We’ve known for some time that lots of new housing is coming to the block of Cesar Chavez between South Van Ness and Shotwell — an area that sits right at the foot of Bernal Heights, on a plot of land that’s rather high-profile to anyone who looks down upon it from homes on Bernal’s north slope.

On the site of the garage workshops at 1296 Shotwell, a nine-story affordable housing development for senior citizens is in the works. Meanwhile, on the adjacent property at 1515 South Van Ness, the former site of McMIllan Electric (which was, before that, the the glamorous showroom for Lesher-Muirhead Oldsmobile) is set to become a 157 unit mixed-income apartment building. This week, firm renderings were published for both projects.

This is good, because our economy is booming and our population is growing, but  housing costs are batshit crazy because we haven’t built nearly enough new housing to accommodate all 864,816 of our fellow San Franciscans. Some high-density, mixed-income housing is just the thing to address that problem, but both these projects will have hurdles to overcome.

Let’s start with 1296 Shotwell. Here’s how the site looked yesterday:

Fashionable! Replacing all this, 1296 Shotwell will become a nine-tory development with 96 affordable units for seniors. SocketSite says it will also be home to 5,000 square feet of community and office space and 5,500 square feet of outdoor space. Here’s how it’ll look on the building’s Bernal-facing south side:

And here’s the proposed site plan:

But about that whole nine-story thing…

1296 Shotwell will be 85 feet tall. For seasoned north-slopers, it’s not too difficult to visualize what a nine-story building will look like on that site; it’ll be just a little taller than the landmark 1940s-era Telco Building on 25th and Capp:

The Telco Building is eight stories, so 1296 Shotwell will be one taller.  And what would that look like?

Here’s a crude mockup of a nine-story, 85-foot version of the Telco Building, transposed on the site of 1296 Shotwell. The proposed building would look thinner and more contemporary, but the height of the building rise on the horizon roughly like this:

That’s where things get sticky. SocketSite explains:

As noted in the City’s preliminary review of the project plans, which were drafted by Herman Coliver Locus Architecture, [1296 Shotwell] is currently only zoned for development up to 65 feet in height.

As such, the 1296 Shotwell Street parcel will either have to be legislatively upzoned or the City’s proposed Affordable Housing Bonus Program (AHBP) will need to be passed in order for the development to proceed. Once approved and permitted, it will take another two years to build.

Urp. The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) is one of the nonprofits leading the effort to develop 1296 Shotwell, and MEDA has become synonymous with the Mission District’s progressive political machine. That should help 1296 Shotwell quell some of the usual anti-housing protest antics, but the height issue will be more complicated. Here too, however, MEDA probably has the political connections to secure the variances 1296 Shotwell requires. And with luck, one hopes the mural on the Bernal-facing side of the building will be easy on the eyes.

Meanwhile, the computer-rendering gods have also given us a picture of what is envisioned for 1515 South Van Ness, on the northwest corner of the block. Here’s how it snuggles in alongside 1296 Shotwell:

1515 South Van Ness will be a six-story, 157-unit market-rate development, and the current plans show it looking like this, as envisioned on the corner of Shotwell and 26th Street, looking southwest:

The renderings for 1515 South Van Ness don’t include the nine-stories of 1296 Shotwell, so  remember that 1296 Shotwell will rise nine-stories above this near the left side of the image. Also remember: This is what this location looks like today (and wave hello to Bernal Hil)l:

SocketSite has additional details about 1515 South Van Ness:

As designed by BDE Architecture, the proposed development will rise to a height of 65-feet along South Van Ness, stepping down to five stories and 55-feet in height at the corner of 26th and Shotwell.

In addition to a corner 1,100 square foot retail space at Van Ness, the latest plans include six small “trade shop” spaces along 26th Street (and an underground garage for 81 cars and 150 bikes).

And if approved, the development will take roughly two years to build, and 12 percent of the 157 apartments will be offered at below market rates.

The developer behind 1515 South Van Ness is Lennar Urban, the urban-housing arm of  megadeveloper Lennar Corporation. By way of comparison, Lennar is the opposite of MEDA is just about every way, because Lennar is a big, nationwide, publicly-traded firm focused on market-rate housing development. That said, Lennar Urban may have what it takes to deal with the Mission’s notorious aversion to housing development and the professional activists who will inevitably find things to dislike in the current proposal.

