Two years back I thought that Biergarten, and the rest of the popular temporary Proxy complex in Hayes Valley, had been given an extended lease to 2021. But that turned out to be controversial this year as Biergarten's lease on their specific parcel was up for renewal by the city, and the city's budget analyst suggested the property ought to be sold to a developer sooner rather than later. But Supervisor London Breed, in whose district the place sits, dismissed the suggestion saying, "Let them drink beer," and now, as Hoodline reports, the Board of Supes has made the lease extension official.
The Board's Budget and Finance Committee held a hearing on the matter, and public comment was, by and large, in support of letting Biergarten live on at least these next five years, until January 2021.
The parcel it sits on is one of 22 that were freed up for residential development after the demolition of the Central Freeway, a number of which are already in the development pipeline for market-rate and affordable housing seven of the sites were set aside for affordable-only development, however the tiny parcel Biergarten is on would only provide about 15 units of new, market-rate housing, once developed. Some of these affordable units will in fact be micro-units along Octavia, like these and these.
Proxy, the 2011-built "cargo-tecture" complex, was intended only to have a three- to five-year lifespan originally, in order to allow the housing market to recover sufficiently to make residential development here more feasible. Clearly that time has come, but sometimes other things take priority.
Hooray for al fresco beer drinking.