NNN Brokers USA – San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Brokers: "The Scoop"

[Capp Street Houses. Photo Credit: Eric Bennion via SF City Guides]

They’ve been working on it for years, and late last week the Planning Department released their Eastern Neighborhoods Mission Area Plan (South Mission) Historic Resource Survey. It’s been conceived as a tool to identify historic assets in this iconic neighborhood and there are recommended changes in zoning and permitted uses and it does break out into potentially landmarkable districts. The department addresses everyone- Latinos, yuppies, hipsters- as part of Gavin Newsom’s mandate that everyone be welcome in San Francisco:

The Mission District is, in many ways, the heart of San Francisco. For much of its history, the Mission developed as a semi-independent “city within a city” with its own rich cultural and architectural heritage. The oldest settled area of the city, the Mission has retained distinctive identity and character even though subsequent historic events have continued to transform it. The Mission, long a working-class stronghold, is a mixed-used district centrally located between the downtown districts and the outlying residential neighborhoods…

More recently, it has become the center of Latino culture in San Francisco and an incubator for countercultures and bohemia. The district is also fast becoming a desirable residential enclave for upscale professionals, a phenomenon that raises issues of gentrification, displacement, and identity. Within this environment, the San Francisco Planning Department’s Mission Area Plan proposes new land use and zoning controls that are intended to balance growth with preservation.

The survey’s densely packed but broken up into individual (and printable) .pdfs like Olsen’s Queen Anne Cottages Historic District and the Hampshire Street False-Fronts Historic District. For hours on online fun, there’s an interactive Google map of the entire project, lot by lot, clapboard by bracket. The project is now open for public comment, and there are community workshops planned for Wednesday, September 22, and Saturday, September 25, 2010 at the Cesar Chavez School.
· Survey Materials [SF Planning]
· South Mission Historic District Interactive Map [SF Planning]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

“Tailored, refined, breathtaking.” Usually we like to poke fun at the list agent’s choice of words. However, this is the exception. Please, dear readers, look through the gallery. Especially take note of the wood-paneled library and media rooms. This 4-bed, 4.5-bath prime piece of real estate tail just hit the market with a “hey, mom! Can I borrow some change for the lemonade stand?” price tag of $5,250,000. Built in 1923 and designed by San Francisco architect Conrad Alfred Meussdorffer, this penthouse has everything you could ever ask for, including an au pair room (that’s currently a work-out room). The entire 5,208 square foot apartment is two full-floors in a 7-unit building. But don’t get your checkbooks out yet, no. This is a Co-op, people. Which means no matter how many clams you’ve got in your bank account, you must first meet the approval of the board. No flip-flops. No bed head. Pearls and suits and poodles are suggested, folks. Also, the monthly HOA dues are $1,900, which is totally “whatever” since you’re paying $5,250,000 for a penthouse.
· 1800 Gough [Redfin]
· 1800 Gough Penthouse [Listing Website]

Bored? Then head out to 201 Mission Street, where the Transbay Terminal demolition meetings are being held today. One’s scheduled for noon, the other 6p.m. The meetings “will include information about upcoming demolition activities, planned street closures, and hours of activity.” [SF Appeal]

Today is the day that High Bridge Arms, Inc.’s permit hearing happens. Let’s quickly catch you up to speed. San Francisco only has one gun shop. It’s on Mission near Valencia. And it’s been strictly export/import for the last year, meaning that the storefront was empty and not permitted for retail sales. Earlier this year the gun shop manager, Steven Alcairo, was attempting to remodel the store and get a zoning permit so he could reopen the gun shop by the end of the year. Surrounding business have mixed feelings, the Northwest Bernal Alliance neighborhood group does not. They shot off an email campaign to get folks to rally against the gun shop, saying that a neighborhood with families and kids should have a more family-friendly retail store, not a gun shop. Today Alcairo is applying for a zoning permit so that the store can go back to what it had been doing for five decades – sell guns. “Our store has been a member of this community longer than most neighbors who live here,” Alcairo said. “It doesn’t make sense to us that a small percentage of them are suddenly upset that we’re here and want us to leave.” Alcairo told the Chronicle. “If anything, we’re bringing cops into the neighborhood.”

Supervisor David Campos, who reps the neighborhood, said he sees both points of view. “Every community needs to decide for itself what makes sense,” Campos said. “And what I hear from a lot of people is, they would rather not have this business here. The fact that it’s been there for a while doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing for the community today.” Alcairo also noted that to buy a gun, a customer must go through a background check, a test and fingerprint check with the U.S. Department of Justice.
· NIMBYs Oppose Re-Opening of SF’s Only Gun Shop [Curbed SF]
· S.F. groups mobilize to deny permit to gun shop [SF Gate]
· The City’s Only Gun Shop Fights to Reopen [Mission Local]
· North West Bernal Alliance [NWBA]

[IMG_3948 via Curbed Flickr Pool/crimped69]

· Dash Hammett murder mysteries in SF. With maps! [Burrito Justice]
· Tiny lil earthquake hits Santa Clara County [Mountain View Voice]
· Dave Chapelle befriends local blogger [Mission Mission]
· For shame! LovEvolution canceled [SF Examiner]
· Creepy street (hill?) art is creepy [The Toasted Blog]

What’s the latest problem for the San Francisco Housing Authority? Computer glitches. The agency is trying to “reverse years of mismanagement where the agency failed to collect more than $2.2 million in rent from hundreds of public housing tenants…” [City insider]

[Mint Plaza via Curbed Flickr Pool/sirgious]

· Angry neighbor didn’t even use swear words! [Mission Mission]
· Homeownership: is it really the American dream? [The Atlantic]
· More delays for LovEvolution [SF Gate]
· Glen Canyon Park is the new black [Mission Mission]
· Millennium Tower security perhaps not as tight as assumed [SF Appeal]
· Five days left to see Extreme Mammals exhibit [Cal Academy]

With their spacious interiors, ample use of natural light, beamed ceilings, handsome gables and overhangs, walls of windows and comfortable seating, the Appletons reflect the first stirrings of the egalitarian trend to build warm and welcoming libraries whose form embraces their function An overview of the North Beach Library crisis from a supporter of its preservation. “Appletons” refers to Appleton & Wolfgard, the architectural firm which provided designs for a number of San Francisco public libraries in the days of Eisenhower and the Red Scare. Your mileage may very, but an interesting take on mid-century design in a town where many citizens would just as soon torch anything that’s not Victorian. [BeyondChron]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

This South Park 2-bed, 2.5-bath, 1,427 square foot penthouse loft is just oozing with all sorts of comfortable contemporary fancy smancy. The building was designed by Santos-Prescott. The kitchen’s got Bulthaup cabinetry. And just how shiny is that stainless steel refrigerator? This is your chance to live the Design Within Reach lifestyle, people. You even have a private rooftop terrace. Asking price? $1,349,000. Monthly HOA dues? $275.59.
· 188 South Park #11 [Redfin]