Plans for Safeway's proposed redevelopment project in the Outer Richmond would require the old store to be demolished, and some residents are concerned about where they would shop for groceries during construction, as it's the sole full-service grocery store in the area.

Safeway’s parent company Albertsons and its development partner Align Real Estate have submitted plans to demolish the longtime Safeway near Ocean Beach and replace it with a seven-story mixed-use development featuring a new grocery store and expanded affordable housing.

As SFist reported in November, the existing 37,000-square-foot Safeway store is being replaced by a nearly 766,000-square-foot project that encompasses a whole city block. The number of affordable housing units has increased by 60% — from 68 to 112, according to SF YIMBY reports. Parking will also be included for 441 cars and 266 bicycles with customer parking located on La Playa Street, and the entrance for the residential garage will be accessible at La Playa and 48th Avenue.

As the first look at the proposed design for the complex arrives, NBC Bay Area reports that some Outer Richmond residents have raised concerns about losing the neighborhood’s only full-service grocery store during construction, along with the prospect of increased traffic tied to the larger development. Supporters of the project say the site’s proximity to transit and Ocean Beach makes it a logical location for additional housing, while also pointing to the city’s housing shortage.

“With great transit access and views of Ocean Beach, these new homes will make it possible for more working families, seniors and young people to live and work in this amazing community,” said an Align Real Estate representative in a statement.

As previously reported, the Outer Richmond proposal is one of six deals made between Albertsons and Align Real Estate to redevelop Bay Area Safeway properties into mixed-use housing projects, including sites in the Marina, Bernal Heights, and Fillmore. The companies are also partnering on a proposed senior housing development above the Trader Joe’s in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood that will likely also prove controversial due to its height.

The application is currently under review by the San Francisco Planning Department, and it’s not yet clear when it could be approved or when construction would begin.

Previously: Ocean Beach Safeway Could Close For a While to Build Apartments on Top

Image: Safeway/Google Maps

The same developer that is looking to redevelop four Safeway properties in San Francisco is proposing a massive new senior living development on the site of the Rockridge Trader Joe's in Oakland.

Align Real Estate is on a tear across the Bay Area, betting big on redeveloping grocery store sites in urban areas with surface parking lots. We learned in the fall about the developer's plans for Safeway stores in San Francisco's Fillmore, Bernal Heights, Outer Sunset, and Marina neighborhoods — the latter plan being by far the most controversial so far. Last month we learned that Align also has its sights on a San Mateo Safeway that could become 396 housing units. And now comes a sixth proposed development which is quite huge in scale, and which may also come with some controversy.

As the Chronicle reports today, Align has just filed a proposal for a pair of senior housing towers on the site of the Trader Joe's at 5727 College Avenue in Rockridge — a site that also happens to be owned by Safeway parent company Albertson's. (Area residents may recall this was once an Albertson's store, and Trader Joe's moved in in 2007.)

The proposed development would include a 31-story tower and a 25-story tower, the likes of which do not exist anywhere in this part of Oakland — which is dominated by two- and three-story buildings and quiet, tree-lined streets. And given that it's barely a block away from the Rockridge BART station, this would count as transit-oriented development.

The 1.5-acre site would become home to 415 senior-living units under the proposal — consisting of 371 independent-living apartments, 18 assisted-living units, and 26 memory-care rooms. The developer says it is working with a nonprofit on the project who they are not yet naming, but who is a "leading Bay Area nonprofit senior living organization with more than 65 years of experience serving older adults."

Not included in the plan is a replacement store space for Trader Joe's, or any other grocer.

"This project is about helping seniors stay in the neighborhoods they call home," says Align's David Balducci in a statement to the Chronicle. "By placing senior housing near transit, services and shops, we’re giving older adults the opportunity to age in place with dignity and independence, while also freeing up family homes for the next generation. In turn, this will reduce pressure on families and the healthcare system while strengthening the long-term vitality of the Rockridge corridor."

That is all well and good, but given the size and scale of the project, it is no doubt going to inspire pushback, much like the fairly massive, modern, 25-story complex Align is proposing at the Marina Safeway site.

In the case of both proposals, though, the law may end up being on the developer's side, and they seem to be betting big that it will be. The state's Density Bonus Law, as well as AB 130, make it easier for big residential projects to get built and for qualifying projects to get through the environmental-review process — which is usually where NIMBY efforts tend to slow such projects down.

