Soaring Van Ness high-rise delayed yet again

Courtesy BUILD Inc

If you’ve been wondering whatever happened to that brash, 400-foot tall tower planned for the base of Van Ness Avenue, well, keep wondering.

It’s been more than two years since City Hall approved the residential high-rise at One Oak. But in that time, the building has yet to take root and start construction, even as similar buildings have sprouted on surrounding blocks.

Now it looks like developers plan to wait even longer, asking for a two-year extension on their entitlements this week, which are set to expire in the next six months.

Once upon a time, Hayes Valley-based developer BUILD Inc. hoped to begin construction on the 319-home, 40-story Snøhetta-designed building in 2018 with a completion date of 2019.

Anyone who has recently stopped for donuts at the still-extant All Star Cafe bakery at Van Ness and Market, which BUILD plans to demolish along with all of the other existing buildings on the property, knows that didn’t happen.

The city approved the One Oak project in mid-2017, but at Thursday’s meeting of the San Francisco Planning Commission, BUILD requested an extension as entitlements are only valid through June of this year.

If the body approves the extension, the developers would have until June of 2022 to get the job done.

The application does not specify what exactly is taking so long, but the high cost of construction in San Francisco in the midst of an intensely competitive building boom is always a likely culprit.

In the meantime, more good news for neighborhood donut lovers.