Ellis Act-evicted Portola school turned townhouses asks $10.75 million

The owners of a 54-unit townhouse development in Portola, located a few blocks from McLaren Park, have put the whole lot up for sale, which includes plans, permits, and parcels.

Asking $10.75 million, an opportunity for some other would-be developer to fill in some in-fill in the city’s southernmost reaches.

Once upon a time, 495 Cambridge was Bridgemont High School (also known as Bridgemont Junior High). But the schoolhouse fell on hard times in 1998 and ended up evicted.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote at the time:

Wells Fargo Bank yesterday evicted students of a Portola District religious prep school and more than 30 low-income boarders from their home.

[...] The school defaulted on a $4.7 million note, allowing Wells Fargo to foreclose and buy the four-acre former Roman Catholic convent. The bank then used the Ellis Act to clear a 30-unit apartment house attached to the school.

Back in 2014, the Planning Department said the circa-1951 school buildings were being used as a daycare center. And by May of 2016 the designs that came up to the Planning Commission called for “demolition of vacant school buildings and the construction of 29 residential buildings (nine stacked duplex buildings and 20 town-homes) with a total of 54 dwelling units on an 85,191 square foot lot.”

The city kicked the proposal down the road a full year before eventually approving it in May of this year.

And now the entire site, permits included, is on the market, described as “36 townhouses (attached units) and 18 duplexes,” with seven of the homes priced to be affordable for buyer making 90 percent of the area median income.

Architect Jeremy Schaub designed the new buildings.

• 495 McLaren [LoopNet]
• SF School Evicted [Chronicle]
• 495 McLaren, 2014 [SF Planning]
• 495 McLaren, 2016 [SF Planning]