Much to the chagrin of neighbors, the former Bell Market at 1336 Post Street has been shuttered for over a decade. And while a number of said neighbors have long been pushing for the market to be reflagged and revived, Golden Hills Realty is now taking another tack.
And as proposed, Presidio Surgery Center, which currently operates out of a 13,000-square-foot space at 1635 Divisadero Street, will convert the 34,590-square-foot grocery store space into an ambulatory surgery center with 94 off-street parking spaces for patients and staff.
Well, it would be better than having that giant vacant space there, although I was secretly hoping that 24H Fitness would move in there if and when their building got knocked down to make a bigger one on Van Ness.
I live around the corner, and that huge thing’s being empty for so long has made the block particularly quiet. I had no idea the parking deck was that large, though. I thought it held about 15 cars. I used to love that Bell Market; it was like having a private grocery store.
I used to live at Sutter/ Gough and loved this market, very clean and like you said, never busy like other big box grocery stores. This was probably my favorite neighborhood to live in the city.
While I sympathize with the residents – who presumably…hopefully – would make limited use of a surgery center, a decade seems like ample time for a replacement to show up: whatever may have been the deficiencies that closed Bell, be it lack of parking, or neighborhood demographics, they probably haven’t changed…and aren’t likely to.
As a side note: I’m startled that a ~35K gsf space was shoehorned in there: 175×200′ (or whatever)…it sure doesn’t look that big.
Boo — like when we lost King of Falafel to an Urgent Care on Divisadero.
omg KOF was my lyfe 🙁
+1 on King of Falafel…
Agreed, better than nothing, and Walgreens is right next door so there’s that. Still a bummer though, I went to their salad bar all the time which Safeway never had in my years of working in the neighborhood, and it was more convenient in general.
Years ago a grocery store (Grocery Outlet?) tried to move in to that building. A San Francisco Supervisor (I can’t recall the name) and some neighbors came out as being totally against it. I remember their rhetoric was, in essence, the store wasn’t up to their quality standards. The grocery company finally gave up dealing with them and walked away.
I walk by there almost every day and I miss having a convenient store at the location. Cynically, I always thought that a rug, paint or auto parts store – something that us city rats couldn’t use – would pick up the location.
With all of the apartment buildings going up on this side of town there is no grocery stores filling the need of the future residents. There will be those who can name all of the grocery stores in the area but they are not those of us who don’t own cars and/or are seniors and who disregard that some SF distances are made more difficult by the hills that must be climbed on foot. And that public transit is often undependable, crowded or rolling cars of embarrassing or uncomfortable situations.
Ten (years ago), it appears; tho any trace of the ensuing controversy seems to have disappeared, save for this brief mention in some obscure web site.