As the Chronicle notes, while wealthy Rockridge residents may put up a stink, Oakland at large has gotten used to tall and dense developments next to BART stations, with a 24-story tower that's already been built just one BART stop away at MacArthur Station.

We should expect to hear a lot of noise about this project, and the Marina Safeway project, in the months to come. But if Align wins out on all of its proposals, the company will have potentially built around 4,500 new housing units when all is said and done.

Which grocery store with a surface parking lot is next?

Related: Marina Safeway Also on the Redevelopment Docket With Plans For 790 Units In 25-Story Complex

A group of residents gathered outside the Marina Safeway Wednesday in protest of the proposed redevelopment of the property into a 25-story mixed-use tower, which they say would unfavorably impact the neighborhood, and the city is required to finalize the design review by August 1.

As SFist reported in December, the proposed Marina redevelopment by developer Align Real Estate would include 790 housing units — 86 of them affordable/below market rate. The project includes 485 one-bedroom apartments, 88 studios, 132 two-bedroom units, and 85 three-bedroom units, along with 473 residential and 164 commercial parking spots. A new Safeway store in the building's base would also be 57% larger than the current one.

Based on the renderings, the majority of the units would be concentrated at the bottom of the structure, with a tower tapering upward, which would reportedly preserve some of the views from behind the structure.

As to be expected, Marina residents opposed the proposal from the start. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie also opposes it, as it conflicts with his family upzoning plan, which stipulates a maximum height of 40 feet, but local leaders have little say over the project, which is being fast-tracked under state housing laws — many of them authored by Senator Scott Wiener.

The San Francisco Planning Department has issued a conditional approval of the project, and under state law, the city must complete its design review by August 1, according to KRON4.

During the protest Wednesday, Marina residents said the 25-story tower would drastically alter the skyline.

“We’re going to make our own neighborhood unlivable, and our politicians are selling us down the river,” said resident Stephen Street.

Some questioned the affordability of the units. “The idea that this is being sold as affordable housing is just a joke. There’s nothing affordable about this,” said Victoria Spiegel.

In a phrase pretty familiar to the NIMBY cause everywhere, Erin Roach, president of the Marina Community Association, told KRON4, “We’re not anti-housing, we’re anti this development.”

Roach later sent SFist an email clarifying the group's stance on the topic. “The Marina Community Association supports the creation of housing at the Marina Safeway site,” she said. “We are simply asking that Safeway/Align make it in the 6-8 story height range as they are doing in Bernal, Outer Richmond and San Mateo.”

The Marina Community Association sent letters to Safeway owner Albertsons outlining their concerns, but the group has yet to receive a response. Roach criticized the company for what she described as a lack of engagement with the neighborhood.

This is one of four Safeway redevelopment projects that Align currently has in the pipeline in San Francisco. The firm is also planning to add thousands of units of new housing at the former Fillmore Safeway, the Ocean Beach Safeway, and the Bernal Heights Safeway, and those projects are also still in their entitlements.

The post has been updated with a quote from Erin Roach clarifying the Marina Community Association's position. An additional quote about affordable housing was also added.

Previously: Marina Safeway Also on the Redevelopment Docket With Plans For 790 Units In 25-Story Complex

Image: Arquitectonica and Align Real Estate

A pair of local developers, Presidio Bay and Prado Group, are the winning bidders to purchase the defunct former Westfield mall, and their redevelopment plans, which will hopefully be made public soon, include a mix of housing, office, and some retail.

The long and painful saga of San Francisco's dying and finally dead mall, the former SF Centre/Westfield mall, is coming to a close, and its next chapter will include some of what the city needs most, new housing.

As the Chronicle and others are reporting, the partnership of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, who purchased the mall property out of receivership in November and foreclosed on a $560 million outstanding loan tied to it, have selected Presidio Bay and Prado Group to take over the property for an undisclosed sum.

The Chronicle reported that the estimated winning bid amount was around $130 million.

Real estate firm CBRE, which was marketing the property, has not commented on the sale, and nor have the winning bidders. The SF Standard was first to the news of the sale, and had anonymous sources who said that the developers have plans for a mix of housing, office, and some retail space in the massive, 1.5 million-square-foot complex.

