Developers initially intending to turn a Mission District auto shop into 20 units of housing have backed away from that plan following a ruling by the city that the building has historical significance. Curbed reports that likely because of that determination, and the resulting requirement that any alteration to the 20,400-square-foot auto shop at 3140 16th Street retain said significance, Texas-based developer Mx3's plans to demolish the building are no longer viable and the company will instead look to build a two-story restaurant.
Mx3 wouldn't confirm, but a community meeting notice obtained by the publication lists the proposed building as having exactly zero housing units. This is a change from an earlier revised proposal from the company that, if approved, would have resulted in a four units and a restaurant. Apparently developers didn't envision enough of a return on that project — a fact brought into sharp focus by Planning Department documents showing that the building was last purchased in 2014 for $8.7 million. Four units just wasn't going to cut it, in other words.
Developers apparently intend to construct a roof deck on top of the building, meaning future diners will hopefully have a fabulous views of the drunks stumbling out of Delirium every Friday and Saturday night.
Those crying for more housing to be built will surely be upset at both Mx3's likely plans and the city's designation of the building as having historical significance, but it is perhaps hard to feel too much sympathy for the developer as the Inner Mission North Historic Resource Survey, completed in 2011, found that the "building is one of a group of commercial and residential over commercial properties along the 16th Street corridor that are locally significant in terms of National Register Criteria C; properties that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction with significance in the area of 'community planning and development.' ” In other words, they maybe could have seen this coming.
