So here’s the official inventory update for Heritage on Fillmore: 37 of 68 market rate condos “sold” (with 10 already having closed escrow and moving in) and 31 available (now starting at $600,000). That’s 27 arms length transactions over the past five months (plus 10 developer units that were reserved for friends and family), and a total of 61% “sold” when including the 12 BMR units.
Our pick (and the inside scoop): the 12th floor two bedroom floor plan B (~1,400 square feet and officially known as PH1-B) which was in contract but is returning to the market at $1,100,000. We’re partial to the separated bedrooms, walls of windows and views (yes, columns and all), but we would budget for a bit of upgrading in the kitchen and bathrooms (both of which would be fine in a lower priced unit).
And in terms of the restaurants/clubs in the building, Yoshi’s San Francisco is expected to open in October while the Blue Mirror (a white tablecloth French-Southern concept by an ex-chef of the Carnelian Room) could open its doors as early as September. Two welcome additions to the neighborhood.
∙ Heritage on Fillmore (1300 Fillmore): Status And Sales Update [SocketSite]
∙ Heritage On Fillmore: The VIP Scoop [SocketSite]
∙ A Reader’s “5 Suggestions To Turn Around Fillmore” [SocketSite]
The area is a dump.
$1.1 million to live in a marginal area in a mixed use building and you need to budget to upgrade the kitchen?
Has everyone lost their minds?
You so called “plugged-in” readers sound like my grandparents. “What, $40 for a shirt?!?”
“$60 for dinner?”
It’s San Francisco real estate in 2007.
Give me a break!
Its just hard for those of us who were raised here to think anyone would pay that much to live in the ‘mo
I just don’t know. I’d like to think of that area as “transitional,” but I think that’s unrealistic. Seriously though, you take your life in your hands going to that Safeway. Trust me!
But a sound observation nonetheless. Why pay $25 for a shirt when you can pay $40? Why eat at Baker Street Bistro when you can get a similar meal at La Folie for twice the price? It’s become chic to overpay for most anything here in today’s luxury millionaire-laden San Francisco.
We were driving by this project the other night shaking our heads. At these prices there are other alternatives in less “transitional” parts of the city.
What? Bad Location?
You guys sound like my grandfather: “Location Location Location”. What an outdated fool.
He just doesn’t “get” the “new paradigm” in which profits don’t matter! Oh, wait, I meant ‘location doesn’t matter’. Crap, I’m getting that whole dot com thing mixed up here…
Where did you find a dinner for only $60? You sure you weren’t in Oakland?
This isn’t my idea of a million-dollar neighborhood. The Fillmore is great and Yoshi’s should be good – but I would not want to live in this neighborhood. Ditto the previous comments about the Safeway.
So much negativity. Think you’re all missing the crux of what San Francisco is becoming. Luxury millionaires like myself scoff at the notion of a good value in the 7×7….it’s so petite bourgeoisie.
So calm yourselves with a glass of cult cab, put on your 7 jeans, hop in the Carrera, and get to the sales office.
Until the projects are demolished & replaced w/mixed income housing — the Fillmore stretch will stagnate and remain laden w/I-dare-you-to-come-near iron fences, security guards at every complex and many retail establishments. Few retail establishments can stay in business in Fillmore; there isn’t critical mass of residents to support the area. Few pedestrians walk there. Until a new vision is in place –McDonald’s, KFC, Popeyes, Subway, Burger King, New Chain–(all within 4 blocks of each other) — welcome to our neighborhood! Jazz is great and a beginning, but Planning, Redevelopment Agency and community associations are responsible for change. (In my opinion.)
Projects demolished.. I don’t see it at all. I don’t live far from there and use the club one in the fillmore center.
Those projects are there for the duration, but in reality they need to be gone, if they were gone, who knows how the area would transform.
Whats the deal with the other smaller development on the ohter side of Webster from the safeway? Around Eddy I think..
Couple of blocks down. Looks like more of the mutton dressed up as lamb..
Is there a less attractive built environment anywhere in San Francisco than the lower Fillmore?
Let’s take a little tour, shall we? There’s the literally-falling-apart King/Garvey coop across the street from the tacky postmodern Fillmore Center across the street from a big box Safeway and its associated strip mall. There’s the standalone McDonald’s w/ drivethru, the blank slab of a police station, the abandoned Muni substation, the “buzzsaw” on McAllister St., the menacing Hope VI mistake along Eddy, Friendship Village and its hollow brown fire station facade, the senselessly-wide Webster St., the superblocks, the absurd Steiner St pedestrian bridge, …
I could go on. A couple more restaurants and a jazz club will be nice, but they’re not going to erase the concentrated poverty or the history of racist ghettoization. Do you really want to live in the middle of a monument to the failure of postwar urban planning? If so, wait for the first attempted flip and get a bargain.
[Removed by Editor] Long ago, Richard Szeto developed the Fillmore Center Towers and thought it would do well but the area is so bad that he had to resort to renting to foreign students who don’t know any better and who have a time constraint and must rent something fast. [Removed by Editor]
This was posted on sfgate today:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/15/BAGK5QFUH41.DTL
Seems that there has been some problems in that are recently.
