Presidio Trust OKs housing development at former hospital

by J.K. Dineen at the San Francisco Business Journal

The Presidio Trust has given developer Forest City the green light to build a 186-unit housing development at the former Public Health Service Hospital Complex, a project that had faced vociferous opposition from Richmond District neighbors.

The project, which was significantly scaled back after a series of neighborhood hearings, will include a little more than half the 350 units Forest City had originally proposed. It will also have 76,000 square feet of educational, office, and cultural space. Current tenants Arion Press and Lone Mountain Preschool will remain in the complex.

The “development agreement” between Forest City and the Presidio Trust comes 26 years after the army closed down the former Public Health Service Hospital Complex at 15th Avenue on the Presidio’s southern edge.

The total project will be 330,000 square feet. The historic buildings on the site will be rehabilitated and the non-historic wings of Building 1801, the main hospital building, will be knocked down. Up to 133,000 square feet will be demolished and no more than 51,000 square feet of replacement construction will be allowed, according to the agreement.

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