The plans for a 20-unit residential building to rise smack dab in middle of San Francisco’s 11th Street Club Corridor have been abandoned, but the “purple building” at 340 11th Street and adjacent Crepes a Go-Go pad are destined to be razed.
The new plan for the two parcels, which is working their way through Planning, calls for a four-story building with three floors of office space over ground floor retail to rise across the Western SoMa site.
The purple building, which sits between Butter and the Garage Cafe grocery store, both of which are zoned for development up to 55 feet in height, has sat vacant since 2013 when a fire cleared out the former sheet metal shop.
thank god no housing. It was a mistake to allow housing on that block of 11th previously. There needs to be somewhere in town for nightclubs, and for better or worse this is it. Glad the Oasis finally opened again. The developer should make this “retail” space something that would serve the nightlife corridor…whether it’s a restaurant or a club.
Problem with nightclub space corridor is under-utilization of space. During the daytime, it would be eerily quiet and desolate, and given SF’s high rents, it does not make economic sense. Day time and night time uses maximize value. The Financial District in SF is an example of under-utilized space after 5-6 PM and weekends.
Adding residents to FiDi makes sense, because it is less utilized at night. Adding residents to this strip doesn’t make sense, because they will complain constantly about the noise and this strip would disappear within 5 years.
Interleaving office space with nightclub uses can improve utilization. Those two uses are nearly mutually exclusive in their active times and can share parking and street space. And DNA has a pizza joint which makes for a convenient lunch spot.
One less housing project. Developer’s chill. Easier and more lucrative to build office space.
The Western SOMA plan had set aside a huge amount of club space south of 11th, but Jane Kim changed it. The plan had taken the better part of 4 years of community input, it was wiped away by big entertainment greed backed by Terrence Allan and Mark Leno, his state connection. Which supervisor would ever go up against the entertainment industry? So much BS, so many lies about “killing fun”. There could have been much more in the way of space devoted to clubs in an area where there was no residential. By the way, residential was in western soma way way before clubs. Just go look at the Sandborn maps.
So bored of the local champions of the Western SOMA plan…probably the worst plan produced in SF in the last 20 years, and completely captured by the NIMBYesque locals. Yes, of course there was always housing in SOMA…but it was an almost incidental use, confined largely to the alleys… What is critical about SOMA is that it’s always been mixed use with lots of light industrial/warehousing/etc as well. That’s what made it attractive to become club-land starting in the 60’s/70’s. Just because there was housing there FIRST, doesn’t mean that neighborhood residents get to define everything that happens.
agree with you that the western soma plan is bad. would love to see all of this single story nightclubs knocked down for 10 story housing. we should build a nightclub district further out from the city core, maybe near the 550 barneveldt location
Yeah…I guess you can f*** the neighborhood. What do they matter when it comes to people in the entertainment industry.
my only point is that it should be moved further from city core. not get rid of it
I’m already a resident on this block. There is ALREADY housing here and the nightclubs are ALREADY a noise issue. This housing was here before the clubs ever were…
agree with you. this is not a good place for clubs. they should be moved from the core to an outlying area
Oh no! Obviously, the entire city is being conquered by Big Entertainment. Just look at recent news on this very site about all of the nightclubs and bars SHOULDERING their way into sacrosanct residential neighborhoods! Soon, there will be live music everywhere. Where will quiet suburban-minded people rest their heads?
Office space? What is that? Is that a type of housing? Everything needs to be housing.
Elitist Pig: Plus, the plan is not calling for 35 stories! 🙂
We live accross the street from this construction. Would rather deal with a 35 floor office building than the mess of nightclubs that have no remorse or respect for the residents of this area. Weekends consist of loud bass heavy noise til 3am, rowdy street hooligans , piss and puke on our door, the list goes on.
Exactly. I’m a resident on this block too and it’s already a problem. The clubs have zero respect or regard for their neighbors and do not care about existing harmoniously. There is so much they could do better to co-exist with us, like, I don’t know, NOT turn the sidewalk in front of their establishments into continuations of the party zone? Better noise-proofing…the list goes on. I would welcome more housing on this block as more residents might finally help get the place cleaned up. Sick and tired of the vomit and piss.
(Note: I actually think Oasis has done a great job of being respectful. Beatbox and Audio, not so much.)
it would be nice if every single intoxicated person on the street were given a $500 fine. Last i remember, public intoxication is illegal. So is disturbing the peace. so is littering and peeing on the street. we need much stronger enforecment of this , and the clubs have to take some responsibility
Give me $500 to “take care” of each intoxicated person. Then again, you need to look the other way re my tactics.
UPDATE: Plans to Raze the Purple Building and Crepes A-Go-Go Closer to Reality