As we first reported a couple weeks ago, plans to convert the shuttered Lombardi Sports building at 1600 Jackson Street, at the corner of Polk, into San Francisco’s first Whole Foods Market 365 could be approved by San Francisco’s Planning Commission next week.
Once again, the proposed grocery would occupy the entirety of the existing structure, with over 15,000 square feet of retail space on its ground floor, 8,800 square feet of retail space on the second floor along with a 4,000-square-foot dining/seating/gathering area, and 70 parking spaces in the building’s existing garage.
And we’re now pleased to reveal that the proposed store’s façade has, in fact, been redesigned as newly rendered below (and as opposed to originally rendered):
In all due respect, is a supermarket opening SocketSite worthy?
Yes, because this is one of the worst uses of buildable space in all of the city right now, it’ll harm local retailers, it’ll massively increase traffic, and the missed opportunity of more housing and getting rid of the blank wall is just terrible.
Socketsite is right to force us to confront this sort of thing, so as to get us thinking about ways of stopping future such legislated suburbanism.
If everything was housing, where would we shop?
This is a densely packed neighborhood in need of more grocery options. This building is one of the few available that can be used as a grocery store. The momentum behind the old Apple Market space stalled long ago, so I look forward to this one opening.
How will a Whole Foods help the homeless? They tend to live on or near this block. I think this is a bad choice for the space.
It is zoned for retail, bdo the neighborhood fought previous attempts to build housing on the site. It is not the job of Whole Foods or any retailer to help homeless. The city has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and tax funds skeptically to build affordable housing. So, if you want to help the homeless, have the city accelerate it’s efforts to approve and fund the construction of supportive housing specifically to house those who are homeless.
Many WF are beneath housing (see the ones on Market, 4th St, etc.) and that’s the way we should be planning. 1-story buildings are a huge waste of space in central SF.
There’s another Whole Foods on California and Franklin, which is 6 blocks away from this site.
This neighborhood is not in need of more grocery options.
Amen. And Trader Joe’s about the same distance…
All the grocery stores are pretty busy, so clearly the demand is there.
Yes, all the couple of hundred people who read Sockitesute, many who don’t even live in SF have been “confronted.” That will amount to a whole lot of nothing.
The site is zoned for retail (it used to be sporting goods store). The neighborhood fought previous attempts to build housing on the site. The neighborhood could actually use more supermarkets, as several supermarkets located in the neighborhood have closed over the years, but the neighborhood has become more densely populated.
This is what is going to get built. I would rather focus on the overall city policy of limiting density and obstructing housing proposals than worry about what specifically gets built at this site.
For those interested interested in our actual numbers, we reach over a half million unique visitors (no, not simply “visits”) in a typical year with an average daily readership that’s measured in five figures alone.
A “couple hundred” would describe the number of concurrent users during a slow period, in the middle of the night.
I was being facetious. That said, this site still does not have anywhere near the unique visitors or average daily readership of a bigger local media site like SFGate, etc., and I doubt it has much impact on local policy (though, to be fair, I think the same of SFGate). I still stand by the sentiment of my remark that “confronting” your readership will not change jack with respect to SF planning laws or decision making by the Planning Department.
So you’re saying that a general news site attracts a larger overall audience than a site that’s targeted to those who are specifically interested in real estate, development, planning and design? Good to know! We’ll ramp up our sports, weather, fashion and entertainment coverage – and start pumping out lists of things random people write on Reddit and Twitter – ASAP!
Now back to the 1600 Jackson Street site, the redevelopment of which we have been following since 2014, with a number of twists and turns between…
This is the only SF real estate site worth reading. Keep up the good work.
Well, my dear Socket, you seem a bit touchy about a single comment, especially one that was actually directed at another (melodramatic) poster, not at you personally. Most owners of websites who feel confident the success of their website would not be so defensive or sarcastic.
I let your whole snarky retort about “for those interested in actual numbers,” go, and I didn’t bother pointing out that while “half a million unique visitors” might sound impressive on the surface, it does not explain how many of those “unique visitors” stay on this website for any significant amount of time, nor does it explain how many of those visitors read any particular article on this site. It would be quite possible to have a half a million unique visitors to a website in a year, and still have a specific article on that website that only a couple of hundred people have read.
Now, as you suggest, let’s get back to discussing planning and development.
For those who live in the neighborhood, this is a blessing. Excellent decision! NIMBYs go home
Shoulda been 6-10 floors of housing over the Grocery store, and WOW that’s ugly. Still bummed they can’t keep the murals…
notice the the tire wear in the ‘after’ photo?
and the older gent about to get hit by the blue car?
sums up the one-way streets on Polk perfectly
It’s kind of funny how bad the pavement is in the existing conditions photo. More patches than you can count. But the rendering? It’s kinda like the guy showed newly painted crosswalks and made the asphalt look worse if possible. Hopefully they didn’t pay more than $20 for that artistic masterpiece or else the developer got ripped off….
There is no good full spectrum grocery store in the few blocks north of here. Cheese Plus is great but limited.
Real Foods on Polk has been devoted to a multi-year death spiral. Bi-Rite would be a gift but Santa is not bringing it here anytime soon.
The community wants 365 here and despite the mean-spirited, unrehabilitated and vindictive local supervisor, we may finally get a grocery. If all we build are condos where do we shop? I don’t buy the traffic issue. There will be lots of shopper/walkers. Condos compete for parking and cause numerous auto trips when there is no local shopping.
The WF 365 is fine, but you can build condos AND have a grocery underneath, like the whole foods on Market or the one on 4th. That’s the way of the future—way better than a 1-story waste of space store.
If this is a approved project, than the planning department needs to go back to school…..
It’s going to be approved. The neighborhood fought previous plans to build housing on the site. If you would like to offer free “school” for the planning department, by all means post the link to your online school.
Looking objectively at the rendering, and considering the location, there should be several levels of apartments over that building.
I do like buildings that have a pillar at the corner – there are a few examples in SOMA that really help on those narrow sidewalks. Best setup is the salesforce tower where the whole building curves.
Can I request that we have more rounded buildings on corners of blocks?
Agreed, it would be great to have housing above this but they are reusing an existing building meaning the grocery store will be opening its doors relatively quickly if approved.
If the building had to be torn down (which it would be to have condos on top) and go through the permitting process at the city it would take several years (most likely more due to the push-back from the community) before the grocery store would open.
I’m a fan of having the grocery store now rather than a vacant building.
At least the rendering looks less like a school project from the 70s now.
(versus the previous rendering — was not commenting on the current mural)
UPDATE: Planning Positioned to Block Whole Foods Redevelopment