The mall, which occupies more than a city block starting at Fifth and Market and stretches back from Market Street to Mission Street, encompasses two main components — the original Nordstrom-anchored shopping center at Fifth, and the mid-block former Emporium building and a new structure attached to it that opened in 2006 as the Westfield SF Centre, with interior connections to the older mall.

Originally home to a 9-screen Century cinema on its top floor and a Bloomingdale's, the mall's overall occupancy slowly dwindled over the last three years after owners Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Properties handed the keys back to their lender in 2023. All but one of the tenants were evicted in January and early February, and the subsequent bidding process was unusually quick, according to real estate experts consulted by the Chronicle.

The tenant that remains in operation, and who continues challenging their eviction, is the bar Executive Order on the street-facing, Mission Street side of the building. Owner John Eric Sanchez posted a crowdfunding campaign to cover legal expenses on Monday, saying in an Instagram post, "I take pride in being a hands-on operator who honors commitments and believes in strong landlord partnerships. This chapter has been incredibly difficult, but my goal remains the same as it has always been: operate responsibly, create value, and build something sustainable for the long term."

One major question about the future of the mall building will be how and to what extent the developers plan to preserve the soaring former Emporium rotunda, which was painstakingly preserved and refurbished in the rebuild two decades ago. In that last reconsutrction, it was propped up on the building's framing as virtually everything beneath it, apart from the Market Street facade, was gutted and replaced.

Prado Group, which is currently at work on the redevelopment of the former CPMC campus in Laurel Heights, had also been interested in potentially redeveloping the nearby Macy's property at Union Square, after that store's announcement that it would eventually close its San Francisco flagship. Updates on the store's fate are still to come, but Macy's inked a deal to "explore the future potential" of the site with local developer TMG Partners in November. TMG Partners CEO Michael Covarrubias said at the time that a future presence for Macy's at the site was still on the table, as was a replacement store for Bloomingdale's, which Macy's owns. And housing was also a potential option.

The redevelopment of both the Macy's and Westfield properties are now likely to happen concurrently.

Previously: BART Entrance Sealed Off at SF Centre as Official Closing Date for Mall Arrives This Week

The lights officially go off after this weekend at the SF Centre (formerly Westfield) mall in downtown San Francisco, marking a final death knell following a very long, slow, and painful demise.

We've gotten piecemeal reports over the last two months about inividual shops closing, and the final closure at the basement-level food court, Panda Express, just came last week. That Mission Street-facing bar Executive Order still hasn't made a closure announcement, and was still promoting its pool tables on Instagram on Monday afternoon.

But now the Chronicle got word from an employee at one of the remaining stores, Ecco, that the official mall closing date is now set for this weekend, January 26.

BART has also confirmed that it has sealed off its entrance to the mall on the concourse level of Powell Street Station, which provided direct access to that food court. BART spokesperson Alicia Trost tells the Chronicle, "Depending on the property’s future use, any new ownership may wish to reopen the entrance. At that point BART would entertain a new license agreement for reopening the entrance."

The entire building is thus set to go dark next week, with the current owners — an ownership trust known as DBJPM 2016-SFC Emporium — looking to shut off the lights and the heat and save on utility bills until they can offload the property to someone with some new plans for it.

Converting what was designed as a shopping mall into a radically different use will require a whole lot of money, and it's anyone's guess at this point what is to come. The building already has a 250,000-square foot office component that was occupied by San Francisco State University for its downtown campus after the mall initially opened, but otherwise it's built out with two huge anchor spaces — the former Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom — and a nine-screen movie theater, along with several full-service restaurant spaces on the fourth floor.

The mall is barely 20 years old, having opened in its current iteration in 2006, after a lengthy and expensive rebuild — that included the preservation of the former Emporium's grand dome.

Below you can see a video, recently posted to TikTok, by user melancholymustard, featuring shots of the immaculately empty mall, with its escalators still running.

Previously: New Owners of Downtown SF Mall Move to Evict Last Three Businesses Who Have Not Left

Photo by Aamy Dugiere

SF-based developer Align Real Estate does, in fact, have a larger strategy to redevelop Safeway properties in the city and turn them into multi-story residential complexes with retail on the ground floor, including replacement Safeway stores.

