A new funding milestone has been announced for Freedom West 2.0, a master plan to right the wrongs of 20th-century urban redevelopment in San Francisco’s Fillmore District. The $27 million secured to date comes a month after a new state bill has created a new pathway to finance the project. The development team includes MacFarlane Partners and Avanath Capital Management.
The development team announced the milestone achievement during a public celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Freedom West. According to a press release that announced the $27 million in funding commitments to date, the money has “enabled Freedom West to achieve operational stabilization and prepare for Freedom West 2.0 revitalization.” Funding partners include Bethel AME Church, JP Morgan Chase, MacFarlane Partners, Avanath Capital Management, Low Income Investment Fund, Common Spirit, The San Francisco Foundation, Menorah Park, and the City of San Francisco.
Freedom West streetscape, rendering by DLR Group
Freedom West Elevation, image courtesy DLR Group
In attendance at last week’s celebration, State Senator Scott Wiener championed the recently passed Senate Bill 593. The governor signed it in early October. SB 593 will create a tax increment financing structure to replace approximately 5,800 affordable homes lost during San Francisco’s Urban Renewal of the 20th century. Senator Weiner explained that “SB 593 can provide the pathway to the funding needed to enable community-driven projects like Freedom West to combine with private capital needed to preserve and build affordable housing so that low-income people of color can remain in, and more families can return to, San Francisco.”
“Prior to SB 593 there has been no city, state or federal funding available for housing co-ops in California,” said Victor MacFarlane, Founder and Executive Chairman of MacFarlane Partners, citing the bill as a vital victory for the project.
Freedom West 2.0, rendering courtesy project team
Freedom West innovation center, rendering by DLR Group
Freedom West was created as a nonprofit housing co-op by Bethel AME Church in 1973, following the aftermath of Urban Renewal in the 1950s and 1960s. In the Fillmore District and Western Addition neighborhoods, the government-sponsored plan displayed over 20,000 residents.
Construction of Freedom West 2.0 will ensure housing stability for the thousand or so residents living in the 382 co-op units. An additional 133 affordable homes will be added during construction, while the master plan seeks to create nearly 2,400 apartments above retail and public open space.
Initial plans for Freedom West Development will create 14 new buildings across the 10.8-acre property. The structure will rise four to 33 floors high, the tallest of which will rise 345 feet high in phase two. At build-out, MacFarlane Dev. Co. hopes to see over 2.5 million square feet of residential floor area, 100,000 square feet for the 150-room hotel, 60,000 square feet for commercial retail, 8,900 square feet for Cultural/Institutional/Educational tenants, and 221,900 square feet of usable open space. DLR Group is the project architect and master planner, working with Hood Design Studio with Kimley Horn as the civil engineer.
Freedom West aerial overview, rendering by DLR Group
Freedom West development parcels highlighted in white, via Google Satellite
Project addresses will include 710 & 889 McAllister Street, 735 Gough Street, and 550 Fulton Street. The recently filed planning application estimates construction will cost $1.426 billion. The construction costs do not include development, pre-construction work, marketing, and other pricey expenditures.
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
This is a transformative project & I hope can be repeated again in the Western Addition where there are low slung complexes which could accommodate better density & result in a more vibrant & diverse neighborhood.
The original piece on this project suggests 2000 marker rate units.
“ The Freedom West co-op stands to reap 15% of the profits from the 2,000 new market-rate houses, the remaining 515 units to be sold as affordable housing.”
Is the plan still for mixed-income? TTBMK The press release doesn’t state this.
I am so glad this is happening. Western Addition is such an anomaly: low density and covered with surface parking lots in one of the most central parts of the city. I am so glad this neighborhood is getting the attention it deserves!
I live directly across Gough and am very excited for this project. They can’t build it fast enough for me.