930 Cole Street: Cole Garage

A rent increase has claimed the iconic Cole Garage, the most recent operators of which had been there for 25 years.  And while a new lease for the nearly 10,000-square-foot space adjacent to Cole Hardware has yet to be inked, the building owners have been in talks with a private elementary school to renovate and occupy the building.  And it’s a plan which the Cole Valley Improvement Association is preemptively opposing.

From the President of the Cole Valley Improvement Association to San Francisco’s Planning Director ten days ago:

On behalf of the 500 members of the Cole Valley Improvement Association (CVIA), I am writing to express concern over recent information that the owners of the Cole Garage, doing business as “930 Cole Street Associates, LP,’ have been in lease discussions with Altschool, a private elementary school. Altschool is not, nor is any other school, the right fit for this large space in Cole Valley’s very small commercial corridor.

CVIA strongly opposes any use of 930 Cole Street that 1) does not serve neighborhood residents, 2) does not conform to the neighborhood character of the corridor or, 3) hinders the highly used public transit system (four different Muni lines), which is already compromised by double parking and commercial deliveries. This location is critical to the present and future identity of this neighborhood shopping corridor and any noncommercial use of this site could easily have a tragic impact on the soul of Cole Valley.

Make no mistake, the Cole Valley Improvement Association supports the development of 930 Cole, but because the site is such an important part of the community, urges the Planning Department to consider the impact of this project on the commercial vitality of this pedestrian-oriented neighborhood.

The owners of 930 Cole are seeking $2 per square foot for the space, and the landlords are not requiring the pet mural on the building’s facade be protected as a term of any new lease.

UPDATE: An official update from AltSchool: “We had an initial meeting with the city a few weeks ago and after further exploration, we have decided not to pursue the location at 930 Cole.”

46 thoughts on “Opposition To Potential Tenant As Rent Increase Claims Cole Garage”
  1. Oy….double parking parents are the worst! I have to agree that an elementary school does not belong on a commercial strip for that reason alone. I would think it would be a non-conforming use that would require planning approval.

    1. I’m not against the school. They could require that start times for the school do not conflict with rush hour. For example – school could start at 8am so that pretty much all parents would be making deliveries before then. Also, they could ticket double parked cars.

      I am definitely not against it. There are a lot of parents here in cole valley that would love an alternative educational option for their children. And a lot of them would walk to the location.

      1. That stretch of Cole street has double parked delivery trucks between 7-9am every weekday, 37 Corbett and 6 Parnassus bus lines coming through frequently, and garbage trucks several days a week. Throw in the rush hour N Judah and this will literally be a train wreck.

  2. The landlord should say “Okay, that’s fine, let’s put in a homeless shelter instead. Or perhaps a halfway house?”

    1. Better: an SRO hotel with common bathrooms and 2 liquor stores. Add a methadone dispensary at the back and a syringe swapping station.

      Seriously? They’re worried a school would do what exactly? Make Cole Street more lively? Slow down their commute?

          1. I lived across the street from a school for 10 years in SF. It was a double parking nightmare with many times people blocking my driveway (sometimes actually leaving their cars). Since there are not neighborhood schools in SF and this would be a private school assume a large percentage of the kids will be dropped off in a SUV

          2. zig, as you said it would be a private elementary school. Many parents who do not want to have to shlep their offspring to the other end of the city will look for a private local school.

            In SF, the luxury is not to DRIVE your kids to school, but to WALK your kids to school!

          3. The reality in our (overly) hyper vigilant age, parents are going to take their elementary school aged kids to school, and most often that will be in a vehicle. Maybe if the parents are within five blocks or so they would walk, but most will live further away.

  3. Agreed. Terrible use of this space. What a nightmare it would be to have muni rail, a busy bus corridor running cole street, yellow zoned commercial delivery on both sides, daytime shoppers, and now drop-off parents all in the heart of this primarily one block commercial zone of this neighborhood. Might as well put a firehouse next door to the ice cream shop.

  4. I recall that Haight Street Market wanted this location when they were outgrowing their single storefront on Haight Street.

    But they couldn’t make it happen so they expanded to the storefront next door on Haight instead.

  5. This would obviously never happen, but the site should be redeveloped into residential – keep the facade and have 3 or 4 stories of residential set back from the street (this has been successfully done on Hyde Street) with retail on the first floor.

    One can only dream though.

  6. God forbid the contribution to a vibrant commercial corridor that an auto body shop provides should be replaced with a school for children.

  7. I’m surprised that auto shop doesn’t treat the sidewalk as an extension of its work area, like they do in my neighborhood.

  8. I think the real issue is the double parking parents. I live near another school in the area and the attitude of many of the parents is it is OK to block my driveway, walk a block with their kids — tough #$#$ if I have a meeting or need to get out to something on time. Their kids are much more important…..even if I have to wait 15 minutes for them to come back and move…..

    So having a tenant which would create bad traffic on an already very busy street is ultimately the concern…..unless they design some way to keep parking for the customers of the existing stores AND keep parents from double parking and blocking the street, I feel it is a poor decision to have a school there.

  9. the reality is that a plan that doesn’t piss off a single special interest group in this town does not exist.

  10. If this school is approved for this location, you just know who will oppose any new bar/restaurant, or change to any existing bar/restaurant in the Cole Street business strip, complain about Cole Street Hardware’s dangerous displays of succulents (some have thorns!), and the dangerous dogs that congregate at the bulk pet food store.

  11. In a retail corridor you want business that will contribute to the neighborhood-serving retail. In other words, businesses that will bring in shoppers that will cross-pollinate with other nearby stores. A school or any kind of office usage does not belong there. The garage was probably not an ideal use, but at least folks waiting for their cars might have browsed/shopped/eaten/etc.

  12. And for those of you who don’t live in the neighborhood, we have a commercial strip that is slightly less than one block long and this is the single largest frontage on the street. We could use a little more retail diversity and have very little space in which to put it. No one in neighborhood is against kids – it’s swarming with kids and very family-friendly. It’s just that the location is not appropriate as Dubocian says – and if you’ve ever driven down that block with three bus lines blocked by double-parked cars and trucks already, it just wouldn’t work. In any case, AltSchool has dropped the proposal as I understand it.

  13. Regardless of the land use issue, who would want their kid in an environment soaked with lead and hydrocarbons?

  14. I would think that a garage would have some issues with toxins in the soil, building, walls, etc. I would not want to have my child educated in a former garage.

  15. I wanted to share an official update from AltSchool. We had an initial meeting with the city a few weeks ago and after further exploration, we have decided not to pursue the location at 930 Cole.

  16. The difficulty with this space is that it is way too big for the kind of small-scale neighborhood retail that would be logical for this block.

  17. Bad news week. The busy Cole Valley Boulange is closing per Starbucks bad business investment and now the Cole Valley garage that I – and it sometimes seem all of Cole Valley – have been entrusting their cars to for years will be gone.

    1. 100% Agreed. If we are worried about having too many kids slowing us down we’ve become the old cranky dude Dr Seuss was writing about.

  18. As a neighborhood resident, I would welcome something like Osha Thai in that space. That’s the type of place that I think would make a killing there.

      1. To my eyes, the place looks like one tall story. Where would the “over” come from, and in any event, what retail would you propose below?

        Many types of businesses are already accounted for along the strip. A fancy Asian-type joint is not–hence my suggestion for a place like Osha Thai. Padrecito seems to be busy all the time. You need moderately expensive and kid-friendly (like Padrecito), and the locals will come and spend. Another option is a kids’ birthday party type place, like a ceramics-making joint or whatever.

        Even if too big for one restaurant, it could be split into smaller spaces, no?

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