In the works for over a decade, the approved plans to completely overhaul and supersize the outdated Sunnyside Safeway at 625 Monterey Boulevard have been scrapped.
Instead, the existing store will simply be renovated and “upgraded” in place, possibly without ever closing its doors.
The original plans, which would have required closing the Store for around a year, would have expanded the Safeway from 19,000 to 45,000 square feet, incorporating a new pharmacy, bakery and Starbucks, and with new parking upon the store’s roof.
The Sunnyside Safeway is the store within which Mayor Ed Lee suffered his fatal heart attack.
I suppose Safeway could dust off the approved plans at a later date, but with the nearby Balboa Reservoir development adding 1100 units, there will be a lot more potential shoppers looking for a neighborhood store (who won’t necessarily want to go to the Ocean Ave. Whole Foods).
I lived over there. Wouldnt go to sunnyside for that. Id go to the Safeway in castro or on 16th, or bodegas in oceanview. But i dont see why they stopped this
Lipstick on a pig….it’s still a dump and still a Safeway, IMHO
Same thing happened to La Playa Safeway.
This is a bummer for the neighborhood. The roof leaks and the facilities are dirty. As noted the influx from the Balboa Reservoir Development would support a bigger brighter store. Whole Foods on Ocean and Canyon Market in Glen Park are a mile away so it is the only walkable grocery store for most Sunnyside residents.
If they wont invest in the property, perhaps a boycott of the store until they invest in full-time employee’s and better designed facilities with housing as part of the deal?
Pissing into the wind.
They exhibit a peculiar corporate disinterest in fully exploiting their real estate’s potential. Nowhere more so than the Market/Church Streets property.
It’s because they are owned by Albertson’s… Same ol same ol with Albertson’s
An underlying problem with the “retail apocalypse”. Spreadsheet diddlers and rentier vampire squids buying retailers and stripping away. I know San Francisco has become wealthy through “venture capital”, but financialization of the economy is not always a good thing.
Market/Church Safeway did a significant upgrade ten years ago.
That was then. This is now.
Perfectly stated Rodney. Albertson’s blows.
If the project doesn’t pencil out it doesn’t make sense to it. Even if it does pencil it has to offer a higher rate of return than Safeway can make it elsewhere. I doubt this does given what construction costs are in the City now.
This was an expensive proposal in a market with both a lot of competition from Amazon and from people eating out more. At some point sooner than later there is going to be a shake out in grocery stores like there was in gasoline stations. We will end up with fewer higher volume locations.
This land will get redeveloped in a higher better use. Maybe 6 story condos with a 10,000 SF Trader Joe’s on the first floor?
Pablito is correct, the issue is we need the land now up front, regardless of the slowness of the chains demise….