Ocean Beach Safeway Could Close For a While to Build Apartments on Top, Could Castro Safeway Be Next?

"All the controversy around the closure of the Fillmore Safeway seems to have seen the dust finally settle, now that the Safeway has long closed, and the new developer called Align just submitted their plans last week for an 1,800-unit housing development at that site (which they say will eventually have a large grocery store built in). But that same developer Align now has plans to shut down and then reopen another pretty important Safeway, the 37,000-square-foot Safeway on LaPlaya Street at Ocean Beach."

"What is now the one-story Safeway would become two eight-story buildings with 526 housing units, covering the whole 3.3-acre property on LaPlaya between between Fulton and Cabrillo streets that is currently also a large parking lot. The new buildings would be 85 feet tall, and parking would be moved underground. Again, the Safeway would close for some extended period of time, but reopen as an even larger Safeway once construction was complete."

"This whole process of planning, approvals, and construction will likely take years, though the Chronicle says it would be built using by-right entitlement, which involves automatic approval of many City Hall bureaucratic processes that can often be quite lengthy. The Chronicle's report merely says that the developer Align has "pitched a plan" to the SF Planning Department, and they add there is no timeline for the planned closure, or the completion of the project."

Align plans to demolish the 37,000-square-foot Safeway on LaPlaya Street at Ocean Beach and replace it with housing while returning a larger Safeway on the ground floor after construction. The proposal calls for two eight-story buildings totaling 526 housing units on the 3.3-acre site between Fulton and Cabrillo, raising building heights to 85 feet and moving parking underground. The existing one-story store would close for an extended period and then reopen as a larger store after construction. The project would be built using by-right entitlement, with no timeline provided; planning, approvals, and construction are expected to take years. Align previously submitted plans for an 1,800-unit development at the Fillmore Safeway site.

Read at sfist.com