With Tuesday's announcement that Align, the same developer behind the project to redevelop the Fillmore Safeway property, was working to potentially redevelop the Ocean Beach Safeway in similar fashion, we surmised there could be a larger strategy at play. And we wondered aloud if the Castro Safeway and shopping center with its sprawling parking lot might also be on the list.

And while we still don't know if it is, the Chronicle reports today that a third Safeway store location, the Mission/Bernal store at 3350 Mission Street, is also in Align's sights. The developer has plans in the works to redevelop the 2.2-acre site — which extends between Mission Street and San Jose Avenue — into a six-story, 370-unit residential complex, with a much larger Safeway store in its base.

According to the preliminary plan, the units will be rentals, with a mix of studios, 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom units, with 51 units designated affordable. And the current 32,000-square-foot Safeway will be replaced with a 56,000-square-foot Safeway — though, as in the case of the Ocean Beach property, the neighborhood will be without a grocery store during demolition and construction, which could take a couple of years.

A Safeway exec struck a very different tune than in the case of the Fillmore store, which the company closed in part due to rampant theft, well ahead of the development schedule at that property — with plans not even yet approved. The company has committed to returning to this property after construction is complete.

Kelly Mullin, president of Northern California operations for parent company Albertsons, gave a statement to the Chronicle acknowledging this store's "long-standing role as a critical neighborhood anchor" in an area where "many families depend" on it. The Fillmore neighborhood likely feels the same, and while Align has committed to putting a smaller grocery tenant into that planned development, it does not sound like Safeway will be that tenant.

This project still could face pushback — especially because of its size. As at the Fillmore site, Align is hoping to take advantage of the state's density bonus program to achieve that six-story, 370-unit count, but this will make it the tallest thing in the immediate neighborhood, save for the CPMC hospital a few blocks away. Most of the blocks surrounding the Bernal Safeway, which is also at the edge of Noe Valley, are low-slung residences that are two and three stories.

Align promised when they unveiled the Fillmore plans last week that they had more projects to announce — with a prospective new-unit total of 3,500. With today's announcement, it brings the total to 2,746 units (1,800 at the Fillmore site, 526 at Ocean Beach, 370 in Bernal). That leaves one or two more projects to announce, possibly at other Safeway sites, with a total of 750 more units.

It should be noted that none of these projects yet have their entitlements from the city, and plans may change.

Previously: Ocean Beach Safeway Could Close For a While to Build Apartments on Top, Could Castro Safeway Be Next?

Hayward and Alameda County leaders have proposed a $900,000 reparations fund for residents whose land was seized during the demolition of Russell City — a historically Black and Latino community — to make way for an industrial park in the 1960s.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Russell City, once a thriving Black and Latino community on the edge of Hayward, was bulldozed in the 1960s under the guise of redevelopment. Now, nearly 60 years later, officials in Hayward and Alameda County are proposing a $900,000 redress fund for surviving residents who had their land seized and homes destroyed.

As KGO reports, Hayward officials and Alameda County Supervisors Elisa Márquez and Nate Miley have proposed that $250,000 would be allocated to the fund from the City of Hayward, $400,000 from Márquez’s office, and $250,000 from Miley’s. The funds would go to former Russell City residents whose properties were taken by eminent domain and annexed into Hayward.

Russell City was home to roughly 1,400 people, including Black, Latino, Asian, and poor white residents, before it was razed. About 700 parcels were seized. Though unincorporated and lacking city services, it was a vibrant community known for its strong local identity and blues music scene, hosting acts like Ray Charles and Dottie Ivory.

In 2021, Hayward formally apologized for its role in the destruction of the neighborhood, as reported by KQED. Alameda County followed with its own apology in 2023. That same year, the county formed a Reparations Commission to study the harms done to Russell City residents. The Russell City Reparative Justice Project — launched in 2022 — provided recommendations for how to move from apology to tangible repair.

Supervisor Márquez, who grew up in nearby Kelly Hill and first heard about Russell City from classmates at Fairview Elementary, said, “This is the result of collective and local action. This is what happens when you have people in these positions that are rooted and come from the community.”

She added, “With the background of everything going on at the federal level, it’s more important now than ever that we uplift this reality. We control our own voices, values and destiny at the local level.”

Eligibility requirements and payment processes are still being finalized. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the proposal at its July 22 meeting.

