The former CineArts at the Empire on West Portal Avenue is just a one-story structure, but could become a nine-story housing complex with 64 units under a just-announced proposal from the family that has long owned the building.
The February 2021 closure of the CineArts at the Empire movie theater on West Portal Avenue was the canary in the coal mine that the COVID-19 pandemic would be the undoing of many SF movie theaters.
Over the years, a couple of defunct SF movie theaters have tried to find new life as housing, including the Richmond District’s Alexandria Theatre, which has been stuck in the mud on those plans for nearly three years running. Plans to build housing on top of the shuttered Clay Theatre (and reopen the place as a movie theater!) seem to be moving along nicely, though it’s unclear if the housing units are still part of that plan.
According to a new report in the Chronicle, now that West Portal movie theater could become 64 new units of housing under plans just announced. Though it sounds like the current one-story structure will be razed entirely, and a member of the family that’s owned the theater for more than 100 years says the new housing complex would be nine stories tall.
And the new incarnation will certainly not be a movie theater.
“The [former operator] mothballed it, stripped out all the equipment and just left it,” owner Jesse Appleton told the Chronicle (Appleton bought the building in 2021 from another family member). “We want something that is going to endure. We want to stay in this long-term. That is our goal."
Appleton also tells the paper that a new movie theater was considered for the space, but the opening of the new high-tech multiplex at nearby Stonestown killed any interest from potential operators.
As mentioned, this would be a nine-story building with 64 housing units. The Chronicle describes the proposed apartments as “family-sized,” meaning two- and three-bedroom units, which would be rentals and not condos. The project takes advantage of a state law that would grant this project automatic approval, though we’ll see how the political winds blow on this one.
After all, there’s a whole lot of resentment brewing on the west side of SF over Mayor Lurie’s “family zoning” upzoning plan. This proposal does not take advantage of Lurie's upzoning, though it’s at a very visible and high-profile location. And that could drive more Joel Engardio-style recall resentment toward the district's Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who’s seen as having shepherded Lurie’s upzoning plan into law.
“I want more family housing and I want more rental units specifically, so I’m glad that’s what we are getting,” Melgar told the Chronicle. “I know folks are going to be upset no matter what, the merchants are going to be upset. In the long run it would be fantastic to have that many more customers. It will be short-term pain for a great gain.”
“There is no place to go in District 7 for people who want to downsize and don’t need the big home anymore,” Melgar added.
Still, both the Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association and West Portal Merchants Association are threatening to spearhead recall efforts over Melgar’s support for upzoning. Though ironically, this project does not take advantage of Lurie’s new family zoning laws, even though its two- to three-bedroom apartments are a pretty family-friendly proposition.
So this one will be interesting to watch politically, even if it does get automatic approvals without any local review. If all goes to plan, the Chronicle says the proposed development "will likely break ground in 2027."
Related: West Portal Movie Theater CineArts at Empire Has Permanently Closed [SFist]
Image: Kevin Y via Yelp
