Last fall, long-time Polk Street business Lombardi Sports announced that it would be closing its doors to make way for 62 new condos. Plans called for the building to be demolished and replaced by a new six-story structure. All of that may have now changed. A sign advertising the opportunity to lease the 50,000-square-foot space has been up in the window of the shuttered store for the past few months, and it looks like Target is interested. The Lombardi family sold the building for $7.5 million to Village Properties, a developer planning to build the properties. Shortly after, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Target approached the developer offering to lease the entire space for $1.5 million for a Target Express store.
As a big-box chain retailer, Target is nothing like most of the small, mom-and-pop shops that make up the Polk Street retail district. Neighbors are abuzz about the proposed development, and the Chronicle notes that concerns center around traffic, competition for other Polk Street retailers, and altering the character of a neighborhood that draws its lure from locally owned boutiques. Others wouldn't mind the convenience of not having to schlep to Colma for their paper-towel 12-packs and jugs of laundry detergent.
If the plans do end up moving forward, the store would be a Target Express like the one that recently opened in the Financial District, not a City Target like those in SoMa and on Masonic. Target Express stores are designed to fit the neighborhoods where they are located. There is no timeline yet for the store's approvals and possible opening, but expect to hear lots more about it as the neighborhood debates its presence over the coming months.
· Lombardi Sports Will Be Replaced By 62 New Condos [Curbed SF]
· Russian Hill Divided Over Proposal for New Target Store [SFGate]
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