Economic Glitches Delete Apple Development Plans at Castro, 16th and Noe

By Ted Andersen

One of the Castro’s most prominent properties, existing as a hole in the ground for more than two decades, has again seen ambitious development plans fall into the pits.

Plans to lure an Apple computer store to a proposed mixed development at 2299 Market Street, the Market, Noe and 16th Street confluence, which have been discussed with community organizations and San Francisco Planning Dept. officials throughout the year, have fallen off the table recently. The property, a 7,000-plus square foot lot valued at over $3 million, is the site of the former Bethany United Methodist Church, which was set ablaze by an arsonist in the 1980s.

San Francisco developers Angus McCarthy and Edward Duffy purchased it from the church in April 2007, though the lot has sat vacant since the church last stood there. The lot, affectionately known as “the pit”, is currently zoned for Upper Market Neighborhood Commercial District with a 50-foot height limit, meaning it could potentially allow a five-story building with mixed commercial and residential use. However, since the early 90s, a host of development projects have come and gone, leaving the land physically unchanged.

With regards to this year’s high-profile plan, McCarthy said that since having discussions with Apple about becoming a commercial tenant below the complex, tough economic times have forced the company to reconsider its venture into the Castro neighborhood.

“The Apple tenant was something talked about around a year ago. They were a possibility at that time because they wanted to get a presence in the Castro,” McCarthy said. “Going forward it is not going to happen because they are not expanding. There has been a dramatic change since then. It is pretty much off the table.”

Since the Apple drawback, McCarthy said that financing has become the problem in getting the long-awaited development off the ground.

“It’s very hard to get a credit-worthy tenant at this time. We don’t have anybody concretely interested,” he said. “Until we can sit down and discuss the possibility of securing financing for this I can’t say too much.”

McCarthy, who had hired Ian Birchall and Associates to design the architectural plans and rendering of the proposed mixed development, presented it to the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association early this year to “start dialogue” with the community, saying that he received mainly positive feedback. Although plans have now been set back, he still has an ideal vision.

“We would like to get a strong commercial tenant who works with and for the community and has good name recognition. We also want something that the area needs,” he said. “Ideally, we would like to move forward. But filing an application costs a lot of money and we need to ask ourselves if we have the resources for that.”

According to City Planner Michael Smith, the Apple project was discussed in January as a mixed-use building with 4,756 square feet of double height retail space, 18 units of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom townhouses, 18 parking spaces at basement, and an elevated courtyard in the rear. Smith said the City recently completed its environmental review and was awaiting the formal submission of the plans for Planning Commission review, something that now seems very doubtful.

Locals have had a variety of opinions about the fate of the lot. Everything from a parking structure, low-income housing to a business front has been suggested. Moreover, the lot is seasonally used by the nonprofit Delancey Street to sell Christmas trees as a fund-raiser.

The City has reviewed a variety of plans for retail stores, offices, a church and housing developments on the property six times since 2003, though nothing has changed.

Copyright 2009 Castro Courier