Mason and Turk Design

While SB Architects appears to have replaced Heller Manus as the architects of record, the plans for a 12-story building with a mix of market-rate residential units over ground floor retail to rise on either side of the Metropolis Hotel on the corner of Mason and Turk in the Tenderloin are moving ahead.

Currently the site of a fenced-in parking lot for 54 vehicles, the proposed building would reach a height of 120 feet (up to 140-feet for the above-roof structures) with 109 dwelling units (65 one-bedrooms and 44 two-bedrooms) over ground-floor retail spaces along both Mason and Turk and parking for 55 vehicles and 120 bikes.

If approved, construction will take around 18 months and they’re shooting for occupancy by the summer of 2016.  New trees would fill the existing curb cut along Mason and half the cut along Turk.

20 thoughts on “Plans For Twelve-Story Tenderloin Development Move Ahead”
  1. woohooo! this is an awesome project. Even better that it’s ridding the city of another surface parking lot.

  2. So are SROs always going to be SROs? Isn’t there some law that forbids them from being changed? What if they’re sold?

    1. I’m guessing that most of the SRO’s are owned by non-profits like TNDC. In which case they’re pretty permanent (but well run). Privately owned SRO’s, in my understanding, are very difficult to convert to either tourist hotels or other housing, but I’m too lazy to look up the regulations.

    2. If you want to take SRO units out of a building you have to replace them with SRO units elsewhere. So basically they’re around forever.

  3. You can’t convert or tear down SRO rooms without replacing them elsewhere– so yes, they are protected.

  4. I hope a local housing 501 can get their hands on this. Otherwise this building could begin the TL gentrif. countdown.

    1. TL gentrif countdown? May it be. No displacement desired but dense market rate and some upzoning way to go for balanced area. Red hot mid mkt unstoppable. Watch what happens.

      1. Is it? I remain skeptical that much of the modern Web 2.0 ecconomy has any staying power. “My compamny makes an ap that turns my cell phone screen different colors depending on my mood”. Has Twitter ever made any money, really? What happens when people buying advertising realize none of us pay any attention at all to even the most targeted ads?

      2. Not going to happen. The Tenderloin has strict height limits of 90 and 120 ft that were passed specifically to stop the gentrification that was taking place in the 1960s and 1970s when such as the Hilton were built.

    2. TL gentrification is perfectly okay. SROs aren’t going anywhere, and no one who can pay market rate is going to be moving into one. Adding people who will contribute to the safety of the area is a great thing.

      1. Have you walked around the TL lately (no, it’s not as unsafe as you may imagine in the daytime)? A lot of the buildings are either new or recently renovated. It’s not an east coast-style slum with deteriorated buildings. In fact, the number of vacant/parking lots and/or unrenovated buildings is becoming negligible. Much of what has happened is a result of “affordable housing” funds sourced either from developers elsewhere or a series of city bond issues. But it has happened and the residents in the new buildings are often Southeast Asian immigrants families (yes, families . . . with a surprising number of kids running around in the daytime).

    1. Those uses aren’t going away but the buildings can be renovated and better run. Many have been as I said above.

  5. The picture shows another parking lot on the south side of Eddy, and a bigger one on the north side. Maybe sites new buildings? Anything to improve the Tenderloin. Nothing in the western world could be worse than it is now.

  6. The parking lot on Eddy is currently modulars that support local affordable housing staff while Franciscan Towers is being rehabbed and will stay in support of TL ‘ideals’. In regards to this current building, yes, it is happening, and yes, it is contributing to the gentrification of the TL but it is also inevitable given the nature of the SF housing crisis. The owners of the L shaped parking lot land are fully capable of developing the space as they desire, though they need to take into strict consideration the outcomes of building a market rate monster in between 2 adjacent SRO low income buildings. Impact will be high and risky for both the developer and the surrounding residents. We need to continue to look at all sides of the coin in this insane demand for new SF housing.

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