As an interim use of the vacant post office space at 101 Hyde

Nonprofit Food Incubator La Cocina Envisions Major Tenderloin Food Hall

As an interim use of the vacant post office space at 101 Hyde

by Caleb Pershan Feb 16, 2018, 1:08pm PST

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La Cocina

Nonprofit food incubator La Cocina, which has helped women of color formalize or launch food businesses like Reem’s California, El Buen Comer, Nyum Bai, and Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas through its Mission District commercial kitchen, hopes to expand with a new 7,000 square foot food hall to be located in the Tenderloin. The project, which would be called La Cocina Municipal Market, is in its early stages, and would be undertaken as an interim use activation of the former post office site at 101 Hyde (at Golden Gate), a stopgap use of the vacant city-owned property which is set to become affordable housing.

City planning has approved the interim use, which could last anywhere between 5 and 10 years, but a La Cocina representative says the nonprofit has yet to sign a lease. Currently, La Cocina seeks to fill the role of project manager for the Municipal Market and fundraise to make it a reality.

The market, which would focus on feeding the Tenderloin community and supporting food entrepreneurs, would be a collaboration with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which provides legal assistance to low income tenants and secures SRO units through a program of operating master leases. In 2016, the city brokered a deal to receive the 101 Hyde site from the Shorenstein family. As a term of the deal, the Shorenstein family agreed to pay $1 million for an interim use of the site, with something similar to the mid-Market food court The Hall in mind, while the city raised funds to construct a 12-story building with 87 units of affordable housing.

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At the time of the deal, THC executive director Randy Shaw told the Chronicle the vacant office space was “the No. 1 blight in the Tenderloin.” Eater SF has reached out to Shaw regarding the Municipal Market project use and awaits comment.

According to a hiring notice from La Cocina for the manager position, “we expect to sign a lease with the City in May, and begin construction in June, 2018. The construction timeline is 14 [to] 18 weeks, depending on external factors.” La Cocina currently operates a 4,400 square foot full-service shared use commercial kitchen and incubator space at 2948 Folsom Street. The new 7,000 square foot project would “focus on equitable economic opportunity for entrepreneurs, affordable and healthy eating options for residents and workers of the Tenderloin and a vibrant community third-space that welcomes everyone to the table at 101 Hyde Street.”

“The very density of the Tenderloin, a neighborhood with 30,000 residents, and one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the City, alone speaks for the need for additional community spaces and gathering spaces,” La Cocina’s development and communications manager Jessica Mataka tells Eater SF.

“These individuals and families are the backbone of our city — the workers, students, strivers and new arrivals that have always shaped San Francisco with their day-to-day lives. These are residents that deserve more affordable food options and more places to sit around the table. We’re building this food hall to stand in opposition to the tiered economy we see being built everywhere around us.”

Stay tuned as the Municipal Market project advances: To help it do so, donations to La Cocina can be made here.

Groups seek more funding for Tenderloin public market

The former U.S. Post Office at 101 Hyde St. | Photo: Brittany Hopkins/Hoodline

Mon. May 7, 2018, 8:59am

by Carrie Sisto 

Several Tenderloin organizations hoping to convert a former post office into a food hall and public market are today calling on the city to increase its support for the effort.

Representatives of Tenderloin Housing Clinic, La Cocina, UC Hastings School of Law, the Asian Art Museum, UNITEHERE Local 2 union, and La Voz Latina will gather at 101 Hyde St. at 11 a.m. to call on interim Mayor Mark Farrell and the Board of Supervisors to contribute more funds to convert the space into a marketplace.

In August 2016, the city purchased the property on the northwest corner of Hyde Street and Golden Gate Avenue, which has been empty since the U.S. Postal Service's lease ended on December 31, 2015.

At the time, officials selected La Cocina to operate a public market in the space until construction could begin on an 8-story, 85-unit building. The plan was modeled in part on The Hall, which operated as a local market place and food hall at 1028 Market St. until it closed in October 2017.

PHOTO: THE HALL/FACEBOOK

The Planning Department has approved the use of the space for a food hall, but no lease has been signed, a La Cocina representative told Hoodline.

Advocates say the space was falling into disrepair before the post office vacated, and the corner where it resides is frequently the site of drug dealing and littering.

“San Francisco can either invest $1 million to revive a troubled corner, or do nothing and allow the drug trade to continue controlling the space,” said Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in a press release. “The long underserved Tenderloin neighborhood needs this economic boost.”

The city has already agreed to spend $1 million to help convert the building into what would be the first all-woman-led food hall in the country, according to Caleb Zigas, director of La Cocina.

