Organized Labor

Two New Projects in the Works for Market Street

by Paul Burton
Contributing Writer

Florida-based developer Crescent Heights is nearing completion of the demolition at Tenth and Market streets, marking the first phase of construction of the new $350 million, 720-unit condo project. The development will also include 100 to 200 units of family or senior housing constructed by Citizens Housing Corporation (CHC) and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC).

The two organizations worked with Bank of America to arrange a “bargain sale” of half a city block on Market Street in downtown San Francisco for market rate and low income housing. TNDC and CHC sold the land to the Miami-based Crescent Heights in March 2006 for $26.5 million.

According to CHC, the bank provided the 2.2-acre site at one-quarter of the property’s appraised value, essentially making a charitable donation of over $10 million. CHC and TNDC plan to construct approximately 200 low- and moderate-income residential units and have formed a joint venture with the developer for construction of a new 440,000 square-foot office building.

Turner Construction is the General Contractor for the project. Citizens Housing Corporation (CHC) is a nonprofit housing developer incorporated in 1992 to increase and preserve affordable housing opportunities for low-income Californians through the development of affordable rental, assisted living, and homeownership projects.

Unlike some other projects in the City, the 10th and Market development will include the mandatory 15 percent below-market-rate units on the same site where the more expensive condos will be built. Crescent Heights Vice President Steve Della Salla said that many of the units will be in the $500,000 to $600,000 range with some under $400,000.

The SF Business Times reported that the City’s Department of Building Inspections “expedited the demolition of existing buildings after vagrants repeatedly broke into 1401 Market St. and set the building on fire, according to DBI records.”

Trinity Plaza

After four years of often contentious hearings and negotiations, an agreement on development of the Trinity Plaza site at Eighth and Market Streets was reached by the building’s owner and the City. Supervisor Chris Daly, who represents the district where the existing Trinity Plaza apartments are located, worked out a deal with property owner Angelo Sangiacomo that will guarantee that current tenants of the rent-controlled apartments will have the right to rent the 360 replacement apartments, which will also be rent-controlled for life.

Press reports called owner Sangiacomo “the father of rent control” because the City’s rent control policy was enacted after tenants protested the rent increases on his properties in the 1970s. Tenants of Trinity Plaza also fought the owner over plans to demolish the building and replace it with condominiums.

“Over the past four years, I have witnessed a group of everyday San Franciscans organize to protect their community and to help save the soul of San Francisco. The tenants of Trinity Plaza truly love their neighbors and are unsung heroes of San Francisco,” Supervisor Daly said in a statement. “We are reminded that protecting the vulnerable is good for all of us, and doing the right the thing for those who are in need, is also good for the whole.”

The project will be the first to be built with units regulated under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance. An additional 230 new units will be built under the City’s Inclusionary Housing Program to be made available to households at 60 percent of the city’s median income of $66,500 per person in 2005, according to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The project calls for demolition of the Trinity Plaza apartments, formerly a hotel, and replacing the building with one containing up to 1,900 units. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the plan in April. Construction is expected to begin in 18 months and completed by the fall of 2010.