Local developers unveiled the initial plans for a project that will top out at 1,100 homes on nearly 18 acres of public land in San Francisco’s Balboa Reservoir.
A building consortium led by Bridge Housing, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, filed plans for 89 townhomes at 11 Frida Kahlo Way, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The two-phase project next City College of San Francisco was estimated to cost $600 million when it was approved two years ago. Half of the homes will be designated for affordable housing, 17 percent of which will be funded by the city.
The consortium of developers includes Bridge Housing, Avalon Bay, Mission Housing, Pacific Union Development and Habitat for Humanity of Greater San Francisco. The group expects to meet the Dec. 31 deadline to buy the 17.6-acre site, owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
The first phase of 600 market-rate and affordable homes includes the 89 townhomes on 3.6 acres on the western side of Balboa Reservoir. It will surround a 2-acre Reservoir Park.
The project, designed by Pleasanton-based Dahlin Group, features three different townhome plans that range from 1,700 square feet to 2,400 square feet.
The three-story townhomes, in a mix of grays and browns, will be clad in stucco, wood and “cementitious siding,” according to new renderings and a description by the Business Times.
Of the 600 homes planned in the initial phase, 250 would be rented at market rates, 150 reserved for local teachers and 124 affordable family homes. The for-sale townhomes would be built last.
Developers are “still determining project costs and financing sources,” but hope to start infrastructure construction next year, Jeremy Hoffman, Bridge Housing’s director of development, told the Business Times.
A groundbreaking is expected in 2024
The building site, now a parking lot serving City College, will sell for $11.6 million, which is below market rate for the property.
It was also subject to an anti-privatization campaign by critics who wanted to see the public land redeveloped into 100-percent affordable housing.
In 2020, two City College instructors launched an unsuccessful appeal of the project alleging violations of California’s Environmental Quality Act in the project’s approval.
— Dana Bartholomew
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