Rendering of Golden Gate Avenue with the approved development on the corner of Hyde Street. | IMAGE: COSTA BROWN ARCHITECTURE

When the project was priced in mid-2016, the building needed about $2 million in renovations to prepare the market hall, and the city and La Cocina agreed to split the cost evenly.

Since then, cost estimates have risen to $4 million. La Cocina has agreed to raise an additional $1 million and is calling for the city to contribute the same.

SF Planning in June 2015 approved plans to demolish the one-story building to make way for an eight-story on with 85 residential units, including 10 on-site affordable units, and about 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Deal Reached on Residential Project for 1066 Market

Deal Reached on Residential Project for 1066 Market

  Published: 04 October 2016

Located at the intersection of Golden Gate Avenue, Jones Street and Market Street, construction of 1066 Market Street is scheduled to start in late 2016 and should be completed by the end of 2018.

Planning Commission Approves 12-Story Development

By Paul Burton, Contributing Writer

The San Francisco Planning Commission approved Shorenstein’s 12-story, 300-unit residential project at 1066 Market Street after the developer reached an agreement with the city to purchase the now closed post office at 101 Hyde Street and convey it to the city.

The Planning Commission had originally approved the project in March, but affordable housing advocates and Tenderloin neighborhood groups appealed the decision because the project did not include enough affordable units. Under the deal approved by the Board of Supervisors, the 101 Hyde property will become an 85-unit affordable housing development. The Planning Commission’s vote waives the Inclusionary Affordable Housing requirements for the 1066 Market Street project.

“1066 Market and 101 Hyde are the bookends of the Tenderloin, and the dedication of 101 Hyde to the city ensures both properties can now move ahead,” said Meg Spriggs, managing director of Shorenstein’s multifamily investments group, in a statement. “We are very pleased with the consensus solution, which will nearly triple the amount of affordable housing provided by the development of 1066 Market. Those 85-plus units will now be available at permanently lower levels of affordability.”

BY THE NUMBERS

12

Height, in stories, of 1066 Market St.

300

Number of units

85

Number of affordable housing units proposed for 101 Hyde

$23,000

Median annual income for Tenderloin residents

Affordable housing developer Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) had initially appealed the project.

“We heard from Tenderloin residents that they can’t afford the rents under the city’s inclusionary program,” TNDC’s CEO Donald Falk said.

The median annual income for Tenderloin residents is approximately $23,000, according to the TNDC, so even the 36 below-market rate units originally part of the project would not have been affordable to most Tenderloin neighborhood residents.

“Shorenstein worked with us to come up with a creative alternative that will generate more housing at deeper levels of affordability,” Falk said. “It’s a great outcome for everyone.”

Located at the intersection of Golden Gate Avenue, Jones Street and Market Street, 1066 Market Street is designed by architectural firm Arquitectonica to maintain continuity with the architectural elements of the surrounding buildings. The building replaces a vacant commercial building and parking lot currently at the site. The 12-story building will also include approximately 5,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

Shorenstein has a good reputation for using union labor and union contractors on its office projects. The developer could not be reached for comment on the choice of a general contractor on what will be its first residential project in San Francisco. Construction is scheduled to start later in 2016 and be completed by the end of 2018.

U.S. Postal Service Offers Preview Of Mail Delivery To Cut Down On Identity Theft

A United States Postal Service worker unloads mail at a processing center. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

(CBS SF) — The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to cut down on identity theft with a new program that gives customers a preview of the mail headed their way, so they can alert authorities if the mail doesn’t arrive.

The new program is called USPS Informed Delivery. The service sends a digital copy of the front of the envelopes and packages to recipients the day they’re scheduled to be delivered.

Once mail customers know what to expect, they can report any missing or stolen mail before anyone has an opportunity to use their personal information for identity theft or other fraud.

The service also allows customers to designate a trusted neighbor to pick up sensitive documents you know are being delivered that day.

Postal customers can register for the service at the USPS.com website.

Major Market-Rate Residential Development For Market & Jones Is A Go—Again

Photo: Shorenstein Residential

Fri. July 1, 2016, 4:13pm

by Brittany Hopkins 

The mixed-use development seeking to transform the corner of Market and Jones with 304 new residences is officially moving forward—again.

This week, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve legislation allowing Shorenstein Residential, the developer of 1066 Market St., to provide the city with a land grant, in lieu of satisfying the typical affordable housing requirements.

Originally, Shorenstein Residential proposed making 12 percent (36) of the building's on-site units affordable, the city-required minimum. Though a public hearing drew crowds of Tenderloin residents and nonprofit service providers who objected to the market-rate development joining the primarily low-income neighborhood, the Planning Department approved Shorenstein's plan.

