fillmore Portfolio
Mehta, a venture capitalist and founder of Greenoaks Capital, has now spent tens of millions of dollars buying seven other properties along the corridor, per the Standard's reporting. His purchases have already displaced a Starbucks and an Alice + Olivia store, both of which moved out of buildings he acquired. He has dubbed the overall plan the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project, and has written that his motivation is to restore and revitalize the neighborhood where he grew up and still lives.
The financial structure behind that project traces back to Aegis Reserve Partners LP, a Las Vegas-registered investment vehicle where Cody Allen serves as executive officer. SEC filings from January 2024 show the fund raised $100 million in private capital from a single investor, later identified as Mehta, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records. In an April 2025 podcast interview, Mehta said he had been buying Upper Fillmore properties at capitalization rates around 5.25% and re-leasing them to mom-and-pop tenants at roughly 3% cap rates while funding their tenant improvements himself, calling it a financially irrational for-profit model, one reason he said he structured the initiative as a non-profit alongside Allen, per The New Fillmore.
Michelin-Starred Chefs Move In
Two prominent culinary names are already lined up for other Mehta-controlled spaces. Chef Pim Techamuanvivit, founder of Michelin-starred Kin Khao and Nari, announced plans this month to open a Thai noodle restaurant, tentatively called Khao Soi Ya, in the former 2222 Fillmore St. Starbucks space, according to SFist. Separately, chefs Junsoo and Hyunyoung Bae of Michelin-starred SSAL are opening an upscale Korean barbecue restaurant called Monami in Mehta's 2001 Fillmore St. property this fall, a build-out that required second-floor office tenants there to vacate in late April.
According to the San Francisco Business Times, as cited in the Standard's report, Michelin-starred chefs plan to open two restaurants on the corridor as part of the broader project. Mehta has also acquired the Clay Theater, which has been out of commission since early 2020, and the revitalization project plans an extensive renovation of the century-old venue, building on the historic landmark status the Clay received in a status Hoodline covered back in 2022.
Mixed Reactions From Merchants
Reaction along the corridor is split. Tim Omi, president of the Fillmore Merchants Association, said the previously empty space should be worked on, and told the Standard that the general sentiment within the merchants association is positive, adding that he believes concerns about Mehta's plan have been overblown. Omi also said the revitalization project has upheld its commitment not to bring in chain stores.
Not everyone shares that optimism. Isabella Uperesa, an employee at Freda Salvador on Fillmore Street, said Mehta's expansion feels icky. Mehta's 2024 purchases had already sparked fears of a hostile takeover that could displace beloved businesses in the neighborhood, and the backlash intensified after family-owned Japanese restaurant Ten-Ichi closed following a lease buyout after 46 years on the street, according to SFist. Ten-ichi moved out of a building Mehta had acquired.
Other longtime tenants have fared differently. La Méditerranée, a 45-year-old Mediterranean restaurant, was in talks on a longer-term lease and ultimately extended its lease through 2028, according to Omi. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors responded to the broader wave of displacement fears in October 2024 by unanimously approving emergency interim zoning controls authored by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, requiring Planning Commission conditional-use authorization before any Legacy Business open 30 years or more can be replaced or demolished.
Regulatory Hurdles Ahead
Any future tenant at 2035-2047 Fillmore St. will also have to reckon with San Francisco's Formula Retail Ordinance, which requires corporate retailers with 11 or more global locations to seek conditional-use authorization, a process that takes an average of seven months and can cost upwards of $25,000 in legal and consulting fees. That rule, layered atop the pending historic-landmark review and continued neighborhood scrutiny over gentrification and tenant retention, will shape what ultimately fills the storefronts once the building's Mediterranean Revival facade gets its next chapter.
Mehta's Fillmore ambitions predate the commercial buying spree. A trust linked to his Greenoaks Capital purchased a 115-year-old, 9-bedroom mansion on Pacific Avenue in Pacific Heights for $17.6 million in 2022, according to The Real Deal, well before he began assembling his Upper Fillmore portfolio.
