Plans have shifted for the former California Pacific Medical Center campus at the edge of Laurel Heights and Presidio Heights after a new developer bought the property over a year ago.
Prado Group purchased the almost-five-acre property in late 2022 for $50 million, after Sutter Health and partner TMG Partners decided to abandon their plans to redevelop it. The original plan, as the Chronicle reports today, was for just over 270 units including 12 townhomes.
But Prado Group held a community meeting Tuesday, and developer Dan Safier told neighbors that the original plans no longer "pencil," with rapidly rising construction costs. Safier was careful to emphasize that the new proposed plan, which is twice as large — with some 560 units — still will not exceed the 80-foot height limits on the property. (With the state's density-bonus law, Prado Group could have sought to make the buildings taller and more dense, but they seem to see that the community will push back hard on that.)
The new plan will include 320 condos, 15 townhomes, 157 independent living units for seniors, and 75 assisted-living units for seniors, the Chronicle reports.
Prado Group is taking advantage of the fact that the city has relaxed its formerly stringent affordable housing mandate, and will opt to pay the in-lieu fee for affordable units to be built elsewhere — equivalent to about 15% of the total units being developed.
Safier reportedly emphasized the local ties of his team at Tuesday's meeting, per the Chronicle.
"Prado Group and the 3700 Design Team are San Francisco-based, with a number of our team members also living in the area," he said. "As residents with real experience and insights into the character of this unique neighborhood, we are excited to be involved in the 3700 California Street project and are focused on improvement and positive change for the community."
The developer is hoping to get the project changes approved this fall by the Planning Commission, and ground-breaking would occur in 2026 or 2027.
Incidentally, Prado Group is already working on a project, announced back in 2019, to build 744 units nearby on UCSF's former, 10.3-acre Laurel Heights campus. That project, known as 3333 California, was met with a lawsuit from the Laurel Heights Neighborhood Association in early 2020 because of its density and size, and it's not clear where that all stands.
Photo: Google Street View
