SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco may soon see empty office space in the city get a second life. There is new legislation passed by the SF Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Amidst a housing crisis and a loss of commercial and office space in San Francisco, city leaders are one step closer to turning vacant, office and commercial space into tens of thousands of homes.
Many of these are located downtown, in the Financial District and Union Square — all part of San Francisco Supervisor Danny Sauter’s district. Sauter co-sponsored the revitalization bill.
”They’re older buildings, they’re maybe eight to 12 stories and these based on every study are the buildings that could be converted to housing most quickly,” Sauter said. “I’m thinking of streets like Sansome, Kearny, and Battery where maybe you don’t have the office activity you used to have.”
Sauter says it’s better to have housing now rather than wait for companies to come back three to five years down the line.
“It’s a very visual reminder of all the work that needs to be done and our economic recovery and how it needs to speed up to get people working downtown, get people shopping in our neighborhoods again,” he said.
According to data from the city, office space vacancy in San Francisco has hit 34 percent.
This new legislation will remove previous barriers such as placing a quota on affordable housing, will reduce development costs for projects up to 7 million square feet and will also extend application deadlines.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re abandoning the cause of affordable housing, it just means for this discreet area, we’re going to try to make this easier so we can get these projects moving,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey.
The bill was also co-sponsored by Dorsey, who’s seen firsthand how projects revamp the community.
“We want more neighborhoods like the east cut and Mission Bay where they’re not 9 to 5, work only kind of areas, and ghost towns at night and on the weekends, we want vibrant neighborhoods,” Dorsey said.
A state revitalization bill that took effect at the beginning of the year also lays out tax incentives to encourage developers to convert empty office and retail spaces into homes and create around 14,000 new housing units.
“I think our economy depends on it but more than that I think this is really what’s at stake for the future of San Francisco,” Dorsey said.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco may soon see empty office space in the city get a second life. There is new legislation passed by the SF Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Amidst a housing crisis and a loss of commercial and office space in San Francisco, city leaders are one step closer to turning […]
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