A very tall new residential tower may still rise at the site of the former Honda dealership at Market and South Van Ness, with the developer submitting revised plans to the city for the long-stalled project.
The project, known as 10 South Van Ness Avenue, is one of several extra-tall towers that were made possible under a zoning revision formerly known as The Hub, and now part of the larger Market and Octavia Area Plan. The new residential towers at 1550 Mission (known as the Fifteen Fifty Apartments) and 30 Otis (known as Chorus), which started construction pre-pandemic, are the only projects completed so far.
10 South Van Ness is a project of Miami-based deeloper Crescent Heights, and if it gets approved, it would rise on the site of the car dealership that most recently has been known as SVN West, an event venue.
SFist last covered the project in 2017, at which point Crescent Heights was imagining a double-tower configuration with a total of 984 units, up from an originally proposed 767. Crescent Heights was able to later strike a deal with the city to avoid building on-site affordable units through a land swap. The developer bought the controversial property at 16th and Mission that was once slated to be the Monster in the Mission, handing it over to the city for free for affordable housing development.
The latest iteration of 10 South Van Ness changes up the unit mix and adds ten stories in height, under the state's density bonus law. As the Chronicle reports, the tower's rises from 55 to 65 total stories in the new design, with a height of 755 feet, up from 610 feet.
The unit mix changes from a more youth-oriented collection of studio and one-bedroom units, to a more family-friendly mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Per the Chronicle's review of the new plans, which were expected to be filed with Planning today, the new design would include 952 units, with 515 one-bedroom units, 408 two-bedroom units, and 29 three-bedroom units.
It's unclear as yet what the number of below-market-rate units may be — under the density bonus law, Crescent Heights would be on the hook to build 72 affordable units on-site.
Adam Tartakovsky, managing director at Crescent Heights, tells the Chronicle that they are working with the city to "ensure the project gets appropriate credit for the contribution it already made for affordable housing," which may come in the form of credits for other fees related to the project.
The city has been in the business, of late, of lowering its expectations with developers when it comes to affordable housing. While projects in the last decade had affordable requirements that climbed to 30% and even 40%, that is no longer financially feasible, developers say, given construction costs and market conditions.
A stalled project across the intersection from 10 South Van Ness, the Hayes Point development, appears to be getting unstalled soon under a deal with the city to lift the affordable requirement there. Australian developer Lendlease halted construction on the project in August 2023, saying it would resume if and when market conditions improved.
The other tall tower in the Hub vicinity, the One Oak project at Van Ness, Oak, and Market, was also showing signs of life this summer after several years of looking like it was dead in the water. The Emerald Fund, which previously had success converting an office building to residental at 100 Van Ness, appears to be taking over the project and is also seeking concessions from the city to make the 516-unit project pencil.
All told, the three towers bring about 1,800 new units of housing to a single intersection in the city — and puts a not-insignificant dent in that 82,000-unit Housing Element goal.
Previously: Developer of Market and Van Ness Tower Strikes Deal to Restart Construction, Nix Affordable Units
