3701 Noriega Site

Plans to raze Pete’s Union 76 Service station on the southwest corner of Noriega and 44th Avenue have been drawn.  And as proposed, a four-story building with 14 condos over 14 residential parking spaces and a 9,600-square-foot grocery store will rise on the Outer Sunset site.

If approved, then grocery store space is proposed to become an all-new home for Noriega Produce which currently operates at 3821 Noriega Street, less than two blocks away.  The family behind Noriega Produce also run Haight Street Market and is behind Gus’s Community Market in the Mission as well.

As currently zoned, the 3701 Noriega Street parcel can only accommodate 12 units, but the project sponsors are seeking a “density bonus” in exchange for including two on-site below market rate (BMR) units as part of the development.  A variance to allow the project to be built without any parking spaces for the grocery will have to be approved as well.

45 thoughts on “New Home For Noriega Produce And Condos Proposed”
  1. Don’t be surprised if people in this hood oppose the BMRs. It is a different world than the Mission.

  2. They’re already requesting a variance for no yard at grade. It’ll be interesting to see how they put the 14 parking spaces to begin with given that the proposed store is 9,600 sq ft, and the lot is only 9,356 sq ft. I suppose there could be a mezzanine in the store(?).

    1. That’s what I was wondering about… maybe they’re going underground? If they’re spending the money to excavate, it’s strange that they wouldn’t put in more spaces.

      [Editor’s Note: An 12-foot excavation is proposed, with basement storage for the grocery as well.]

      1. Underground parking spaces cost WAAAAY more than they’d be able to recoup in higher sales prices, so they’re not going to put in any more than the law requires. They’d likely go with less than 14 parking spaces if they weren’t required to build that many.

  3. How can we stop these out of control chain produce shops? Three stores? Are these people addicted to milking every last cent of profit from San Franciscans?

  4. Another gas station to bite the dust. Soon, filling one’s tank will be a many-hour ordeal of driving to the suburbs or sitting in a long line at the last couple of city stations (and hoping they don’t run out).

      1. we will need fewer gas stations because the fuel efficiency is going up. Average age of car is the US is over 11 years and goes up every year, as cars become more reliable. Even if the battery and car manufacturers ramp up as much as possible, most cars on US roads will be gas/diesel powered for at least the next 20 years.

        1. do you know where to find the stats on gas/diesel/hybrid/electric car use in San Francisco county?

          city policiies are pricing poor and middle class people out from owning cars, and telling them to either ride a bike or leave the city.

          so wonder if the % of newer cars may be higher in the coming years.

          1. CA DMV lists registrations statewide are just over 700k for hybrid and 60k for electric, vs nearly 33 million for vehicles of all kinds (namelink). So, approaching 2.5%. Probably not worth breaking it down by county. The numbers have doubled in the past 4 years, so the percentages of sales must be much higher.

            FWIW, the carbon emissions saved by Ford changing the F150 to aluminum is greater than all the carbon emission savings of Tesla electric cars. Not even close.

            SF needs to price parking to get commuters to switch to transit and use the money to make transit run better for everyone. An improvement of one second per average MUNI trip saves 10,000 passenger hours a year.

          2. thanks. I just found that 11% of sales in the bay area were hybrid or electric in 2013. Thats still pretty low if average car on the street is 11 yrs old, as maybe only 11% of cars on the street will be hybrid/electric in 10 yrs.

          3. SF had added more than 150k people since 1977. Also, we have gotten richer per capita inflation adjusted. Richer people tend to buy more cars and trucks. Fortunately, vehicles are about twice as fuel efficient on the average as they were in 1977. A trend that will continue faster than the growth in car ownership or VMT. So, yeah, we will need less gas and fewer gas stations in the future than in the past.

      2. Just what we need…less service stations..shame on you Dimitri
        My Eldorado will still need fuel.
        Are you coming to my house to fill it up?

    1. May not be a bad idea to reduce the number gas stations. It is better to have more people in the city than cars, more housing than polluting gas stations.

      1. I am not saying this gas station should stay. I just want to make a note that there are grand total of five gas station in the entire sunset west of 19th Ave. Sounds like this is counting down to four.

        1. In Sacramento’s grid (the urban part of Sac), there are only a couple gas stations in the entire area, which is about 900 square blocks. Cities and gas stations don’t mix.

        2. I believe there’s another 76 gas station two blocks away (unless there doing something with that) and it’s less than 10 mins to one of the 10+ gas stations nearby (in the Sunset, Inner Sunset, West Portal). You would have to pass by a gas station to get out of the Sunset.

        3. Gas stations have no historical value and it is a source of pollution. I hope there would be no “save the gas station” movement.

    2. Yea if only we could have that Arizona kind of easy livin’. Maybe San Francisco will be Tuscon some day…maybe.

    3. I’m guessing this station is not that busy (used to live near this way and I can attest to that) which is why they are selling out in favor of something more profitable for the land.

      1. They are not selling out, being forced out when the lease is up , the station is busy, it is not owned by the corporation the owner of the land sold it to noriega produce

  5. Why would the developers seek a variance for building 2 extra units that are both BMR? Isn’t it more profitable for the developer to just build 12 market-rate units rather than 12 market-rate plus 2 BMR?

    1. Developer can also pay to some funds instead so that it can be used to build BMR in other locations.

  6. What’s the cost for environmental cleanup for a gas station site? I am curious how this extra cost affects the development of the old gas station site.

    1. If I were the developer I’d worry mostly about the time required. Some of the techniques used to leech the VOCs from the soil use slow processes that can require years to clean the soil.

    2. You might find details on cleanup costs in the development documents for Linea (Market Street & Buchanan). That corner was a gas station just prior to development.

    3. It all depends on how much leakage, if any, there was from the storage tanks. Some of these seem to be developed very quickly (15th and Market) while others take years and years of abatement (16th and South Van Ness and 23rd and Valencia)

  7. The only thing wrong with this proposal is that its not 65 feet. Go to maximum height that Type V wood-frame construction will allow. Zero lot line. Everything else is a waste of scare land. If you want to live in a small town, go move to Alameda.

  8. I write permits for most of these gas station cleanups. Each one is unique, and they are cleaning the groundwater not the soil. If the soil is contaminated then either you use special construction techniques before you cap it, or you haul it off site.

    1. You’re off by 2 long blocks — Andytown is at Lawton/43rd. Still nice to have a bigger space for Noriega. As it is there’s no extra parking for the commercial strip there, so lack of spaces for a slightly bigger grocery doesn’t bother me.

  9. I’m just curious: where are these people getting all this money? Not from schlepping deli food on Haight — that’s for sure.

  10. Money is not an issue. The neighborhood is overrun with unemployed hipster surfers and lumbersexuals browsing local crafts stores with $6 dollar hand pressed lattes in throwaway cups. If you still think of the Sunset as a place were middle class people worked regular jobs you haven’t been west of 22nd Avenue in a long time. That said, 80% of new construction in the Sunset is complete utter quick buck junk that begins to rust and corrode within 90 days of completion. The City ought to require salt tolerant materials when building out west in order to defer the inevitable sorry look of most buildings out here.

  11. The pete’s Union 76 business owner had confirm that there is no selling of the business. Current lease is 5 yrs plus 5 option. The business is doing very well and Tran the owner has no intention to sell the business. I fact he will exercise his 5 yrs option once the original lease is up. As of now the business will continue for the next ten yrs.

  12. They are not selling out, being forced out when the lease is up , the station is busy, it is not owned by the corporation the owner of the land sold it to noriega produce

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