Construction is rising for a new five-story apartment at 3945 Judah Street in San Francisco’s Sunset District. The project has replaced the former Eugene’s Automotive Repair shop, with crews now working on bringing twenty apartments close to Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park. The applicant used HOME-SF to increase the project capacity and ensure five units would be designated as affordable.
3945 Judah Street construction update, image by author
Leavitt Architecture is responsible for the design. Facade materials will include painted wood board complemented by reclaimed wood siding. The ground floor will be wrapped with board-formed concrete and curtain-wall glass. The first floor will include retail space, a lobby, and a landscaped backyard.
The 55-foot tall structure will yield 12,250 square feet for housing and 2,660 square feet of shared open space. Parking will be included for seven cars and 20 bicycles. Of the 20 apartments, five will be designated as affordable. Unit sizes will include ten one-bedrooms, nine two-bedrooms, and one three-bedroom.
3945 Judah Street bay window facade forming, image by author
3945 Judah Street view from along 45th Avenue, rendering by Leavitt Architecture
Brendan Quinlan is the property owner as of 2013, after purchasing the 0.11-acre parcel for $900,000. City records show that Quinlan Construction filed plans in 2013 to replace the former Eugene’s Auto Repair shop with a four-story mixed-use project with retail and six apartments. The application was resubmitted in 2015 and laid dormant before officially closing in 2020, overlapping with the project application for the now-rising five-story building. The current iteration was first submitted to the planning department in 2018.
The single-story auto-repair building was demolished in 2022, and construction started earlier this year. The concrete podium is finished, with the wooden structure on the third floor as of late December during our site visit. The estimated completion date has not been announced but could be expected by the end of this year or next year in 2025.
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 might be one of the first buildings going up on Judah street in years….
The other gas station, at 31st Ave, was turned into condos with ground floor retail a few years back. Seems like those condos are a hard sell though. Two more gas stations to go!
It would of been nice to see a floor plan or two
Not enough parking for all the units and bedrooms.
It’s in SF, units will get filled by folks that prefer to not have a car.
If anything it should have fewer parking spots. It’s only a block from the N.
I agree it should have more parking spots. There are enough places going up without parking. I believe at least 75% of people want a car even it San Francisco. We live in a mobile society. Most families have at least 1 car if not more even if they take public transportation. I would image most people who comment on here have 1 or 2 cars. We have 3 and are about to purchase 1 more due to a new job 10 miles away we have 5 adults in our household, 3 of them work. We could spend 1 hour commute each way or 1 1/2 to 2 hours each way on public transit. I am retired and only use my car to go to the dog park, grocery store, gym, golf and to various social things. If I did everything in my neighborhood and only used amazon, I may not need a car.
I have had numerous housemates in this area over the years who attempted to go car-free.
The longest anyone managed to do it was for 2 years, then they succumbed and bought a used Kia.
Going car-free in the Outer Sunset works under very specific (privileged) circumstances, but the second someone adds regular outside-SF trips to their itinerary, it becomes a countdown until they get a car.
I drive less than 5K miles per year, but I still feel like I need a car to haul music gear around and to visit people in the South Bay, miles from Caltrain.
Most San Franciscans do drive. Apartment buildings should factor in parking.
I’ve been watching this building go up. This is the kind of building that we’re going to see a lot more of in the Sunset in the next decade. As I think about the future of a significantly higher density Sunset, it’s going to mean a lot of change in how people live. As there are more people, there will be a lot more nearby retail so driving is not a requirement for many of life’s necessities.
There’s a supermarket literally across the street from this particular building. On the next block is a 7-11, as well as a number of shops, restaurants and cafes. Golden Gate Park is two blocks away. And the N Judah runs right in front of the building. A denser Sunset should also support more public transportation options.
Still, change comes with challenges. Parking is already tight in this neighborhood, especially on street cleaning days. San Franciscans are innovative, I’m sure we’ll come up with solutions as we start growing again.
+1 to that. The Sunset (esp along the few active corridors) deserves more of this kind of building to tighten up the blocks and add a little more life to the street. Between carshare and direct access to the train, there’s no reason to stress parking requirements IMO.
It seems like recent trends indicate that there will be less retail citywide for the time being. Particularly supermarkets.
SFMTA says that 65% of San Franciscans have access to a personal vehicle, and I would expect that to hold true in this location as well. I would imagine that affluent middle aged people, being significantly more likely to own a car than other groups, will probably still drive a car even in this location.
Low income seniors, the least likely to drive, probably won’t.
But those low income seniors are going to have a hard time budgeting for produce from Other Avenues, and may or may not be capable of riding Muni or walking to the supermarkets (Safeway, 25th Ave Sunset Market, 22nd Ave Market) nearby.
Maybe in 20 or 30 years time, we’ll get those Muni improvements.
But as you say, with change comes challenges.
This is being built on a Muni Metro corridor with service every 8-12 minutes, and bus service from 1-5am when Muni Metro isn’t running. There is absolutely no need for parking for new buildings on Judah. “Even in San Francisco…” sounds like some of the people asking for more parking aren’t from here and don’t know what it’s like to live in the city.
I have a small, all-electric car, maybe a certain number of parking spaces could be prioritized for EVs. I’m 71, did not own a car for years when I was younger, but do need one for visiting friends, picking things up, going to classes and volunteer gigs (including one I do twice a week in the Bayview).
I think this is the kind of building we will inevitably see more of on the Westside of SF in years to come,and I think that’s a good thing.
The people who think that residents of this area will be content to live car-free because the N Judah runs by here are being naive, however.
Even the developers at 1510 Webster in Oakland (walking distance from BART, downtown and thousands of employers) lamented the fact that they didn’t add more parking to their 200 unit tower, and insisted on providing it for their next project at 1523 Harrison.
The Outer Sunset, however, is a 45 minute Muni ride from downtown, with no major employers within walking distance, except maybe for SFUSD or UCSF.