Image: Russell City Art Commemoration mural, Heritage Plaza, Hayward; Downtown Hayward Improvement Association/Facebook

Now on Saturdays! Racheal Kundananji uplifts Zambian youth through sport; historian and retired librarian Dorothy Lazard inspires the community to preserve Oakland's past; and Sven Jobe and Mallie Testerman transform Pier 70 into an artists' hub.

Zambian footballer Racheal Kundananji may have made headlines as the world’s most highly paid women’s player when she signed with National Women's Soccer League’s Bay Football Club in early 2024, but it’s her off-the-pitch legacy that she’s most focused on building. After rising from playing soccer in secret as a girl in Lusaka to Olympic stardom and European success, Kundananji launched the Racheal Kundananji Legacy Foundation to address critical issues facing youth in Zambia—addiction, HIV/AIDS, and teen pregnancy.

Through school supplies, mentorship, and visits to places like Lusaka’s Sanity House rehab center, she’s connecting directly with young people, offering not just inspiration but tangible support. As a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, Kundananji now uses her platform to champion education, prevention, and empowerment, particularly for girls. With every goal she scores in the NWSL, she’s giving kids back home another reason to believe in something bigger.

Catch Kundananji and the Bay FC team at Oracle Park on August 23 competing against Washington Spirit.

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Dorothy Lazard doesn’t just remember Oakland — she helped archive it. As head of the Oakland History Center for over a decade, the retired librarian made local history accessible, personal, and urgent. Her lived experience—growing up during white flight, the rise of Black Power, and redevelopment—made her a uniquely trusted guide.

Lazard’s memoir, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World, recounts her early years after moving from St. Louis to San Francisco, and then Oakland. It’s a story about libraries as refuge, and knowledge as power. “History keepers hold the future in their hands.”

Her work helped countless people understand how Oakland came to be — and how the community might move forward. Along the way, she became something rare: a librarian with a fan club. She made local history legible and deeply human, especially for those who didn’t think of themselves as historians.

In retirement, Lazard is still writing, still remembering. The History Center is now in good hands, she says, but her legacy — of rigor, humor, and deep care — remains shelved in the stories she helped others discover.

Ceramicists Sven Jobe and Mallie Testerman are bringing new life—and ancient craft—to San Francisco’s Pier 70, transforming a former WWII shipbuilding site into a hub of contemporary artistry. Their studio, Sven Ceramics, makes elegant, gold-accented tableware for Michelin-starred restaurants, but it’s more than just beautiful design: it’s family history in full circle. Jobe’s grandmother welded ships here; Testerman’s grandfather engineered them. Now the couple fires plates, mugs, and bowls just yards from where their ancestors once built battleships.

After a decade working from a backyard studio, they’ve moved into the revitalized Building 12 with a showroom, teaching space, and a 2,300-pound kiln that barely fit in the elevator. The couple—who pivoted from careers in construction and education—designs ceramics that honor the Bay Area’s natural and built landscapes. “We’re still making stuff,” Jobe says, “just in a totally different way.” Their story is one of lineage, craftsmanship, and the slow, hot work of building something lasting.

Image: SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 22: Racheal Kundananji #8 of Bay FC controls the ball during a game between Racing Louisville FC and Bay FC at PayPal Park on March 22, 2025, in San Jose, California. (Photo by Elysia Su/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Previously: Notable Humans: Berkeley Teen Takes On World’s Toughest Swims To Raise Money For Pediatric Cancer

The 1960-built Department of Motor Vehicles office and its parking lot at the tip of the Panhandle in San Francisco will be redeveloped as affordable housing, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday.

It's been eyed as a development site for years, and now it shall come to pass. As the Chronicle first reported, Newsom announced this morning that the state would partner with two developers, Related California and the non-profit Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, to redevelop the 2.5-acre property at 1377 Fell Street into housing.

"We will continue to use all our tools to create more affordable housing throughout California — including by converting underutilized state property into homes,” Newsom said in a statement. “I’m particularly proud of this site for bringing affordable housing to the heart of San Francisco in a diverse and thriving neighborhood.”

It seems like this could cause some disruption with DMV appointments in the coming years, given how busy this DMV location typically is. But the plan, according to the governor's office, is to demolish the DMV building and reopen a modernized DMV facility in the base of the new residential complex in June 2029.

