Update: Representatives for the property owner have shared with YIMBY that the team is now planning a full demolition of the existing brick structure.
Emergency demolition permits have been filed for a portion of the Verdi Building, located across from Washington Square in North Beach, San Francisco. The brick structure standing at 659 Union Street has been left vacant after being ravaged by fire in 2013 and 2018. The application states that 50 feet of brick wall at the rear of the building will be removed.
The partial demolition permit is not related to redevelopment plans. The city’s deputy director of historic preservation signed off on the demolition permit and emergency order, describing the scope of work as “an approximately 50’ section of brick wall at the rear (south) of the building.”
659 Union Street redevelopment plans, rendering by Powell Partners
Last October, the San Francisco Standard reported that Red Bridge Partners, led by Jeff Jurow, planned to submit preliminary permits for an eight-story development at 659 Union Street, with 89 apartments, a rooftop restaurant, and 5,700 square feet of ground-level retail. This would include 15 affordable housing units. SFYIMBY has not been able to independently verify the pre-application.
Red Bridge Partners purchased the property in 2017 for over $2 million. The latest permit is not for full demolition of the damaged brick structure, and there does not appear to be any planning progress for a potential eight-story replacement at the corner lot. The developer has yet to reply to a request for comment.
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Is it really, “emergency” demolition when it’s 8 years after the fire?
There should be a Muni station on this site with housing on top. Anything else is a waste.
Oh Lordie yes – didn’t the tunnel borer end up about a block north of there? So the tunnel is already dug?
Only in SF could a burned-out hulk of a building in a prominent location stand unused for over ten years before somebody gets around to maybe, possibly, perhaps doing something useful with it. Hope this moves forward in my lifetime…
It’s not the City’s fault this time; it’s the property owner.
Please do something. This is ridiculous. A world class prime real estate spot and it has been sitting there as a burnt dilapidated husk. Tear it down and start anew ASAP. Leaving the facade was the worst thing because it gave NIMBYs and preservationists hope that it could be restored. Even if it could have been restored, it’s been sitting there for 8 years, that luxury has been forfeited. Let’s move on and build some much needed housing in North Beach.
Please for the love of God use at least part of the ground floor as an entrance to a North Beach MUNI subway station. The tunnels are already built right there.
MUNI station please 🙏
Where is the entrance to the future subway station?
So a property in the most prime location you could want, wastes 13 years doing nothing, only to then approve a plan that is little net new sqft addition relative to the pre-fire structure?
That is about as San Francisco as San Francisco gets.