1394 Harrison Street Site

A gas station occupied the northeast corner of 10th and Harrison from 1949 through the 1960s. In 1969, the 10th Street Car Wash took over the Western SoMa site. And today, the City granted the proposed plans for a 67-unit building to rise up to 55 feet in height on the site a neighborhood plan-based exemption from having to complete a costly, in terms of both time and expense, Environmental Review.

1394 Harrison Street Rendering

As plugged-in people know, plans to redevelop the 1394 Harrison Street site have been in play since mid-2014 and the site traded hands for $3.9 million later that year.

And while the site soon returned to the market listed for $7 million in early 2015 with drawings, but no approvals, for a development with 76 micro-units, the latest plans now call for 67 single‐room occupancy (SRO) units over 975 square feet of retail space and a storage room for 72 bikes, for which the building permits have already been requested and triaged.

All that being said, with Realtex leading the development charge, don’t be surprised if the 1394 Harrison Street site returns to the market as an approved development site before it actually breaks ground.

16 thoughts on “Plans for Studios to Rise on SoMa Car Wash Site Closer to Reality”
    1. Totaly and utter waste of space . Should be 12-15 flrs. Western soma plan is as useless as used toilet paper and should be flushed

  1. Anything is better than the recycling site which the owner tried to ram down the neighborhood’s throat with the help of Jane Kim. Lucky it didnt happen we have enough crap going on here already.

      1. Ahhh got it! Thanks. It would be great if that site were developed for housing as well. The more working folks living in SOMA the better.

  2. Great to replace what must be the ugliest “building” in SOMA. Amazing that this was the “highest and best” use for the site for so many years….

  3. On which parcel is that billboard sited? I’m curious how these grandfathered in billboards figure into development plans. Is their “view corridor” protected and does that limit what can be built? I see it remains partially obscured in the rendering.

    1. If you look at googlemaps streetview it is clear the billboard is on an adjoining parcel. The great thing is that its value will drop to zero, because it will no longer be visible from the entire intersection, and will hopefully be removed (at least it won’t have any advertising on it…).

      I wish we could find an affordable mechanism to get rid of all the billboards in the City…particularly the ones that have nothing to do with freeways (although those aren’t great either). They definitely add nothing to the aesthetics of the City and don’t belong on ordinary city streets.

      1. That billboard can’t be worth much now…as Harrison Street is one way in the opposite direction so it is completely invisible on its block. It therefore relies ONLY on being seen by one lane of traffic coming down the two way stretch of Harrison between 11th and 10th, and then turning right around Costco. Bizarre that it is even there. (Strangely the current billboard is in Spanish…..it’s either poorly considered placement or there’s an assumption that it’s catching folks driving from the Mission).

        1. Good catch on the one-way conflict. Still the billboard can be viewed by pedestrians walking in the opposite direction, so it has some value.

          My observation has been that owners of billboards will hang on to their assets to the very end until they’re forced to abandon them. It isn’t possible to create new billboards in most situations (thanks Ladybird!) so as the number of billboards dwindle, the value of those that remain increase.

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