The Fillmore neighborhood is a depressed low-income area plagued by crime and gangs for over 35 years. Nothing has changed.
*FILLMORE AREA IS CRIME-RIDDEN WHICH WILL PUSH DOWN PROPERTY VALUES*
TODAY’S NEWS:
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera will file suit today against alleged gangs in the Mission District and the Western Addition, seeking to impose curfews and limit members’ right to gather in public areas, law enforcement sources said.
Herrera obtained his first such civil injunction last year against an alleged gang in Bayview-Hunters Point, barring nearly two dozen men from going out after midnight or hanging out together in a four-block area, among other restrictions. He declined to comment about his plans to expand that strategy to other violence-plagued neighborhoods in advance of a press conference scheduled for this morning.
But sources familiar with the city attorney’s plans said Wednesday that he will target offshoots of the Norteño prison gang in the Mission District and a gang called Eddy Rock that operates in and around the Yerba Buena Plaza East public housing project in the Western Addition. Other groups are likely to be sued as well, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
The lawsuits will ask a San Francisco Superior Court judge to declare the gangs a public nuisance and issue injunctions against them. It was not immediately clear which areas Herrera would seek to have declared “safety zones” where alleged gang members would be barred from congregating.
Gang violence has flared in both the Mission and the Western Addition in recent days, although Herrera has been preparing his lawsuits for some time.
On Saturday, a 15-year-old boy who police said had no gang ties was killed in a drive-by shooting on 24th Street, which is known for Norteño activity. The Western Addition was jarred earlier in the week by the shootings of eight people in three incidents, each of which apparently involved disputes between Eddy Rock and a second group based five blocks from the Plaza East projects.
No arrests have been made in any of the crimes.
The Norteños, or Northerners, are a prison-based gang that has warred since the 1960s with the Sureños, or Southerners. Sureños, who are often newer arrivals to the country and are also active in the Mission, typically wear blue; Norteños claim the color red.
Western Addition gangs have been a frequent target of police investigations in recent months. Authorities say they battle each other and others, often over personal slights. Police increased patrols in the Western Addition in response to last week’s violence, and officers were still being posted full-time Wednesday outside Plaza East.
Obtaining civil injunctions against gangs was a tactic first used in Los Angeles in the late 1980s; 50 groups are now under such court orders in the city. The state Supreme Court upheld the use of such injunctions in 1997 in a case involving a gang in the Rocksprings neighborhood of San Jose.
Proponents of gang injunctions say they have made neighborhoods safer, pointing to studies that show drops in crime.
Critics say the tactic ignores the root causes of crime, such as substance abuse and unemployment, while stigmatizing those named in the court orders and depriving them of some of their rights. In Los Angeles, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo recently overhauled his program after critics complained that no one had ever gotten off a gang list.
“These injunctions will give you six months, 12 months, 24 months of running room (to improve a neighborhood),” said Marty Vranicar, the supervisor of Delgadillo’s anti-gang unit, which has given advice to Herrera’s staff. “The real challenge is what comes afterward, how you deal with the community problems, how you keep kids from getting sucked into the gang culture.”
Juniper Lesnik, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said her office was monitoring Herrera’s program with a particular interest in ensuring that alleged gang members can make their case in court.
“Our main concern is that the process is fair and that there’s community involvement in decisions about community safety,” Lesnik said. Gang injunctions, she said, “are a flashy way to make it seem like something is being done, but there is very little long-term evidence that they reduce crime in a community.”
Herrera started his anti-gang program in September by suing 22 alleged members of the Oakdale Mob in Bayview-Hunters Point. A judge approved a permanent injunction two months later.
The Oakdale Mob injunction was tightly drawn. Unlike in some other cities, it did not allow police officers to add names to the list while on patrol.
Police and many residents of the Oakdale housing project, in the center of the zone where alleged gang members are forbidden to gather, say the area has been quieter since the injunction was put in place. Opponents say Oakdale had begun to calm down before Herrera won his injunction, and that police made sure the tactic would be successful by stepping up patrols.
Police said three people have been arrested on suspicion of violating the injunction, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Enforcement has become an issue; with Herrera and District Attorney Kamala Harris expressed frustration recently when a judge released an alleged violator without bail while he awaits trial.
A state appeals court in April threw out an injunction targeting more than 125 alleged Norteño gang members in West Sacramento. The court found that Yolo County prosecutors had failed to notify the suspects of the court action and thus allow them to challenge it before it was put into place.
Great bet over the long term. The area is gritty, comparable to the mission, but with a short walk to Pac Heights and the new Yoshi’s and restaurants coming in – I bet it’ll see the best appreciation rates in the city over 3-5 years.
Bad long term investment.
30 yrs ago people said it would get better. 20 yrs ago people said it would get better. 5 yrs ago, people said it would get better. In reality, it has slid downhill. Judging by past performance, I seriously doubt it would go up. But there are people who own property there who want to paint a rosy picture so that the price may go up just enough, then they sell out and move away. There was a negative article about Yoshi’s in the newspaper.
