Once again, plans are shifting dramatically for the potential redevelopment of the Sloat Garden Center in San Francisco’s Sunset District. After over a year of seeking approval for a 50-story tower at 2700 Sloat Boulevard, the previous developer withdrew plans in May of this year. The new joint venture has submitted plans to create over four hundred apartments in a 22-story tower.
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation is leading the project in a co-development with Housing America Partners. The development will create two structures rising from a shared single-story podium. The West Tower will rise 203 feet, and the East Tower will rise 233 feet above street level. The application has invoked Assembly Bill 2011, which could streamline the approval process.
2700 Sloat Boulevard pedestrian view from across Sloat, rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz
The complex will yield around 459,000 square feet, including 413,750 square feet for housing, 10,450 square feet for retail, and 15,300 square feet for a 52-car garage. Additional parking will be provided for 217 bicycles. The project will include 446 apartments, with 207 affordable rentals and 239 for-sale market-rate homes. Unit types vary with 94 studios, 173 one-bedrooms, 120 two-bedrooms, and 59 three-bedrooms.
Solomon Cordwell Buenz is still responsible for the design. Illustrations show a stepped tower with a series of terraces extending from the 22-story peak to just seven floors along the more residential Wawona Street. The Wawona-facing elevation matches a similar roofline to the terrace of the recently approved United Irish Cultural Center across the street. Though just six floors tall, the community center is expected to stand 96 feet tall. The south elevation looking across Sloat Boulevard towards the San Francisco Zoo is patterned with a mix of curtain-wall glass and inset private terraces.
2700 Sloat Boulevard aerial view, rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz
In late December of 2021, we published our first coverage on 2700 Sloat Boulevard. 2700 Sloat Holdings LLC had submitted plans drafted by Korb + Associates for a 12-story complex with 400 apartments and retail. Roughly 16 months later, preliminary permits were filed in April of 2023 for a 50-story tower at 2700 Sloat Boulevard.
The Nevada-based developer, CH Planning, shocked the city with plans for a 589-foot tall skyscraper with retail and 680 apartments, including 110 affordable units. The city’s Zoning Administrator determined that the developer was relying on an inaccurate interpretation of the zoning code to achieve such high density. The developer attempted an appeal and filed two lawsuits, but dropped them after withdrawing the application in May this year.
2700 Sloat Street, image via Google Satellite, outlined by SFYIMBY
The 0.87-acre property is located between Sloat Boulevard and Wawona Street between 45th and 46th Avenue. Residents will be across from the Westerly apartments, Java Beach at the Zoo, and the United Irish Cultural Center. The San Francisco Zoo will be just across Sloat Boulevard. Ocean Beach is two blocks away, across the Great Highway.
The estimated cost and timeline for construction have yet to be shared.
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The supervisor said it was still out of scale, I dunno. The lack of housing built in the area is out of scale. Once a few 6-8 story buildings pop-up it won’t be out of scale.
Wow, it’s beautiful! I wish I lived in the sunset so I could have a view of this building.
Parkside
I hope they go back to the drawing board and come up with a lower building massing. In any case I will miss the garden center
So terraces are on the north side…
Right – not expecting those roof-top trees to get much sun. (eye candy for planning only?)
52 parking spaces for 446 apartments?? That’s a non-starter right there. That’s not exactly a “transit-rich” environment. Residents’ cars will flood the streets—where will the homeless park their RVs?
False on two fronts.
There’s a MUNI line literally across the street.
Great resolution. Hopefully it moves forward. However my gut tells me it looks too cool for SF and will never happen in this form. They’ll knock it down by 8-10 floors and then the economics will require stucco, vinyl windows, and no massing offsets…
Lord, I hope not but, I share your pessimism.
This is exciting. This will bring some fresh air to area.
It is not exciting, because it will never be built in anything like this form. The developer is not serious, and this is not a serious proposal, just like the previous 589-foot tall tower wasn’t serious.
Looks great. Build it!
It’s kind of a cool design, and this stretch of Sloat could use some bigger buildings for sure. However, the height limit is 10 stories, so there is that.
Need to improve the public transit situation on Sloat though. Everyone will drive no doubt, and parking in that area is already pretty difficult.
Also, it’s funny how the renderings show some sort of East Coast-style tree canopy on the surrounding streets, when in reality, there are probably a half-dozen scraggly trees in the entire neighborhood.
Excellent. I hope it actually gets built.
Wow, it’s beautiful. We need more housing like these in the in the Sunset please.
The NIMBYs who are objecting prove that they are not bright enough to hold two thoughts in their feeble brains at once.
“The area is not transit-rich”
i) Yeah, buses can increase stop frequencies once such a complex gets built. That is one of the benefits of a bus system.
ii) A lot of tech workers can work from home 80-90% of the time. People with such flexibility will gravitate to complexes like this one.
All NIMBY objections are invalid.
Looks great.
Would be lovely to redevelop the rest of sunset with this density.
Weird to do north facing terraces; even their own rendering has them in shadow. I’d love to see this get built but I agree with the folks thinking this is not really a genuine proposal.