As expected, an appeal was filed. But rather than taking this argument to the Board of Supervisors, District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim struck a new deal with the developer: Instead of sticking to the existing affordable housing requirements, Shorenstein Residential would buy and gift the land at 101 Hyde St., which is home to a soon-to-be-demolished former post office, to the Mayor's Office of Housing. The city can then use the land to build 85 units of 100 percent affordable housing in the heart of the Tenderloin.

In addition to the $12.5 million land dedication, Shorenstein Residential has agreed to provide $6.5 million to a nonprofit developer, to cover activation of the property until it's demolished and pre-construction work.

Rendering of approved redevelopment plans for 101 Hyde St. 
Image: Costa Brown Architecture

Despite the uncertainty around the city's timeline for raising the additional funds needed to break ground on 101 Hyde, Tenderloin residents and service providers returned to the Planning Commission chambers earlier this month to offer full support for the revised affordable housing package. That cleared the way for the Board of Supervisors' approval this week, and the redevelopment of 1066 Market St. will now move forward.

Per the project website, construction at 1666 Market was originally slated to begin within the fourth quarter of 2016 and wrap up be the end of 2018. But with months of delays in gaining the final approval, that timeline will likely be pushed.

Land for More BMR Units, But Later and Deeper in the Tenderloin

June 10, 2016

Rather than including 36 below market rate (BMR) units within the walls of its 304-unit development to rise at 1066 Market Street, or paying a $17.7 million in lieu of fee, Shorenstein Properties is now seeking permission to buy and dedicate the former Post Office property at 101 Hyde Street, which could support the development of up to 85 units, to the Mayor’s Office of Housing for the development of a 100 percent affordable building.

But at present, San Francisco’s Planning Code doesn’t allow for a land dedication in order to meet the City’s inclusionary housing requirements for downtown developments, an option that does exist for other areas of the city, such as in the Mission.

As such, Shorenstein is now seeking a Code amendment and exception in order to meet the inclusionary housing requirement for 1066 Market by dedicating the 101 Hyde Street parcel, which has been valued at $12.5 million, and donating $6.5 million to a non-profit organization, “for the promotion of the development of an affordable housing project sponsored by a non-profit affordable housing developer that will include between seventy-five and one hundred units of affordable housing located in the vicinity of the Project (between Market Street and Larkin Street and between McAllister Street and Turk Street).”

According to the City’s Planning Department, once the land was transfered, an additional $21.5 million would need to be secured before the development of the 101 Hyde Street site could be initiated. And the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development has estimated that the development of 101 Hyde Street as an affordable project would take between 8 and 10 years to complete.

But if the project should qualify for $17.5 million in funding from the State’s Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention and Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Programs, the funding gap could be as low as $4 million, in which case the project could be developed in as few as 4 years.

Deal on old Tenderloin post office a boost for affordable housing

Deal on old Tenderloin post office a boost for affordable housing

By J.K. Dineen

June 15, 2016 Updated: June 15, 2016 6:58pm

 

• 
  

Photo: Michael Noble Jr., The Chronicle

The longtime post office at Hyde and Golden Gate in on a block that is notorious for gaggles of drug dealers and users that hang out alongside the building.

Facing criticism that its proposed 304-unit apartment complex on central Market Street does not provide enough affordable housing, a developer has agreed to buy the shuttered post office on Hyde Street and give it to the city for a low-income housing project.

Under the proposed deal, which the City Planning Commission will vote on Thursday, the Shorenstein family will transfer the 27,000-square-foot parcel at 101 Hyde St. to the Mayor’s Office of Housing, which would then select a nonprofit developer to build there.

The property at Hyde Street and Golden Gate Avenue, a one-story building, is approved for a 12-story mid-rise with 87 units. Shorenstein is in contract to pay $12.5 million for the property, which has been on the market for nearly a year, and also has committed to provide $6.5 million to the nonprofit housing developer picked to build on the site.

With 87 permanently affordable units, the deal could ease criticism that the Shorenstein project at 1066 Market St. represents wholesale gentrification on the edge of the Tenderloin, one of the city’s poorest neighborhood, said Jeff Buckley, senior adviser to Mayor Ed Lee on housing issues,

While the address of the Shorenstein project is on Market Street, most of the property — the former site of the Paramount Theatre — fronts onto the Tenderloin’s Golden Gate Avenue and Jones Street.

“This takes a project that had been pretty divisive and turns it into something that I think everyone can get behind,” said Buckley.

Photo: Michael Noble Jr., The Chronicle

The old post office at Hyde Street and Golden Gate in the Tenderloin will be bought by a developer and given to the city for a 12-story housing project with 87 affordable units.

