A corner of the Tenderloin once synonymous with illegal gambling machines, stolen goods and loaded handguns is now in the hands of the neighborhood's own community benefits district. The Tenderloin Community Benefits District has purchased 200 Leavenworth St., a 10,000-square-foot property at Turk and Leavenworth streets, after what its executive director describes as more than a decade of work to reclaim the corner.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the building sale is expected to close Friday, and the nonprofit raised $12 million to make the purchase. Executive Director Kate Robinson has worked to reclaim the corner of Turk and Leavenworth streets for more than 10 years, the Chronicle reports, and she said the organization lost everything in a fire and a flood that previously displaced it from its offices.
A History of Raids and Lawsuits
The ground-floor space at 200 Leavenworth St. previously housed Barah Market, Azaal Market and TL Market & Deli, according to the Chronicle's reporting. Undercover investigations dating back to 2011 found that the businesses there served as centers for illegal narcotics sales and as fences for stolen goods, and raids at the address later uncovered drugs, illegal gambling machines, loaded handguns and piles of cash.
The San Francisco City Attorney sued the business and its operators twice, alleging the operation was a public nuisance under California's drug-abatement law, per the same Chronicle account. Tenants at the building refused to vacate for a time, and the ground-floor store was ultimately evicted before its closing sale, the report states.
Philanthropy Behind the Purchase
Philanthropic contributors to the $12 million purchase included Rippleworks, Sutter Health and the Hellman Foundation, the Chronicle notes. Rippleworks was started by Doug Galen and Chris Larsen, and Galen called the building acquisition a big celebration for the Tenderloin. The full project, including renovation, is expected to cost $25 million, with roughly $12.5 million still needed in philanthropic giving and new market tax credits — and the renovation itself could take as long as five years, according to the report.
The planned community center is described as a two-story mixed-use structure with Renaissance ornamentation. Once complete, it will house the Tenderloin Community Benefits District and the United Playaz violence prevention program, per the Chronicle's account. Philippe Sion said the planned Tenderloin Economic Village will be a beautiful and safe space for neighbors to connect and access resources, and the Chronicle reports the village will include financial and digital literacy training, workforce development and drop-in hours for city departments.
A District in Need of a Home
The Tenderloin Community Benefits District has 100 staff members, 60 of whom live in the Tenderloin itself, the Chronicle reports, and the organization needs a permanent home for that staff. It has been housed at Warfield Commons at 988 Market St. and will remain there until 200 Leavenworth is renovated, according to the same account. The district was portrayed during the pandemic as a disorderly center of antisocial and criminal activity in the neighborhood, the Chronicle notes — a characterization the new purchase is meant to help counter.
The Tenderloin has long carried a reputation shaped by density and need as much as disorder. It is San Francisco's densest neighborhood and has the city's highest per-capita population of children, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting on a 2020 Play Streets program. That initiative, a collaboration between the SFMTA, the public-space nonprofit Livable City and the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, closed the 200 block of Turk Street between Jones and Leavenworth streets to cars for six Saturdays, giving children room to run and ride bikes while offering seniors a place to sit outside and read or talk. The district was seeking additional funding at the time for the street stewards and barricades the closures required.
Law Enforcement Still Targets Drug Corners
Street-level drug enforcement in the neighborhood continues alongside the redevelopment effort. Mayor Daniel Lurie has increased focus on drug issues and funding for the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, a multi-agency effort that former Mayor London Breed started in 2023 and that includes the San Francisco Police Department, the San Francisco Sheriff's Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the California National Guard. The coordination center focuses on corner stores used as fronts for drug dealing, money laundering and other criminal activity — the same pattern investigators once documented at 200 Leavenworth.
In a recent operation, SFPD and partner agencies made 74 arrests during joint actions around the Tenderloin, Mission and Southern Districts, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Officers seized 363 grams of narcotics and three firearms during those operations, the department reported. Since the coordination center launched in 2023, SFPD and its partner agencies have seized more than 600 kilograms of narcotics and made more than 15,925 arrests citywide, per the department's figures.
