Special Finance District Targets UCSF Campus Redo

A San Francisco neighborhood near the Presidio that has not seen new residential development in nearly 50 years may soon get an infusion of new housing with the creation of a special financing district.

A proposal before the Board of Supervisors would create an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) to get the ball rolling on two long-stalled projects at defunct medical facilities in the Laurel Heights section, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

An EIFD allows a developer to borrow against the tax revenue a project eventually will generate to finance needed infrastructure including streets, street lights and public plazas.

The EIFD in Laurel Heights is expected to help Prada Group bring plans to fruition for two sites in the neighborhood: the redevelopment of a former UCSF campus at 3333 California Street and a project slated for the old California Pacific Medical Center at 3700 California Street.

The two projects, which envision a total of more than 1,300 new homes, have been dormant since the beginning of the pandemic.

In April 2020, TMG Partners won approval to build 744 new homes at 3333 California Street, and about 600 homes at the property at 3700. Prado Group purchased the site from the developer in 2022 for $51.5M.

Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Catherine Stefani introduced the resolution to create an EIFD in Laurel Heights.

“San Francisco’s north side has had almost no new housing construction for more than half a century,” Dan Safier, Prado Group’s CEO, told the Chronicle. “Prado Group is pleased to help the city address its housing goals with this project.”

This marks the third time this year the city has initiated the creation of an EIFD to spur a major development project. Special districts also are being created for the redevelopments of the Potrero Power Station and the Stonestown Galleria.

The Power Station redevelopment, which was approved in 2020 and will be built in phases by San Francisco-based Associate Capital, envisions 2,600 housing units, 1.6M SF of commercial space and a 250-room hotel.

The project will open a large portion of the city’s Central Waterfront that has been occupied by the Power Station since 1889. A 300-foot tall boiler stack still stands at the waterfront site, which was PG&E’s last operating fossil fuel power plant in San Francisco before it closed in 2011.

The 300-foot-tall chimney and several historic buildings from the power plant will be preserved as part of the massive redevelopment, which will include a new waterfront park.

A new seawall has been built around the power station site, where demolition and grading were undertaken in 2021. A series of new roads also are being built, with an estimated $200M in financing from the EIFD.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors approved a development agreement to convert the parking lots surrounding the Stonestown Galleria into an urban village with thousands of units of housing and a pedestrian-friendly town square.