Plans to level the former Excelsior District Woolworth’s turned Dollar Store at 4550 Mission Street and construct a four-story building, with 17 residential units over a ground floor retail space and parking for 23 cars, were proposed back in 2006 but subsequently squashed by the economy and ongoing concerns about the density of the development and its impact on the neighborhood.

In 2013, the property changed hands for $1.65 million.

And today, a new set of plans for the site have been drafted and submitted to the city for review.

As designed by Schaub Ly Architects, the proposed five-story building would yield 24 family-sized residential units, a mix of 8 two-bedrooms and 16 threes, over 7,300 square feet of ground floor retail space and a basement garage for 24 cars.

And as the site is zoned for development up to 56 feet in height, a density bonus would not be required nor is being requested. We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.

27 thoughts on “Plans for Building up in the Excelsior Back in Play”
    1. I would rather have an apartment with bay windows than a flat facade picture window. Any day. I would also rather look at this boring, innocuous bay-windowed building than the flat, featureless, but otherwise identically boring alternative.

    2. needs a better sense of ground floor scale, height, proportion, and more articulated and detailed façade (see miserable design on ocean at former gas-station) another poor architectural project…

  1. This is great news for the Excelsior. The neighborhood’s commercial heart around Mission Street has been declining in popularity over the past few years. However, led by the redevelopment of the Safeway site, the Little Bear Preschool between Cayuga and Alemany and a few other smaller projects…the neighborhood should get almost 1000 new residential units over the next few years. This additional density is likely to envigorate restaurants and coffee shops along Mission Street and further increase the desirability of the neighborhood.

    1. The entire city has a glut of empty storefronts, many of them on the bottom floor of new developments. It’s the same in every American city. The issue is not density (The Excelsior is quite dense, and the city is only getting denser), but rents that are too high, income inequality too vast, and little effort to help small biz by our govt on all levels.

      Also, yeah, the sidewalks desperately need to be widened and cleaned regularly, but that is clearly not a priority of City Hall, either.

        1. Online shopping is difficult if you live in the Ex. Packages are regularly stolen off people’s doorsteps. I don’t use Amazon for exactly that reason.

          Other than that, the vast majority of the shopping on Mission in the Ex is some sort of ethnic fast food with small ethnic fruit and vegetable stands coming in second and banks third. Once I’ve filled up on tacos and bought my veggies with cash from the ATM, there’s nothing left to do.

          The issue with shopping in the Ex isn’t Amazon but a less-dense area with a lot of struggling families and very little disposable income.

  2. This part of the city is so deserving of sidewalk sweeping and hourly trash bin emptying. Mission Street from Silver to Geneva just needs tender loving care. Fantastic people and area! The small business owners are trying so hard to do their part – city services should as well.

    1. I agree too much garbage, etc! This new building maybe better then what’s there it’s an awful color on the dollar store and all this brings the neighborhood down when it should be clean and all bldgs and homes should have nice curb appeal like it use to

  3. Good site for housing, problem is the design, we have too many poor architectural buildings along the Excelsior that another classical attempt, without a solid comprehension of materials, street scale and proportion means we need to get some revisions, before this goes anywhere….

    Taller arcade level, and set-back or use materials better on the facades, top portion, and punched and setback treatments. Give some depth to the façade, not another wall-mega-box… We have enough of those already…

  4. Project should go for a round with the Excelsior Planning Initiative Group, and have some serious feedback prior to being allowed to go forward…

  5. Excelsior needs a community design review board that will seriously look at the junk designs coming in and get the architecture back into the design of street parti plans and better outside the “box” concepts.

    We need better public space ammenities, and lack a core area, so a series of public outdoor rooms is needed along the Excelsior corridor, or better designed buildings (the corner and ground/top floors need work on this proposal) the muted color scheme does not help as it looks like fake marble/gfrc panels or some other stucco garbage which we have enough of in the excelsior.

  6. This proposed building is very appropriate for the site. Although I wish the zoning allow a taller building, but 24 family-sized residential units with 24 parking, that’s very generous for SF new development standard.

    The building design seems well thought and proportionally fitting. The ground floor retail space also have high ceiling based on the look of the rendering.

    This is one of the better design I’ve seen in the Outer Mission district. I’m certain there are rooms for improvement, but this classic traditional timeless design definitely a fresh breath of air compare to all the overly modern design I’ve seen over the year.

    1. U need to walk the excelsior we have enough plain housing lacking any design details or thoughtful material palletes.

  7. That’s the problem with gridded Windows and false mullions (and millions $) they look at the bottom line and not the lines of the design.

  8. More trash. More traffic. More cars. No parking. No character. Other side resembles TiaJuana. Area is not kid friendly.

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