The complex will consist of several buildings, the tallest of which will be eight stories. And there will be 372 units, made affordable to those making 30% to 80% of area median income. The housing is expected to be complete by August 2030.

This project has been in the works for some time, and SFist first reported on the Board of Supervisors discussing this as an affordable development site in November 2022. At the time Supervisor Dean Preston said the idea should be a "no-brainer" for the state — though the state had been discussing simply demolishing the DMV building and replacing it with another one-story structure. Preston worked with Assemblymember Phil Ting to pressure the state into creating a larger development opportunity.*

The state put out a request for proposals for the project a year ago, in September 2023. And now it seems that conceptual plans have been drawn up, and a deal has been signed.

As the Chronicle notes, an earlier request for proposals for 1377 Fell Street had gone out back in 2008, and Build Inc. had been selected to redevelop the property, but that project never came to be due to the recession.

Department of Housing and Community Development director Gustavo Velasquez put out a statement saying that he hopes this project will "inform similar out-of-the-box thinking for communities statewide on how we can maximize use of public land for the benefit of the people."

There's no word on when this DMV office may close, or where a temporary, interim facility might pop up to serve SF's driver's license and Real ID needs.

Previously: DMV Lot On Fell Street Floated As Affordable Housing Development Site

*This has been corrected to show that the state's prior development plans did not include housing, and that Supervisor Preston's 2022 resolution played a role in making the project happen.

The Potrero Power Station Redevelopment project, now six years in the making, may have an anchor tenant for its life sciences building, and it's none other than UCSF.

As the Chronicle reports today, the University of California Regents are in talks to lease a nine-story, 300,000-square-foot building on what's now known as Block 2, in the Potrero Power Station project area. Designated originally for office, laboratory, or life science use, the building would become a clinic, precision cancer center, and health tech incubator.

Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, who designed the deYoung Museum, would design the new UCSF building, and they are also designing several other structures in the redevelopment project.

It's the latest development in a project that saw its first plans drafted in 2018 to reuse a 29-acre central waterfront property that housed a defunct power plant, next door to Pier 70. The plans also include residential, hotel, retail, and possible PDR (production, distribution, and repair) space. The project got its approvals in early 2020, and work began at the site almost two years ago.

The only big piece of the project to break ground so far is a 105-unit affordable housing project called the Sophie Maxwell Building. The foundation on that has been poured, per the Chronicle, and sidewalks in the neighborhood have also begun construction.

UCSF Real Estate's senior associate vice chancellor, Brian Newman, confirmed that negotiations were ongoing for the new addition to UCSF Medical Center's ever-growing footprint in the city. "There is more due diligence to complete and approvals from the UC regents to obtain, but we are hopeful that we can move forward with this unique opportunity at Power Station,” Newman tells the Chronicle.

Mayor London Breed was already celebrating the possibility of UCSF's expansion, saying in a statement, "I am especially excited about expanding health care in this part of the city. UCSF has played a huge role in San Francisco’s public health care and as a leader in innovation for more than a century and I can’t think of a better fit."

The Power Station project will ultimately add 2,600 new housing units to the city, as well as 1.6 million square feet of commercial space, and a 250-room hotel.

Enrique Landa, the project lead for developer Associate Capital, tells the Chronicle that they're glad to see some movement on the tenant front, as they try to keep the momentum going on the project. "These large projects are kind of like sharks: if they don’t keep moving they die," Landa tells the paper.

If the deal moves forward, construction on the new UCSF building would begin next year.

Construction also may begin soon on the first public park in the project area, which can be seen in the green area by the Bay in the above illustration. The pink circle in the green is the historic smokestack on the property, which is set to be preserved along with a couple of other historic structures from the power plant.

In renderings, the bottom of the smokestack is envisioned as a cafe or restaurant.

See that and a few other renderings below.

The planned redevelopment of the Stonestown Galleria property, which will turn what are currently parking lots into new residential, retail, and office space, has received some revisions, which include dropping a planned 200-room hotel.

It's been nearly two years since we first heard about plans to redevelop the land around Stonestown Galleria and add thousands of new housing units. Brookfield Properties, which owns the mall and its 30 acres of parking lots, first floated the idea, saying they would build 2,900 units of housing, likely to be a mix of affordable, market-rate, and senior housing, and turning 20th Avenue into a new "Main Street" lined with shops.

