Following a couple of false starts and mis-reports, the formal application to proceed with the conversion of the ill-fated and long-vacant “6×6 San Francisco” shopping center at 945 Market Street into an IKEA-anchored Market Street Place has been submitted to Planning.
In addition to an 87,000-square-foot IKEA, the conversion will maintain 46,000 square feet of space for other retailers; 21,000 square feet of space for restaurants and eateries; 13,000 square feet of “entertainment” space; and 47,000 square feet of space that was previously converted from retail to office use on the building’s 4th and 5th floors.
I’m feeling optimistic about the future of Mid-Market. 2-3 new construction condo buildings have popped up on every block. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and now IKEA will have opened their doors. Hotels with swanky rooftops have opened. The number of office employees – despite COVID stuff – is still probably higher than it was in 2012.
Mid-Market is still only ten years into its revival. Give it another ten to twenty and I think it will be fully revitalized.
I’ll update timeline – we probably need another two full cycles. Maybe more like thirty years. We made a ton of progress in this last boom. It was completely desolate back in the day.
In the long run we are all dead.
– JM Keynes
Very much appreciate this optimistic take. Many of us are bemoaning how Mid-Market was on the cusp of a historic transformation when COVID hit. Your long view may be better. Thanks.
I’ve been in SOMA since 2009.
I had 2 units mid market – sold one this February. (barely made the top before things dropped)
Going to sell my other this coming February. Moving down south, where the rental market is not nearly as regulated and Landlords aren’t the enemy. This city is just awful to deal with.
Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and now IKEA will have opened their doors
IOW, it’s the new Emeryville.
PF Chang’s, come on over!
Finally a good Chinese restaurant in SF !!
🙂
people have been saying the TL is 10 yrs away from improvement every 10 years for the last 50. if the city doesnt get serious about cracking down on crime, drug dealing and conservatorship, then it cant be fixed
Agree 1000%. I have lived near the TL for 20+ years. Nothing changes except the politicians who say that the TL is turning the corner. Then they go and it’s the same street scene as always.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Absolutely. Hopefully Breed won’t be paralyzed with the shift to more conservative politics. She needs to enforce conservatorship. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want Trump, (although that would certainly fix the problem although it would be radical) but just a more sensible, middle ground mind set could fix this city.
We’re going to get (if the Board of Supervisors approve) a revision to the City’s surveillance ordinance, which should provide another tool to combat crime and open-air drug dealing in the Tenderloin, although it’s going to be difficult to see quick results with the staffing shortages in the the Police Department.
A wall around the Tenderloin?
Mid-market is an up-and-coming area….and always will be 🙂
And now Dave can stop going on about how Twitter will be moving it’s HQ out of Mid-Market when Elon takes it over, because Bloomberg is reporting that Musk is backing out of the $44 Billion Deal Over ‘Misleading Representations’.
The problem with Mid-Market is this: All the big Social Service agencies are located nearby. If you’re homeless, hungry, drug-adddicted or just plain crazy, this is the neighborhood where the relief is. Put these Social Service agencies anywhere else in the City, and presto! You would have your new MId-Market. Or Tenderloin. And the list of Social Service agencies is extensive. I don’t know why the media misses this aspect of the problem when they report on MId-Market.
Well they’re not too crazy if they’ve come to realize this…are they ??
They should pass legislation to move all these homeless services to Treasure Island. I don’t see what the problem is. No historically marginalized communities, no displacement of current residents. Since for whatever reason we are committed to keeping the homeless within our borders, this seems like a pretty good compromise. It will clean up SF’s reputation around the world when tourists no longer have to walk by the blight of drugs and mental illness while continuing to provide the homeless with care.
Watch where the pushback will come from — the thousands and thousands of homeless industrial complex/non-profit workers who don’t want to cross the bay bridge to work.
As someone who is on Social Security Disability Insurance and lives in another part of SF, Treasure Island is terribly inconvenient. Further, to suggest people like me are a problem to be swept aside is an exhausted idea that fares well in totalitarian regimes but not in pluralistic societies like ours. I hope you’re ready.
Its the dense concentation of residential hotels that are locked in time with rent control, clustered around TL and SoMa. The non-profit orgs follow in their wake.
And 16th and Mission.
Funny image, not one ikea bag or shopping cart? And do they have to abomonize the prior facade with a blue rectangle illuminated and IKEA in big yellow letters? Maybe a bit more reserved in the signage? Prevent the strip mall effect on market street? And how many delivery 🚚 vehicles will start driving on sf streets or will their be a loading and unloading que on market or mission ?? Details ??? The cheap hotdog 🌭 eats will rival and put the giants ballpark to shame to bad they don’t serve ikea beer 🍺 but than again u never know what will be the sales focus on the inside?