Permits to demolish the two-story convalescent facility at 2655 Bush and Divisadero Street have been approved and issued and preparation for the razing is underway. As plugged-in people have known to expect, a building rising between 40 and 65 feet with 84 residential units over 4,500 square feet of retail and 126 parking spots will be built upon the site:
∙ 2655 Bush Street: Designs For Density On The Corner Of Divisadero [SocketSite]
This project will be a much needed improvement over the buildings currently located there, and bring needed housing too.
I wonder how this will effect the F. Lofrano and Sons auto body shop?
Jackson: The owners of the building did not want to sell to the prior owner of the convalescent home (developer who did the leg work, but sold the entitled site last year). I’ve spoken to them before and the sole reason they didn’t want to see is because they didn’t get a high enough offer. Would have made for a much larger development if they did.
126 parking spots for 84 residential units? Density On Divisadero for cars I guess.
I remember visiting my Grandma there many, many years ago. It was a very nice facility for the elderly infirm. Sad to see it go.
The Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) character on “Full House” was sort of bizarrely obsessed with convalescent homes, and would often visit them as a leisure activity. Given that the Full House House was only right around the corner on Broderick it stands to reason that his fictional character’s favorite convalescent home was this one. It should’ve been preserved as a landmark for that reason alone.
I’m not too worried about Lofrano and Sons. They have another location on Post, just a couple blocks away. Not that this design would impact their Divisadero street location, other than increasing the value of their property.
Maybe they can bring som better food to this area. Without Solstice, it’s hard to eat within a half mile radius of this area.
A little heavy duty on the parking, that’s for sure. Let’s hope a portion of those parking spots are reserved strictly for retail customers/employees.
I used to work across the street at Mt. Zion and regularly ate lunch at the cafe that occupied the ground floor. On occasion would see them wheeling out the recently passed away in the back. Morbid curiosity. Perhaps a bit creepy to live where so many have died…. maybe I am the only one who thinks this way but the same thought came through my mind when the old Naval Hospital on 15th & California was converted into apartments.
On another note, I wonder what will happen with the projects a few blocks away at Sutter. These condos will not be cheap.
Sadly, I doubt the projects down the street will be razed anytime soon. Sadly. Talk about the bane of a neighborhood.
Sad to see another nursing home in the city disappear. There are very few spots for seniors in the city who want to be near family, and even fewer that provide Medicaid beds. Guess we don’t want to admit that folks are gonna get old!
Great to see this new development. I drive by there at least 4x a year to see my doctor nearby. As for the nearby projects, hopefully, Mayor Ed Lee will dismantle the SF Housing Authority, then set up a quasi-public, private developer/management company who will raze the old projects, clean the area up, get rid of the criminal elements, and turn it into a large mixed market rate housing.
Completely agreed with Live Smarter. Dismantle the SFHA, which has been losing money hand-over-foot, and get rid of the criminal elements.
Razing an outdated medical center is always a good idea…they become functionally obsolete and outlive their usefulness.
New developments for seniors come online. For example, the old Coronet Theater on Geary @ Arguello was torn down and brand new senior housing recently built on the site. The city provides plenty of tax and other incentives for senior housing, it is disingenuous to claim otherwise.
“get rid of the criminal elements”
Lol. Have you ever actually been to these projects? The only thing criminal about them is the level of neglect in building and ground maintenance. They look beyond bleak, but that has more to do with the Housing Authority than the residents. The buildings aren’t even that bad. You can see how they were a kind of utopian 1940s ideal (modern boxes, with parking, and lots of green space)… They could look a lot better, but for some reason that will never happen without completely demolishing them and replacing with the kind of stucco boxes that looked great for 15 minutes on Folsom/Cesar Chavez. The adjacent victorians used to be a kind of buffer zone of blight, but not any longer.
I’ve lived two blocks away for years, and never seen anything worse than a slightly depressing resignation emanating from there. And the residents seem mostly If your luck turns and you end up living in projects, those are as good as it gets.
I am kind of curious Serge, where would you want the displaced residents to end up?
^Outside of San Francisco.
UPDATE: The Past, Present, And Future In Lower Pacific Heights.