John Lucas couldn’t figure it out. Why has a desirable lot in one of the city’s liveliest neighborhoods, Cow Hollow, sat vacant for more than a decade?
“It’s shitty. It brings down the vibe of the whole neighborhood,” said Lucas, who’s lived next to the lot for more than 20 years. “I’ve always wondered, why is it vacant? It’s prime real estate.”
While plans for housing at 2435 Lombard St. were approved in 2013, the developer never followed through. Now, there are only weeds and trash, locked behind a chain-link gate.
Before it became a sad patch of grass, the 6,859-square-foot empty lot housed the Action Fitness gym. The company’s Yelp page shows glowing reviews from the late aughts of gym rats, calling it “as good as it gets” — thanks to its gregarious owner, Pedro Herranz. Those same reviews show the gym closed around 2010. Attempts to contact Herranz were unsuccessful.
The property’s history before that is murkier. Real estate agent David Chan, who tried unsuccessfully to sell the building before it was demolished in 2015, said it was a “commercial kitchen” that did catering. Building permit records show it was designated for “food and beverage handling” as far back as 1982 but say little else.
According to property records, the lot was purchased by Kins, LLC in 2005. It is currently controlled by Cecilia Yee Hong, who lives in Novato. Hong did not respond to requests for comment. The land is listed online as being off the market.
San Francisco Planning records show Hong filed an application in 2011 to build 12 condos with ground-floor retail but didn’t file formal plans with the city. According to Chan, a fire access path for the bar next door restricted the project’s size to the point that it wouldn’t have been profitable.
Hong had the building demolished in 2015 and, in 2023, applied to develop the lot with 15 apartments and ground-floor retail, but no formal plans materialized at that time either.
Local residents feel perplexed, frustrated, or apathetic at the sight of the empty lot.
Real estate agent David Kleinschmidt, who lives on the block, said he’d like to see the lot rented to food trucks if it can’t be developed, as long as it is cleaned up first.
“It looks like trash,” he said.
“I wish they’d build something here,” said Duane Dalbec, a homeless man who sleeps nearby. “Why not put an apartment building here?”
Issa Michael, landlord of CC’s Cocktail Lounge, said the lot, rife with trash and graffiti, occasionally attracts squatters who make their camp behind the bar. To him, it’s a nagging concern.
“It attracts a criminal element, and I want safety for my tenants,” he said.
The lot’s property manager, Ben Wong, said it has always had a fence in front, but people get in roughly once a month and leave beer bottles and graffiti. After Michael complained, Hong installed a taller fence topped with barbed wire. But it hasn’t been effective. Squatters cut a hole in the fence around three months ago, Wong said.
“I’d like to see it developed. I’d do it myself, but that’s out of my price range,” he said.
Construction costs have remained high due to Covid-era supply chain issues and, lately, tariffs. Undeveloped land in San Francisco is not considered a good deal by investors because of the exorbitant cost of buying and developing it.
Chan estimated that while a landlord could buy a 10,000-square-foot apartment building for $200 to $350 per square foot, it would cost between $600 and $800 to build one of the same size. And the location could open any building project at the site to pushback from locals.
“With Cow Hollow, you’ll always have neighbors complaining,” he said.
He may be right.
A woman who said she lives behind the lot but declined to identify herself said she worried that anything built there would block sunlight from entering her apartment.
“It’d be great if they kept it empty,” she said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that plans were not approved for the empty lot; this was incorrect. Plans were approved in 2013 but did not materialize.