Lennar is also building housing at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and on Treasure Island – feats which required successfully navigating US Navy bureaucracy, multiple administrations in San Francisco’s City Hall, a  nasty mix of toxics left behind by the Navy’s Cold War nuclear-test programs, and Aaron Peskin. Ultimately, Lennar was not deterred by the radioactive swamps of Hunter’s Point or the USS Pandemonium on Treasure Island, so it will be interesting to see how they fare when confronted with the theatrics of the those who prefer to deal with our housing shortage by opposing the creation of more housing.

IMAGES: Renderings and site plans, via the incomparable SocketSite

 

The number-crunchers at the online apartment rental site Zumper recently crunched the numbers to determine the current median rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in various neighborhoods around San Francisco. Not surprisingly, the data reveals the rent is too damn high. Our friends at CurbedSF summarize the story citywide:

Rental site Zumper released a new average rent price map, and it resembles a good steak, with pricey red-meat neighborhoods surrounded by the pale marbling of more affordable destinations.

Zumper reports a slight (2.6 percent) increase in the price of a one bedroom in the city, and a larger (3.8 percent) jump for two bedrooms, but notes that things aren’t as bad as they were at peak prices last summer. Whether this is bad news or not as bad as it could be probably depends on how inured you are to such things.

South Beach, Russian Hill, and the Dogpatch clock as the city’s priciest neighborhoods for renters. South Beach rents are up $140 since Q3 2015, to an average of $3,920. Russian Hill rents increased by $110, to $3,850, but down in the Dogpatch things declined by $170, to $3,810. The previous most expensive neighborhood, the Financial District, declined $380, to $3,800 even.

All that said, when Bernalwood looked at Zumper’s analysis, we were pleasantly surprised to see that median rents in Bernal Heights ($2660) remain on the less-expensive side, relative to comparable nearby ‘hoods such as The Mission ($3300), Potrero Hill ($3570), Glen Park ($2850), and Noe Valley ($3490). So while it would be ridiculous to boast that Bernal is low-rent, we can still boast that we are somewhat lower-rent. Woo-hoo!

Here’s data covering the rest of the city, for the morbidly obsessed:

GRAPHICS: Courtesy of Zumper

Precita Eyes Mural studio on Precita Park, along with 4 residents of the building at 344 Precita Avenue, have prevailed in their effort to purchase the building from the trustees of the late owner. The effort comes at the end of a long and at times acrimonius struggle to prevent the sale of the building to new owners who might have attempted to evict Precita Eyes and other residents.

The funding required to make the $1.35 million purchase possible was secured by the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA):

The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) has been able to purchase 344-348 Precita Avenue in San Francisco, so that all tenants can remain at affordable rents.

The commercial tenant is Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, which has for decades created colorful murals, especially in the Mission community. Precita Eyes was nominated as the city’s first legacy business, per Prop J passed by San Francisco voters last November.

The apartments house four working-class residents – educators, musicians and therapists – who have long called the neighborhood home. All tenants were at risk of eviction from buyers looking to flip the building.

Tenant Dennis Mackenzie is thankful to remain in his home of over 30 years. He states, “Thanks to the many good people who made this possible, including MEDA, the San Francisco Community Land Trust, our families, friends, neighbors and others. This deal shows that there are ways to assist people so that we can remain in our longtime homes and businesses without being displaced and forced to move out of San Francisco.”

Community support made this deal a reality, with MEDA’s $400,000 downpayment raised by family, friends, neighbors and building residents, the latter raising over $19,500. The rest of the downpayment, more than $380,000, came from MEDA’s newly launched Neighbor-to-Neighbor (N2N) Fund, a community effort that is the brainchild of Mission resident Spike Kahn, who is also the founder of the nonprofit arts center, Pacific Felt Factory.

Neighbors from the Mission and Bernal Heights were very concerned about the potential loss of the Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, a community arts institution in place for over 40 years on the site. The building’s residents used fundraising efforts, along with the N2N funds, to quickly raise the downpayment within 30 days, and were able to meet the seller’s timeline.

PHOTO: Precita Eyes Mural Center on Precita Park, by Telstar Logistics