As we first reported last year:

While plans to convert the Mission District garage at 3140-3150 16th Street into a massive 20,000-square-foot restaurant and event space dubbed “The Albion on 16th” have been drawn, the building is now back on the market as “an excellent opportunity for an investor to re-purpose the existing building,” but without any approvals having yet to be secured nor a set price.

Purchased for a record-setting $8.7 million back in 2013, at which point Mx3 Ventures was planning to develop a five-story building with up to 25 condos and 8,000 square feet of retail on the parcel, said plans were subsequently abandoned and downsized, which shouldn’t have caught any plugged-in readers by surprise. And the downsized plans were then downsized again.

Keep in mind that while the corner site between Valencia and Guerrero in the Mission is zoned for development up to 55 feet in height, the existing Superior Automotive shop building is considered a historic resource, having been identified as such back in 2004.

And having failed to secure a buyer, the owners, who were seeking $11 million for the “excellent opportunity,” are now seeking “a great long term tenant” for the “historic garage.”

14 thoughts on “Now Seeking a Long-Term Tenant for This Historic Garage”
  1. A crappy auto store 5 minute walk from BART is only a historic resource in San Francisco (and apparently Oakland these days with the whole King block debacle).

    1. And remind me again why we have a housing crisis… Absurd! This anti-growth bubble is going to burst. The entire city including west side should be upzoned to 120′ with limited powers for the city to oppose code-compliant plans that include set BMR percentages.

      1. The worse thing about life in California is too damn many Californians. Enough with this growth for mere groth’s sake mentality.

  2. Historic resource? It’s a crappy garage.
    Common sense is out the window.
    City Hall? Historic resource.
    Palace hotel? Historic resource.
    Crappy garage is a crappy garage.
    Tear it down and build some housing.

    1. Don’t forget that dollar store on mission st- “valuable cultural resource” per MEDA.

      And yeah, Mx3 ventures must of gotten some easy breezy investment money back in the days when you couldn’t even get a 1% return on your money at a bank. These guys are seriously going to screw the pooch when they realize that they can’t rent this thing for a decent return. Without a significant change of use, this bldg in not worth anywhere near $8.7 million, that’s crazy money. Expensive white elephant. I sure hope they were using OPM on this speculation.

    2. Like it or not there’s more to the human experience than government and posh lifestyles. Factories, workshops, and even sewage processing plants are part of our history even if they aren’t celebrated as much as other locations.

      1. Sure, Sewage treatment plants like Crossness – Historic Resource,
        Real factories – Like the Showplace Square / Northeast Mission district – Historic Resources,
        Some old random stucco garage? Nope.
        The next generation has the right to build a shiny new future for themselves unencumbered by the mediocrity of the previous generations.

  3. This is not your average auto garage. It is a really superior example of its type and is an integral part of the architectural character of this block. But just because it’s a historic resource does not prevent adapting it to a new use.

    The buyers were simply exceptionally naive and greatly overpaid. The building was clearly listed as a historic resource on the Planning Department’s website for several years prior to the sale. Any buyer with any real experience in the city would have understood the limitations and bid accordingly.

    It could *still* be converted to housing, such as the “The Garage” at 1945 Hyde Street. Or, they could tenant it with a stable local business, such as all the auto repair businesses that occupied this building for almost 90 years until the building was sold.

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