The SF Planning Department finished its preliminary review of the project in November 2021, and the main criticism was that the site plan felt too bisected by the existing mall, "dividing the site into two separated communities with a lack of robust and clear east-west connections."

As Socketsite reports this week, a refined plan is now out, with some new renderings, and the project got a boost in the number of housing units planned — 3,500, up from 2,900.

The plan still seems to have two bisected neighborhoods, with no plans to cut through the mall structure itself.

Given lack of demand currently for office space, plans for 200,000 square feet of office space have shrunk to 100,000 square feet. A plan for a 200-room hotel has been jettisoned, and the amount of new retail has gone down from 200,000 square feet to 160,000 square feet. (The Galleria itself is 775,000 square feet.)

There would be 60,000 square feet of new community spaces, and six acres of parks, plazas, and recreation spaces.

Some of the residential buildings on the western side of the site would rise as high as 190 feet (around 20 stories).

The project may still be on track to break ground in 2024, though that is unclear, and final approvals are still pending.

Once under construction, as Socketsite notes, it will be built in six phases.

Previously: Stonestown Galleria Parking Lots Could Become 2,900-Unit Residential Village

Following Monday's announcement that 80-year-old East Bay racetrack Golden Gate Fields plans to shut down racing for good this fall, the talk has already begun about could be done with the 140-acre property.

It's barely been 36 hours since track owner The Stronach Group announced that Golden Gate Fields will host its last horserace in early October, and the news has wide-ranging impacts for hundreds of employees, horse owners, jockeys, and horses. The LA Times' coverage of the closure suggests that Stronarch Group is shuttering their only Northern California property to "help prop up Santa Anita racing" — and Stronarch basically said as much Monday.

The company owns two SoCal tracks, Santa Anita Park in Arcadia and San Luis Rey Downs, and they say they plan to start racing four days a week instead of three at Santa Anita starting in January.

"Focusing on Santa Anita Park and San Luis Rey Downs as state-of-the-art racing and training facilities that offer enhanced program quality, increased race days, expanded wagering opportunities, and premier hospitality and entertainment experiences is vital to ensuring that California racing can continue to compete and thrive on a national level," the company said in a statement to the LA Times.

The Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) put out a statement suggesting that the closure was not surprising, and that the writing had been on the wall at Golden Gate Fields for years.

"Production costs and purse generation in California do not have the benefit of a second source of income like other competing states, leaving little margin for error," TOC President and Chief Executive Bill Nader tells the LAT. "The Golden Gate Fields business model has been in a fragile state for years... We will work together with our industry partners to find the right path forward to growing horse racing in California, and preserving its positive impact on jobs, the economy, and the state breeding industry."

What happens next for this prime, bayfront property we likely won't know for years, and the first step will likely be to change how it's zoned, says Albany Mayor Aaron Tiedemann. Tiedemann tells ABC 7 that if the owners decide they want to sell the property, Albany will have some say — along with Berkeley — about what happens with it.

The 140-acre parcel straddles the two cities, and it has been a racetrack since 1941, with a break during WWII. It is currently zoned for waterfront recreation.

"I think it's really a gift from the gods because it gives the whole region an opportunity to plan for development," says ABC7 News Political Analyst and former House Rep. Jackie Speier. Speier's former district included the former Bay Meadows track in San Mateo, which shut down 15 years ago and has since been redeveloped as residential and retail.

"It was within three years we saw a whole new community arise and I think you're going to see that opportunity [here] as well," Speier tells ABC 7.  "You can create a recreational area within Golden Gate Fields area, there's so much you can do. It's really a blank canvas that can be made into something pretty spectacular."

There will likely also be a push fro the community to keep the area as open space, however the land is likely too valuable not to redevelop some of it as housing.

As the Thoroughbred Times reported in 2011, not long after The Stronarch Group took ownership of the property, Golden Gate Fields was on a short list of potential sites for a new campus development for the University of California — and Stronarch actually pursued that potential deal until UC chose a different site. That plan would have included laboratories, a hotel, green space, and campus facilities.

