Welp, hopes that a real estate investor who has been quietly assembling multiple properties on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights has only good intentions to revitalize the area appear to be dashed.
We're now learning that the various shell entities that have been previously linked to 39-year-old venture capitalist Neil Mehta, which among other buildings have acquired the defunct Clay Theatre, are starting to give eviction notices and warnings to some of the legacy businesses on the 2200 block of Fillmore.
These include La Mediterranee, a 45-year-old restaurant that received legacy status from the city in 2019, and Ten-Ichi, a 46-year-old Japanese restaurant that is being run by the children of its original founders, who were Japanese immigrants to the city.
As the Chronicle reports today, Ten-Ichi owner Steve Amano says the sale of his restaurant's building is still in escrow, and the new owner, a company called Great Stage LLC, is asking them to vacate by next month. Amano tells the paper that he knew the sale was going on from his landlord, but he just expected that the new owner would try to hike his rent.
As Amano tells the Chronicle, "We’ve been here for 46 years. This is the opposite of what San Francisco does to long-term, legacy business tenants. This guy is displacing us."
Reportedly La Mediterranee has also been told that they will need to vacate their space across the street at 2210 Fillmore Street when their current least expires.
It's not clear how many buildings Mehta and his shell companies own at this point. As of April, The Information had linked Mehta to six recently sold buildings in the area, including the Clay Theatre. These were mostly on the 2200 block of Fillmore, but all within a three-block span, and the buildings had sold for higher-than-expected amounts.
The report included info from a source saying that Mehta planned to spend "tens of millions" of dollars to assemble a portfolio on the street.
And the Chronicle had a source saying that Mehta "plans to elevate the quality of upper Fillmore’s retail offerings," and intends to revive the historic Clay Theatre "as a high-end theater and hospitality concept" — would that be akin to, say, an Alamo Drafthouse? Or higher end than that?
In any event, it is sad that five-decade-old businesses are getting shoved out, and we don't yet know what these "elevated" offerings will be down the line.
Mehta has so far declined to comment on his plans, and nor has his agent in the project, who reportedly is nightlife, entertainment, and real estate entrepreneur Cody Allen.
Photo via Yelp
