Having purchased the fully entitled housing site at 1800 Van Ness last year for $4.25 million, Oyster Development is now in contract to purchase the Giant Value store at 2558 Mission Street which hasn’t been entitled for development but was targeted for almost a hunderd housing units over 14,000 square feet of retail by seller Gus Murad.
From J.K. Dineen at the San Francisco Business Times:
The site has long been one of the most contentious in the Mission, if not the entire city. It has faced strong opposition from groups like the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, which fights market-rate housing development and anything that it regards as gentrification. The group has particularly targeted Murad, an ally of former Mayor Gavin Newsom whose restaurant has been a popular gathering place for elected officials.
Murad bought [the adjacent New Mission Theater] and the Giant Value store from City College of San Francisco in 2005 for $4.35 million. Last year he went into default on a $2 million loan to CCSF, the junior lender on the property. A trustee sale was scheduled for March 22, but that has now been cancelled, according to [Oyster President Dean Givas].
Murdad, who owns Medjool and had a Noe Valley home on the market last year, didn’t sell his stake in the theater which he hopes to redevelop “into an entertainment complex with movies, music and dining.”
∙ Copy That, 1800 Van Ness/1754 Clay Street Site Sells For $4.25M [SocketSite]
∙ Oyster tries to crack Mission [San Francisco Business Times]
∙ A Medjool Of A Modern Noe Valley Home (767 27th Street) [SocketSite]
It’s a historical resource!. Both as a former theater and as a 99c store. Soon all 99c stores (awesome long term business model, btw) will become 199c store. Further reason to pour amber on this jewel. Also impose a 99c price tag on all goods, services, foods and rents on the new structure. That’ll take care of gentrification.
The thing I’ve always wondered about 99c stores is .. is the stuff they sell even worth 99 cents? I mean, just because its a buck doesn’t mean its a good deal.
How is replacing abandoned retail with new housing stock ‘displacing’ anyone?
Good luck with approvals.
Will need great quantities.
Yes, I agree with lol. This should be made into the Mission 99 Cent Historic District. Removing this building in favor of housing will remove a key resource from the Mission streetscape and will result in San Francisco turning into Manhattan or Hong Kong.
Look at that store…really look at it. It’s not even a nice 99 cent store…it’s a dump. Level it. If the original facade is still there gut it. Good riddance.
Wait, what? Murad bought it from CCSF with a loan from CCSF?
EJ, it’s called seller financing. Sounds like they were the 2nd mortgagee.
Well shame on the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees of CCSF.
I haven’t been following this story closely and don’t have any inside info, but I guess they must have either wanted to get rid of the property pretty bad because it was consuming capital or they fell for a slick sales pitch from Gus Murad’s people promising an overly optimistic return on their provided financing (a community college can usually borrow at a lot lower rate than an individual entrepreneur or entrepreneur’s company can).
@Jimmy: The issue that MAC has is the if you let people who can pay market rate rents into the Mission, then they will complain about how shitty the Mission is and might actually try to improve it. If the Mission was improved then low-income people might have to move elsewhere. So MAC has dedicated itself to keeping the Mission Shitty (not that they actually live their themselves).
People with a lot of money don’t use their own money to do things.
“…The Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition…fights anything it regards as gentrification.” WOW! Let them have their broken sidewalks and decaying buildings that are nothing more than fire traps.
The neighborhood certainly is colorful but it stinks of urine and human feces. But those who regard it as “hip” don’t have to live here. Groups like this are holding back better things for our neighborhoods and the people that live there. Trust me, that .99 cent store will not be missed.
I Agree with lol and The Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition. Preserve those historic resources like the Mission Theater by leting them be. Do not develope them. Fight all those that would attempt to do any thing creative with those buildings, especially old theaters! let them rot! Keep the Mission the Mission a run down section of the city, we like it that way. Bonus – keeps property values up other areas of the city.
I read last month that old abandoned theaters in the Mission have a very specific strain of black mold that you find nowhere else in the Bay Area. Scientists have hypothesized that it is due to the unique blend of pop corn duds, nacho cheese sludge and reefer ash, compounded with the infamous SF Smug cloud pollution that provided a breeding ground to Mutiplexus Oligosporus Misionae.
Research is about 10 years away from mapping its DNA. Please, please, in the name of science, do not tear down these theaters.
Just peel back a few layers of roofing material (preferably in a low-lying part of the roof where water naturally pools), drill a few holes during a “building inspection” and then let nature take its course. This can work on buildings of all sizes.
Perhaps I should set up a consulting practice to help expedite this process.
Kink.com annex.
I really hope Murad develops a theatre on mission street… I really hate trekking halfway across the city to see a movie… Please Murad – make it so..