From the ashes of a 2016 fire, an affordable housing development may rise.
This week, the Bernal Heights Housing Corps and other developers purchased the property at 3300 Mission St. near 29th Street, the former site of the 3300 Club and a single-room-occupancy hotel called the Graywood. A five-alarm blaze in 2016 ravaged the building and five others, displacing 58 tenants, many of whom were formerly homeless.
The nonprofit housing developer plans to build a seven-story building with a ground-floor commercial space. The 35 units would all be studios, which would be offered to the tenants displaced by the fire, though it is unclear how many would return. Construction is slated for winter 2025, and it could be move-in ready a year and a half later.
The San Francisco Business Times was the first to report the affordable housing plan.
The limited partnership 3300 Mission Partners L.P. paid for the property on June 5, according to the San Francisco Assessor Recorder’s office. Funding for the purchase came from the 2019 Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, which gives nonprofits the first offer on multifamily residential properties in San Francisco.
“We caught wind of the deal three years ago, and then it’s just been a back-and-forth with the seller and the city,” said Adeline Siew, accounting developer for the nonprofit developer’s parent organization, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center. Siew confirmed the group paid $3.85 million for the property.
Siew said longstanding San Francisco affordable developer Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, which was based in the Bayview and spurred by former Mayor Willie Brown, and Mitchelville Real Estate Group, LLC., make up the rest of the limited partnership. Though Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center hadn’t worked with them before, Siew said she’s excited for the collaboration. “Tabernacle has been in San Francisco for awhile, and Mitchelville has lots of experience in the Bay Area.”
Following the blaze, previous owner Dipak Patel sold it to Oak Mission LLC for $2.85 million in 2017, according to public records. Mission Local previously reported that Oak Mission planned to rehabilitate the building and create 22 residential hotel studio rooms, six tourist hotel rooms and a ground-floor space. The company ditched the plans in 2019, and put the place on the market for $3.15 million.
The property was also the site of a three-story building and the 3300 Club, a neighborhood bar that had operated at the spot for more than 60 years. The bar left in 2017, when Patel declined to renew the lease. It is not yet clear what business or business type would occupy the ground-floor space.
“There is supposed to be a liquor license attached, but I have no idea of how to chase that down,” Siew said. It could also “maybe be a restaurant.”
But those who miss the 3300 Club are in luck. Siew said the Neighborhood Center plans on keeping the original facade, and building the remaining “stories on top.” They will redo the inside, which is “dingy” at present. The nonprofit planned its development funding with the building’s extensive damage in mind.
Development is supported, in part, by the city’s Housing Accelerator Fund.
The addition grows the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center’s housing portfolio, which currently includes family housing developments like the 55-unit Bernal Gateway Apartments at Mission and Cesar Chavez, two senior housing complexes and seven Small Sites properties, older buildings that have been acquired and rehabbed. In total, the nonprofit has developed nearly 600 units.
OK what about the big fire at 22nd admission, that’s now an empty lot/eyesore. When is that going to be re-developed?
Will the existing structure be demolished or will they be able to salvage some of it? It’s a nice looking building…