Previously: 80-Year-Old Racetrack Golden Gate Fields to Close Permanently This Fall

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Another mega-project in San Francisco is inching its way toward final approvals, and this one would transform the 29-acre, waterfront Potrero Power Station site into a mixed use complex of 2,600 residential units and 1.8 million square feet of new commercial space.

The project, in the works since 2018, has been revised in its height limits and the amount of office space proposed in recent months. And as Socketsite reports, its final EIR and development agreement could be approved by Planning as soon as two weeks from now.

The latest version of the development plan includes 100,000 square feet of retail with along Humboldt Street; 800,000 square feet of office space (up from 600,000 originally planned); 650,000 square feet of Research & Development (R&D) space; 35,000 square feet of Production, Distribution and Repair (PDR) space; and a 240,000-square-foot, 250-room waterfront hotel. The complex will also have open space, a 25,000-square-foot "entertainment/assembly space," a 1.2-acre Power Station Park, and a 3-acre waterfront park that connects to the neighboring Pier 70 Shoreline Park.

And while such a huge development with 2,600 new housing units is promising for San Francisco's future housing inventory, an article in the Chronicle on Thursday questions whether so many hopes should be pinned to these mega-projects that often take over a decade to build. The Power Station project, case in point, will be phased over 16 years. Similarly, a 10-acre project in Laurel Heights that some neighbors are suing over — with far fewer units — is phased over 15 years.

As the Chron notes, three developments totaling 25,700 units — the Hunters Point Shipyard/Candlestick Point, Parkmerced, and Treasure Island — have all been in the works for a decade and have so far yielded 350 units, 1.3% of the total.

The agency that took over for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA), known as the Office of Community Infrastructure and Investment (OCII), has just proposed a state law that would allow it to use its former funding tools to develop nearly 6,000 new below-market-rate units in the city.

When the SFRA was dissolved in 2012 along with 400 other redevelopment agencies around the state, it left unfinished a plan to replace nearly 6,000 units that had been lost during its controversial "urban renewal" era in the 1960s and 70s. Technically, the unique powers of the agency to fund private development bonds using property tax-increment financing (essentially, debt that rides on the promise of future tax revenues) were taken away with the dissolution. The successor agency, the OCII, was only left to complete its unfinished redevelopment projects already underway in Mission Bay, Hunters Point, Candlestick Point, and the Transbay District.

As the Examiner reports, the OCII now wants to return to its original mission in order to supplement the mayor's initiative to build more affordable housing. Also, it's seeking the legal ability to do what it had set out to do beginning in the early 2000s, making good on a commitment to replace thousands of units that were demolished and never replaced in the early decades of the agency.

Between 1948 and 1976 the SFRA demolished 14,207 housing units in San Francisco under the auspices of "slum removal" and addressing urban "blight" — often taking property through eminent domain that was not "blighted" in the eyes of its owners or neighbors. In the ensuing decades and under different leadership, the agency set about using its tax-increment financing model to fund infrastructure projects and affordable housing construction, though by 2012 it had only built or begun to build 7,498 of the 14,207 units it had removed from the city's housing stock.

According to a summary proposal submitted to the state in December, the OCII says that the state's Department of Finance "did not allow [it] to continue its work on fulfilling the Replacement Housing Obligation." Therefore the OCII is asking the state to legally allow it to continue work to construct 5,842 outstanding units, which will be made available to low- and middle-income residents. As the Examiner notes, a similar piece of legislation was proposed by state Senator Mark Leno in 2014 and was vetoed by then Governor Jerry Brown, who was forcefully against redevelopment.

Under a new governor, they agency hopes to be able to provide a new bond mechanism in addition to the $600 million affordable housing bond to be floated by the city that voters just passed in November. It remains to be seen if state Senator Scott Wiener or another state legislator will take up the proposal and introduce it.

The only issue is that the state is legally required to step in in cases where property tax revenues slip and are no longer available to both repay tax-increment bonds and the other obligations including public schools and BART. As the OCII said in its proposal, "As bonds are issued and repayments made, a relatively small portion of property tax revenue that would have otherwise been allocated to the City and other tax entities (such as the school district, community college, BART) will be used to repay the debt... a fiscal impact on the State would only occur in the unlikely scenario where the property tax revenues available for the school district do not meet certain minimum levels and the State general fund would have to backfill the loss of those revenues."

We should know more in the coming weeks or months if this proposal moves forward.