While there is no buyer announced yet for the shuttered six-acre St. Anne’s Home senior care facility, there’s plenty of interest in the property, and Inner Richmond residents may be gearing up for a fight over the size of whatever goes there next.
It made some waves in the local senior care scene when it was announced in January that the 124-year-old nursing home St. Anne’s Home would be closing permanently. Well, five months later, that closure has happened, and the nearly 60 residents of that 300 Lake Street home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor have been moved to other facilities.
But now the Chronicle reports that the sale of the facility — a sale that has not even taken place yet — is also making waves. And it’s making those waves because the six-acre property with a $58.5 million asking price might be sold to a developer who is keen to turn the place into a much, much larger development.
The sale comes against the backdrop of massive rezoning of SF’s west side where a new developer could, theoretically, build something twice as large the senior home. And that is believed to be driving significant interest in the property, though it would surely not please Presidio Terrace residents for there to be a big apartment complex built next to their gated-community homes.
The Chronicle spoke to several potential buyers who’ve put in bids or have been involved. They gave their thoughts, though in most cases, not their names.
“You could scrape the whole site and build 350 units,” one anonymous developer told the Chron. “I’ve heard that you could do something maybe a little more dense on Lake Street, like 150 units, and then do 30 to 35 single-family homes on the back of the site. I think you have a couple different options. I’m curious about how the neighbors will react.”
I’m not curious how the neighbors will react… they would hate that idea! While it was not a comment on any proposal for this 300 Lake Street property, the Planning Association for Richmond has complained in the past that this rezoning “will result in more traffic congestion, less greenspace, loss of small businesses and an overall decrease in the character of our community.”
The City of San Francisco would prefer to see as much housing there as the law will allow, given that we are well behind on our “housing element” goals to build or approve 82,000 new housing units by the year 2031.
“The site presents a unique opportunity with the capacity for a significant amount of housing,” SF Planning Commission Director Rich Hillis told the Chronicle. “The city’s housing element and our proposed rezoning would prefer a mid-rise multifamily project there.”
But it’s the Little Sisters of the Poor who will be deciding who they sell to.
“The Little Sisters are looking for the right buyer at the right price,” the sale’s operator, Zielinski Companies executive director Greg Zielinski, told the Chronicle. “That is, a buyer who will use the property in a way that is in harmony with their mission and the mission of the Church — not necessarily a long-term care facility or health care focused.”
That comment seems to leave an awful lot of wiggle room. And any angst over some giant development coming in is frankly quite speculative. But anyone who’s paying that $58.5 million asking price is probably not planning to put another nursing home there, and they will likely build that property out to get the best return on their investment possible.
Related: Latest, Greatest Version of Ambitious Stonestown Development Gets Approval, With Even More Housing [SFist]
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