Australian developer Lendlease may not completely abandon its 47-story Hayes Point project after all, as SF city leaders are looking to cut a deal and let them out of an affordable housing requirement.

It's certainly be a stain on Mid-Market's very slow revitalization that an enormous property, where construction broke ground in the middle of the pandemic in 2022, has sat idle for over a year. Developer Lendlease officially "paused" construction at 30 Van Ness, aka Hayes Point, in August 2023, one year after construction began, saying that it might resume in 2024, or once markets "normalize."

Now, as the Chronicle reports, Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors have been working behind the scenes to get this thing moving again. And now it appears a deal may have been reached.

Supervisor Matt Dorsey and the mayor introduced legislation Tuesday that would overlay a Special Use District on the property, effectively exempting Lendlease from a previously agreed-upon 25% on-site affordable requirement.

That means that 83 planned below-market units will all become market-rate, and this becomes a 333-unit, market-rate condo tower with 290,000 square feet of office and retail space below it. But it also means that Hayes Point might actually get built as envisioned, and will no longer be just a vacant lot surrounded by plywood construction barriers.

Lendlease has already, reportedly, paid out $13 million to the city's affordable housing fund, and spent $27 million to cover other impact fees to the city.

Claire Johnston, Lendlease’s chief executive officer for the Americas, tells the Chronicle that this $40 million "essentially represents a large overpayment," and should "be considered as our total affordable housing offering."

"Like many projects across San Francisco, a confluence of post-pandemic economic events created roadblocks for Hayes Point," Johnston said in a statement.

The new legislation would bring the project in line with others that the city has been exempting from its typically high affordable-housing mandates, in order to get stalled projects moving in a challenging economic environment. In June, the developer behind One Oak, which would stand across Van Ness from Hayes Point, showed some signs of life due to the city's willingness to let go of some affordable units.

The city is also under significant pressure from the state to meet an overall housing-approval mandate that amounts to 82,000 new units in a span of about seven years.

Approvals for the new Special Use District will still need to get through Planning and a full vote by the Board of Supervisors.

Previously: Construction Stops on Huge Tower at Van Ness and Market

Rendering via Lendlease