Kim brokered deal

The deal was brokered by Supervisor Jane Kim. Kim said that while she generally prefers that market-rate developers put required affordable units on-site, 101 Hyde St. is a special case. Not only is the parcel fully approved for housing, as a former post office it has a symbolic significance as well. For years, the building provided post office boxes to thousands of Tenderloin residents who struggled to get reliable mail delivery service at residential hotels.

“It was a site that served Tenderloin residents and we wanted to make sure it stayed that way,” said Kim.

At a contentious hearing on the project in March, neighborhood residents complained that not only did the Shorenstein project not include enough affordable housing — they had proposed 36 units, or 12 percent of the total — but that the rent of those units still could be beyond the reach of most current Tenderloin residents. The units would have targeted households earning 55 percent of the area’s median income, $47,400 for a two-person household.

“We heard from TL residents that they can’t afford the rents under the city’s inclusionary program, and Shorenstein worked with us to come up with a creative alternative that will generate more housing at deeper levels of affordability,” said Don Falk of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp., which had appealed the original deal to the Board of Supervisors.

‘Common ground’

“We are pleased to find common ground through collaboration with TNDC,” Meg Spriggs, Shorenstein’s managing director, said in a statement. “We look forward to finally being able to move 1066 Market forward and fulfill our goal of delivering much-needed housing to San Francisco.”

The potential deal underscores the frequently debated question of how best to leverage private housing investment to generate affordable units, and who gets to live in those homes. It also shows the lengths market-rate developers must go to win community support in the current political environment, said Tim Colen of the Housing Action Coalition, which advocates for residential development.

“Shorenstein did what they had to do to save a project in which they had invested a whole lot of time and resources,” he added.

Interim use for site

The plan calls for up to $1 million of the Shorenstein money to be spent on an interim use that could include a food market, similar to the Hall at 1028 Market St. The city estimates it could take five years to raise the money needed to build the 87 affordable units, which will likely cost another $21 million.

“The most important thing is getting an interim use in there that helps promote activity,” said David Seward, chief financial officer for the nearby UC Hastings College of the Law. “Walking down Golden Gate Avenue is not a pleasant experience.”

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter:J.K. Dineen (@SFjkdineen) | Twitter

Hyde Street post office services to relocate Monday

Hyde Street post office services to relocate Monday

Services at the 101 Hyde St. post office will be relocated as of Monday, April 25, 2016. (Mike Koozmin/S.F. Examiner file photo)

By Examiner Staff on April 22, 2016 1:53 pm

Services at a Tenderloin post office relied on by many homeless or low-income residents will be relocated effective Monday.

The P.O. Box and general delivery service at 101 Hyde St. will be moved to other locationsahead of the construction of an eight-story, mixed-use building that’s been proposed at the site, U.S. Post Office officials said.

General delivery mail will be provided at 391 Ellis St., and P.O. Boxes will be relocated to 1390 Market St. Customers will retain their current P.O. Box number, box size and zip code.

P.O. Box mail at 101 Hyde St. will be available only from the caller service window until 2 p.m. Saturday. Customers must bring their photo ID to retrieve their mail.

Any mail not picked up by close of business Saturday will be moved to the customer’s P.O. Box at 1390 Market St. and will be available after 8 a.m. Monday.

P.O. Box customers in Nos. 420001 – 425436 must retrieve their new keys for their P.O. Box from the wicket door at 1390 Market St. between next Monday and Friday to access their new P.O. Box

It's Official: Civic Center Post Office To Relocate April 25th

Photos: Brittany Hopkins/Hoodline

Fri. March 25, 2016, 4:21pm

shared by Brittany Hopkins

After years of complaints about the squalid conditions of the Civic Center Post Office at Hyde and Golden Gate, USPS has finally set a date for its relocation.

Starting April 25th, those who rent postboxes at the soon-to-be-demolished 101 Hyde will begin receiving their mail at Fox Plaza (1390 Market St.) USPS is relocating the existing postboxes the previous day; no postbox numbers or zip codes will change.

However, a new location in the Tenderloin for general delivery is still to be determined. Augustine Ruiz, corporate communications manager at USPS, says that come April 25th, they'll be ready to disclose the alternative location for the service.

With permits filed in 2013—but not yet approved—to demolish the one-story building at 101 Hyde, construction on the 85-unit residential complex taking over the site may follow soon.

