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The big lot that used to house Big Lots on Mission Street may soon be home to an affordable senior housing complex, from the same nonprofit that’s rebuilding the burnt remains of the 3300 Club across the street.
The quirky discount retailer Big Lots closed their location near Mission and 29th streets back in August 2022. The building has sat empty since, regularly getting tagged or covered with wheat-paste flyers, and with a “For Sale” sign on its exterior. But it’s not for sale anymore, as Mission Local reports the building sold last year for an estimated $2 million, and its new owner has submitted plans to transform it into a 70-unit affordable housing complex for seniors.
The buyer is the Bernal Heights Housing Corporation (BHHC), the same nonprofit that just bought and plans to redevelop the former 3300 Club building across the street that’s just been vacant since being destroyed by a fire in 2016. That 3300 Mission Street project is also proposed to become affordable housing, though not specifically for seniors.
Wait, isn’t there already housing above that building? Are they just going to tear down housing to build new housing? No, they are not. The housing that is there is another affordable senior housing complex owned and operated by Bernal Heights Housing Corporation, though it’s a separate building with a different address.
That building is called Coleridge Senior Housing, and its entrance is on the parallel Coleridge Street. That complex has 49 units, according to Mission Local.
Most of the units in the new development would be set aside for those making 30%-80% of the area median income, which works out to between $30,250 and $80,700 a year for one resident. BHHC plans to use the SB-35 and SB-423 streamlined affordable housing laws to speed up the project’s approval, though there will still be some degree of SF Planning Department review.
The vacant building is currently covered with flyers and posters, many of which are more of the questionably conceived political ads from the PAC behind the “That’s Fentalyfe” campaign. The flyers declare “It’s OK to want sh!t to work.” (These have been somewhat defaced with counter-messaging.)
But if a community nonprofit is buying vacant spaces and turning them into affordable housing for seniors, well frankly, that’s the way we’d like to see shit work in this town.
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist