Built in 1948, the 10,732-square-foot Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church and Gracie Infant Care Center on the southwest corner of Ulloa Street and 33rd Avenue is now on the market with a $4.3 million price tag. And yes, the church is slated to be “delivered vacant.”

While the 10,746-square-foot parcel upon which the church sits is currently only zoned for a single-family house (RH-1), as are the majority of the Parkside neighborhood parcels, it’s also over four times the minimum size for a legally conforming lot and zoned for development up to 40 feet in height.

And then there’s Supervisor Mandelman’s proposed legislation which would allow for multi-family buildings with up to four units to rise on corner lots that are currently zoned for single-family homes.

We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.

13 thoughts on “Corner Church on the Market, Primed for Redevelopment”
  1. ALSO – build 3-5 levels of underground parking to benefit the neighborhood and be an added revenue source

      1. sell it as “secured parking” and charge more.
        too bad our construction costs are SO high. This will probably never pan out.

        1. “sell it as “secured parking” and charge more”

          …as opposed to every other garage, which isn’t secured? What do you mean?

  2. We periodically see these stories on SocketSite of church sites up for sale or getting redeveloped, and I always wonder what happened to the church and congregation itself – did its members get old and the church fizzled out, was the congregation strong but church facility too old and it’s upkeep too expensive to keep up with (perhaps could be true here in a 70 year old church, but the city has much older churches around), did a shrinking church congregation merge with another nearby congregation of the same denomination, or something else?

    Poking around to satisfy my curiosity, I found this church was in a dispute 3 years ago with the longtime childcare provider at the site; hard to know what was going on here, but perhaps there were financial pressures the church could not keep up with.

    Things change, and buildings can outlive their original purpose, but it feels sad to see these stories – of buildings that have marked many significant milestones in families’ lives – weddings, funerals, first communions, christenings, etc., now lost/ doomed to the wrecking ball.

    1. It appears the latter (merged with another congregation), tho whether this is a permanent “merger” or just some temporary arrangement I can’t say.

    2. Pure demographic turn over. That area was built out mid 1930’s to early 1950’s. The original house owners were mostly young and mostly had families so during its heyay from 1940’s to 1970’s there would have been a large enough population locally to support the church. By the 1980’s the original owners started dying of old age and the heirs usually sold rather than moved in so by the early 2000’s the original Lutheran population was mostly gone.

  3. Mandelman’s prospective legislation notwithstanding, I predict a parcel subdivision with four 40 feet tall single family homes. Single family homes in the area trading for roughly $1.2 to $1.8. At an asking price of $1.1 per prospective door, I doubt they will get many takers, especially for a lot that would likely require a decent amount of demo, abatement, and re-grading.

  4. $400 psf with a huge lot? Sounds like an unconventional mansion conversion project. Plant a tall hedge and give the kids and the dog room to play outside. Maybe a basketball court in the sanctuary. Heresy! Greed!

    $4mm+ is too expensive to tear down and parcel split, I think.

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