A long-blighted corner lot in a desirable pocket of one of the nation’s most housing-starved cities may finally see homes built — nearly a decade after it was first eyed for redevelopment.
The site at 400 Divisadero — centrally located in the Lower Haight, just blocks away from the Panhandle and Duboce Triangle — has been an eyesore and a symbol of wasted opportunity since Touchless Car Wash left it vacant in 2019.
Now, after multiple false starts that fizzled out because of higher construction costs and lower rents, San Francisco city officials approved another set of plans for an eight-story apartment complex on the 34,400-square-foot parcel.
The proposal approved by city planners Dec. 23 includes 203 apartment units, 20 of which will be below market rate. Of the designated affordable units, most will be priced at 55% of area median income. This means that to qualify, an individual has to earn $57,700 or less, and a family of four has to earn $82,400 or less, per the latest income limits.
The city also limits the maximum rent owners can charge in below-market-rate units. In this case, according to the city’s affordability calculation, that comes to about $1,400 a month for a one-bedroom and $1,545 for a two-bedroom, not including utilities.
The approval comes five years after the city OK’d initial plans that never came to fruition after the developer backed out, citing financial challenges.
In June 2024, another developer — 4Terra Investments — filed the new plans, taking advantage of AB 2011, which fast-tracks construction for projects with a certain percentage of affordable units. The firm also took advantage of the state density bonus, another YIMBY-backed law that allows developers to increase density in projects with on-site affordable housing.
“Everything points to a project here moving forward,” San Francisco Planning Department Chief of Staff Dan Sider said “The real go-no go determinant here is the financial one.”
Now that the city has approved the latest plans, the developer’s next step is to get permits — and then to convince a construction company that it makes financial sense to build. Despite high labor and materials costs, Sider said he sees a “real reason for optimism” and hopes to see shovels in the ground within a year.
The site became a central issue in the District 5 supervisor race last fall. The political advocacy group GrowSF put up a billboard at a gas station across the street that read, “That car wash should be affordable homes. Bilal Mahmood will fix it.”
Mahmood, a moderate challenger to progressive incumbent supervisor Dean Preston, triumphed in November. His election, it should be noted, had no impact on the approval of plans for the site, which came while Preston was still in office.
“The last fully approved market-rate housing plan wasn’t built because developers walked away,” Preston told The Standard via text message. “So we will see what happens this time.”
Neither Mahmood nor 4Terra Investments immediately responded to requests for comment.