Housing Mega-Project at San Francisco Mall Moving Forward

Brookfield has reach an agreement with city officials on a mega-project that will build 3,500 housing units at the 40-acre Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco.

Under the terms of the deal, the mall owner will make 20% of the units—about 700 homes—affordable. The new housing will include a senior village and a senior center, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The deal must still be approved by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, who recently reduced the percentage of affordable housing that developers are obligated to include in projects from 23.5% to between 12% and 16%, depending on the size of the project.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the area including Stonestown, said the 20% commitment on affordable housing in the project was the best the city could do in the current economic environment.

“I would have liked to go for more but given the circumstances—and that it’s more than they are required to do—it’s good,” Melgar told the Chronicle. “Also, when you consider nothing has been built on the westside for a very long time, it’s great.”

The New York arm of the Toronto-based real estate giant first proposed a $2B redevelopment of the huge parking area surrounding the 775K SF indoor mall more than two years ago. The original plans, which preserve the 70-year-old mall, also envisioned a hotel, which was dropped as the amount of housing in the project was increased.

The development will feature a town square with outdoor dining, recreation space and a plaza that will host a farmer’s market. Brookfield is planning to create a new “main street” of retailers, restaurants and an entertainment venues corridor encompassing 150K SF along 20th Avenue.

The project will include six acres of parks and a child care center, the report said. Parking will be built underground and adjacent to retailers.

Brookfield will make a $1M contribution to playground improvements in the area and a $2.7M donation for Fire Station No. 19, which will serve the new neighborhood. The developer also will pay more than $50M in development impact fees to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, the report said.

Stonestown Galleria has been thriving in stark contrast to the largest downtown mall in downtown San Francisco, formerly known as the Westfield Centre.

Last year, Brookfield Properties and Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stopped making payments on a $558M loan tied to Westfield Centre and surrendered the keys of the half-empty mall to its lenders.

The name of the downtown mall, now in receivership, has been changed to the Emporium Centre San Francisco, a nod to the Emporium, a department store than opened there in 1896.