Take a drive through the neighborhood at night time. Don’t believe the hype.
Help me out. I have been to hundreds of shows at the Fillmore, and never felt uneasy. In the mission, it’s pretty sketchy too, but condo prices keep rising in that area? This is a similiar bet to the Mission, but with a 5 block walk to Pac Heights…which in my mind makes it a better bet, am I missing something???
No you are not missing anything. This area is not bayview/hunter points. Look at a map, it is right smack in the middle of the city and convient to almost everything. With some new developments coming in and a bit more attention from the police and politicans, I think the crime will eventually taper off. I bought a 2bd condo in this neighborhood back in February for under $500k and do not expect to see my property decrease in value.
I stop by that Safeway a couple times a week, on foot, and have never once feared for my life. Although I do most of my shopping at the Trader Joe’s up at Geary/Masonic but not because of the people that hang out down by Safeway.
That area is extremely dangerous! [Removed by Editor]
True, the Western Addition is not Bayview Hunter’s Point. The Western Addition is the Western Addition complete with their own independent gangs and crime problems that many in law enforcement say rival the Hunter’s Point gangs. The “heritage” part of the Fillmore Heritage Center I guess refers to Black community in that area. The Fillmore Safeway is safe in the day time but I’ve heard of many reports about shootings at night. Trader Joe’s is not walking distance because it is in an entirely different area called Laurel Hts. I guess one could walk there but the thought of walking for 40 mins (1 way) with plastic bags of groceries cutting into my finger bones causing arthritis doesn’t seem appealing. The Fillmore Heritage Center is 1 block away from the Govt. Housing Projects[Removed by Editor].
I purchased a condo at this complex. I did so for the following reasons:
1. Best price per sq. foot in the city.
2. I have friends who live near there and have spent time at their place so I know the ‘hood. It isn’t Pac Heights or the Marina, wouldn’t walk alone at 3:00am, but I like this area better than the other affordable/shady areas of the city.
3. I have parking and a 24 hour doorman
4. The street will improve with the new restaurants and Yoshi’s.
5. I’m not afraid of a bit of risk.
6. I looked at the new const. going up in similar shady (i.e. affordable) areas – Same risks, higher prices. Also, this area seemed to have less junkies shooting up, due to the lack of alley’s (the mission is teaming with ’em). Don’t believe me, visit an open house in the mission and look out the back window of a loft.
This area was orginally an extended JapanTown and a very poppin Jazz district until WW2 put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps. The government then turned the area into housing projects to supposedly house the military families – strategically so that the Japanese Ams would not return. Divide and conquer… Until recently the city has dropped the ball on development of this area.
side note: Does anyone know why the sign above the Geary dip says BLUE?
These projects will not disappear. Learn to live in a city. Lock your doors, Don’t leave things in your car, and be aware while your on your cell/ipod. Don’t be afraid – own your hood.
I used to volunteer at a womens center in the area and there were spots of violent crime.
I do like the area, its semi-affordable, diverse, and the nightlife is picking up. Although there are alot of affordable options in new construction and development in the East Bay “transitional areas” this saves the bridge toll/BART commute. There is a big faith community in the area.
Hmm.. I’m wondering if the same people who scoff at buying Fillmo would also pass on 3rd/HP when it gets developed and is in “transition”?
cd:
The overpass was etched as part of a public art piece called “Three Shades of Blue” by Mildred Howard. Salient quotes from this SFgate article:
Q: You’ve done quite a bit of work in public places. Have you ever had a piece vandalized?
A: Yes. The piece for the Fillmore Street bridge. I commissioned Quincy Troupe to do a poem called “Three Shades of Blue,” which I had etched in glass.
It’s been scratched. It’s been shot. I don’t get why art in this country gets vandalized. You can go to other countries and they have public art everywhere and it’s untouched.
Correct link to SFgate article quoted above:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/09/DDGHKO1B251.DTL%20
I recently became a resident in the nearby St Francis Square co-op, a 299 unit community that just went market-rate. My neighbors are highly educated and friendly (but makes low income due to their low-paying occupation – Japanese newspaper editor, non-profit lawyers, etc), and since it went market-rate there have been younger professors moving in constantly. The community works together to fence off treats from the nearby projects and it seems to be effective. Still until those projects are demolished and the government put those areas in better use (e.g. convert it to elderly community or low-income housing), there will always be treats. Until the government takes some action to promote the wellbeing of the entire area rather than the concentrated gang/crime group, we nearby residents will take the necessary action to protect ourselves.
The condos are priced too high considering this area is not too good.
What % has been sold? What % of units remaining?
I looked at the place, and it’s really nice. The corner units are all gone I think, except the 3rd floor. There are a handful of one bedrooms left.
The Fillmore Safeway shooping area is quite dirty with trash all over the place. Visit Popeye’s chicken at about 5:30pm and you’ll finds lots of dudes hangin out and playing loud music.
Units are being dumped at low prices. Subprime borrowers in that complex.
If units are being dumped, I’d buy one.
The new Yoshi’s is beautiful.
Um SocketSite, the unit you were “partial to” at $1,100,000 is now for sale for $820,000.