SF New Developments

San Francisco Business Times - March 16, 2007 by J.K. Dineen

Crescent Heights has begun demolition at 10th and Market streets and plans to begin construction on a $350 million, 720-unit condo project this summer pending approvals at a Planning Commission hearing on March 22, according to company Vice President Steve Della Salla.

The project has not generated as much attention or controversy as the proposed 1,900-unit Trinity Plaza project at Eighth and Market streets, but promises to inject new life into a forlorn stretch of Market that has resisted redevelopment for decades.

In addition to Crescent Heights’ 720 condos, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. and Citizens Housing are teaming up to build 100 to 200 units of family or senior housing on the southern portion of the parcel. TNDC and Citizens sold the land to the Miami-based Crescent Heights in March 2006 for $26.5 million, but held on to a portion of the parcel on which it will build housing for poor people.

Both Della Salla and TNDC Executive Director Don Falk described the two projects as joined at the hip, a one-two development punch that will create a mixed-income animated neighborhood in an area that could use some help. The Department of Building Inspections expedited the demolition of existing buildings after vagrants repeatedly broke into 1401 Market St. and set the building on fire, according to DBI records.

Della Salla said he is committed to both projects — the affordable and the market rate.

“It’s a little bit outside…[continue to article]