With New Space Still In Limbo, Conditions At Tenderloin Post Office Deteriorate

The Civic Center Post Office at 101 Hyde. (Photos: Brittany Hopkins/Hoodline)

Wed. March 16, 2016, 2:51pm

by Brittany Hopkins
 

Last summer, the Planning Commission approved plans to demolish the one-story U.S. post office at 101 Hyde (at Golden Gate) to construct an eight-story, 85-unit residential building with ground-floor retail. A series of appeals was defeated last fall, solidifying the site's future as primarily market-rate housing.

But while the Tenderloin post office is still open for the time being, the location seems to be falling into disrepair far more quickly than the Postal Service plans to vacate.

Trash litters the ground outside, where crowds of people camp day and night. Broken windows are either boarded up with graffiti-tagged plywood, or duct-taped to hold the cracks together.

A boarded-up window at the Tenderloin post office.

The entrance on Golden Gate is held together by duct tape.

Inside, the tile flooring is covered in trash and splattered with stains. On warm afternoons, large swarms of flies buzz in circles around the lobby, while individuals and groups hang out in the open space in corners of the lobby and between rows of post boxes.

An overturned bin of mail (or trash) on the floor.

Boxes of produce in one corner, likely left as an offering for those in need.

David Baker, president of the former North of Market Planning Coalition and a longtime P.O. box renter, said that while conditions at the branch have never been stellar, they've noticeably plunged in recent weeks.

Michael Nulty, executive director of the Alliance for a Better District 6, which rents a P.O. box in the branch, agrees. "The lobby and box section is overrun by homeless people, smoking cigarettes, throwing garbage all over, tagging the windows. [There's a] broken glass door, broken windows, and people just hanging around and bringing chairs to sit inside," he told us via email. 

Nulty, a Tenderloin resident who appealed the housing proposal for 101 Hyde, is not enthusiastic about how the post office is handling the situation now that it's being moved out. "Various boxholders do not feel safe entering and exiting to retrieve mail. We are seeking for the Postal Police to daily monitor the facility."

Nulty has complained to the Postal Service about the conditions at 101 Hyde. In response, he received a voicemail from the branch supervisor, Gary Fong, who stated that postal police would be called in. But Nulty says he has yet to see a postal police officer at 101 Hyde, and the unpleasant conditions haven't abated. 

Discarded trash piled up behind a locked gate along the post office's Hyde Street exterior.

Coalitions of neighbors, including the Post Office Patrons—of which both Baker and Nulty were active members—and The New Tenderloin, have fought for years to bring a safe and secure full-service post office to the neighborhood.

The problem began in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the area's main post office, then located within the Federal Building at Seventh and Mission. USPS moved its retail operations to Fox Plaza (1390 Market St.), and opened 101 Hyde in 1991 for postbox access and general delivery only. With a paucity of windows and few staff members present, the building became a "federally-funded crime zone," Beyond Chron wrote at the end of 2007.

After rallies and hearings about the inadequate facility and ongoing safety concerns, supporters celebrated a major victory in 2008: USPS finally pledged to make 101 Hyde a full-service post office. But those plans wereabandoned less than a year later.

For the time being, the location remains open Mondays through Saturdays, with patrons checking their postboxes and picking up their mail from the general delivery window. But as the developer of 101 Hyde prepares to start construction, the Postal Service plans to move the postboxes in use at 101 Hyde to Fox Plaza late next month, opening a separate facility in the Tenderloin for general delivery only. 

There's just one problem: they haven't found that new space yet. USPS is "still working to negotiate a leased space for the general delivery in the immediate area in the same time frame," said Augustine Ruiz, communications manager for USPS. The Postal Service's original lease on 101 Hyde expired at the end of 2015, but it has been extended through the spring as the hunt for a new space continues. Meanwhile, a building permit was issued in early February for the necessary work to construct postboxes at Fox Plaza.

Inside the full-service post office at Fox Plaza (1390 Market St.) 

While he doesn't use general delivery, Nulty hopes that the eventual new location will offer a better solution for Tenderloin neighbors who do. "I would be very supportive if the new location for General Delivery provides better security, more operating hours including Saturdays, and provides additional postal services at the location such as outgoing mail service," he said.

However, he sees relocating the postboxes to Fox Plaza as a less-than-perfect solution. Fox Plaza lacks parking, and it's a long, windy walk from the Tenderloin, crossing many of the city's most traffic-injury-prone intersections. 

The only upside, he said: there are retail services onsite, meaning this will be the first time Tenderloin postbox users will be able to retrieve their mail and buy stamps or ship packages all in one place.

If you'd like to share questions or concerns with the United States Postal Service about the conditions at 101 Hyde St., you can use this form to email customer service or give them a call at 1-800-275-8777. For questions and comments about their relocation plans, contact Augustine Ruiz at augustine.ruizjr@usps.gov. We'll keep you updated on the latest news about the relocation.