Ten years of filings on one corner
Maximus Real Estate Partners filed a ten-storey market-rate plan for the lot in 2013 with more than 300 homes, ground-floor retail and on-site parking. Opponents named it the Monster in the Mission. The plan died in early 2020.
Crescent Heights bought the lot and transferred it to the city at no charge. The transfer satisfied off-site affordable housing requirements tied to its tower at 10 South Van Ness Avenue.
YIMBY reported the purchase at $42 million in 2022 and at $40 million in its report on the May 2026 groundbreaking.
The 2021 filing on the same corner
A General Plan Referral in October 2021 proposed three buildings with 331 apartments, 46 of them affordable and reserved for participants in the SRO Family and Moving On voucher programs. YIMBY reported the filing's estimate of $1.15 million a year from those 46 homes, directed to rent subsidies for 159 further Mission District households.
The commercial programme ran to 32,500 square feet, with space set aside for a pharmacy and a Mercado of individual vendor stalls. Parking and loading came as 192 bicycle spaces, four car-share spaces, three off-street truck-loading spaces, 22 retail spaces and 137 resident spaces.
The tiny homes village that held the site
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing filed plans in February 2023 for up to 70 prefabricated tiny homes on the surface parking lot. The filing described low-barrier temporary emergency housing and listed a community room, a meeting room, storage containers, guard shacks, restroom and shower trailers and case-management offices.
Five Keys, the operator, lists the village that opened on the lot as 60 tiny homes with capacity for 68 adults, 52 single cabins and eight double cabins, and dates the opening to April 2024.
Demolition crews removed the lot and the vacant commercial structures formerly occupied by Walgreens by May 2026, per YIMBY.
The solicitation that set the current programme
The Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development issued a Request for Qualifications in August 2023. The city described capacity for more than 450 units in at least two buildings. Submissions closed on 29 September 2023.
The MOHCD release of 23 April 2026 dates the selection of MEDA and Mission Housing, with John Stewart Company and Lutheran Social Services, to December 2023. Mission Housing's post of December 2025 dates the solicitation to August 2023.
Under construction on 16th Street
The first building at 2970 16th Street rises nine storeys with 136 homes, split 89 studios and 47 one-bedrooms for adults exiting homelessness. MOHCD puts the project cost at $110.8 million.
The contractor's schedule runs construction from 2 March 2026 to 6 December 2027. MOHCD dates completion to late 2027 and full occupancy to mid-2028. All units lease through San Francisco's Coordinated Entry system.
Cahill and Guzman Construction Group formed a joint venture for the general contract. Herman Coliver Locus Architecture and Mithun Design carry the design.
Still at the planning stage
Preliminary permits for the second and third parcels reached the Planning Department in November 2025. Parcel two is a 16-storey building at 149 feet with 134 apartments and 1,540 square feet of retail. Parcel three is a nine-storey building at 84 feet with 112 apartments. The two form around a shared courtyard.
YIMBY reports the filing's construction start on the next parcel as early as July 2027 and its cost at about $208 million, a figure that excludes some development costs. Neither building carries construction financing on the public record.
The sponsor holds the parcel next door
Crescent Heights holds 10 South Van Ness Avenue, the parcel the Mission Street transfer was tied to. The Planning Commission issued final approval in September 2026 for a revised 67-storey tower of 820 feet under the Market and Octavia area plan. The revision cut the apartment count from 1,019 to 921.
The approved scheme yields 1.59 million square feet: 1.49 million square feet of housing, 38,280 square feet of basement garage and 2,360 square feet of ground-floor retail. Parking runs to 105 cars and 352 bicycles. Of the 921 homes, 240 are rental apartments in the podium and 681 are for-sale condominiums in the tower. Seventy apartments are affordable, which supports a 32.5 percent density bonus, two zoning concessions and unlimited waivers. The approval extends the entitlements three years to August 2029. The application used Senate Bill 423 streamlining.
Arcadis is the designer. The developer has published no estimated cost and no construction timeline.
The conversion plan on that parcel
NPU Inc., an event management company, filed a temporary-use application in May 2026 to run a community and private event space in the existing commercial structure at 10 South Van Ness Avenue. The filing seeks a three-year window ending in mid-May 2029 and expects four to six events a month. The Planning Department does not list the application as approved.
Three records to watch
Watch the planning file on parcels two and three for a construction date. Watch the temporary-use determination at 10 South Van Ness Avenue. Watch the sponsor tower for a construction start, which resets the entitlement clock running to August 2029.