It’s a lesson in meeting diverse needs: City College of San Francisco needs to raise several million dollars. Developers need centrally located land to develop on. And an ever-increasing number of San Franciscans need a place to live.
What we really don’t need is a 46,000 square foot parcel simply for CCCSF admin offices. That’s what the college decided, anyway, as the San Francisco Examiner reports that the CCSF board of trustees cut a deal with an Atlanta-based developer to replace the current, aging building at 33 Gough Street (just off of Market) with thousands of square feet of retail and as much as 425 units of housing.
The $11.5 million payoff is not as much as they might have gotten, it seems; the San Francisco Chronicle estimated two years ago that a deal for the site could bring in $30 million, or $150,000 for reach of a potential 200 units. But earlier in the year the college explored options for temporary uses of the Gough Street building while development gears up, so they might yet find a few to wring a few extra dollars out of it.
Affordable housing developers and some City Hall types (including Supervisor Jane Kim, in whose district the building sits) have said in the past they’d prefer if the land were reserved for exclusive BMR use. The college is a public institution, after all. In the past, developers promised a 30 percent affordable housing element.
But when push comes to shove, any amount of housing on the giant, centrally located lot is probably a net gain on its present use, which the college seemed to realize amid its financial woes is not exactly a model of efficiency. Presently, 33 Gough houses CCSF’s business offices, the office of their VP of Finance, and a whole lot of parking.
- CCSF Cuts Deal With Developers [Examiner]
- CCSF Taps Developer [Curbed SF]
- CCSF Gets Flak For Gough Redevelopment [Chronicle]
- 33 Gough Street exploration letter [SF Planning]
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