Gran Oriente readies for its next chapter

It was suddenly autumn in South Park on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 27. The sky was overcast; the wind picked up — but little could chill the excitement of the crowd gathered to kick off the celebration for a new single-room occupancy hotel in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Most SROs don’t get the fanfare of a ribbon cutting, full catering and remarks from Mayor London Breed, but the transition of the Gran Oriente Filipino Masonic Hotel into one of the city’s newest affordable housing solutions is special.

The 106 South Park property was purchased in 1921 for $6,000 by Filipino immigrants and merchant mariners who’d pooled their money to buy it. For decades, it served as a boardinghouse, community gathering space and touchstone for members of the Gran Oriente Filipino Masonic fraternity, surviving as a rare holdout when many other Filipino residential communities were displaced from San Francisco. The Gran Oriente is tucked out of the way, easy to miss in that charming leafy loop of South Park. It’s survived in relative obscurity and peace. But in recent years, the Gran Oriente has fallen into disrepair and suffered from a dwindling tenant pool. After 97 years, it was time for a big change.

Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents District Six, which includes South Park, connected the stakeholders at the Gran Oriente with Mission Housing Development Corp., an affordable housing nonprofit that owns or manages 35 San Francisco buildings and serves approximately 2,000 units and 3,500 tenants.

Mission Housing was able to purchase the Gran Oriente outright for $4.5 million, and with additional funds from both refinancing other properties and money from the Mayor’s Office of Housing, it plans to completely update the property’s interior, making it energy efficient and structurally sound. Thursday afternoon was a celebration of those plans. When it opens in about a year and a half, the Gran Oriente will offer 27 SRO rooms — 100 percent affordable housing — to formerly homeless residents through a lottery system. Preference will be given to area residents.

“I’m very blown away and honored that the community has decided that Mission Housing can be a steward for this project,” said Mission Housing Executive Director Sam Moss.

Much of the focus Thursday was on celebrating the Filipino community that worked with the city and Mission Housing to make the sale of the Gran Oriente happen. Jack London Alley, which runs perpendicular into South Park, was shut down for the festivities. Shiny metal chairs, bouquet-topped cocktail tables and a DJ took over the alley for official speeches. Activists presented Moss with a plaque honoring the longtime neighborhood leader and third-generation Gran Oriente master mason Steve Arevalo.

Arevalo, who died in April, was instrumental in the fight to keep Gran Oriente as low-income housing. Students performed spoken-word poetry about the Filipino immigrant experience, and one of the Gran Oriente’s community rooms was filled (seriously filled) with classic Filipino food offerings like lumpia and adobo. While the hotel will no longer be exclusively available to Filipino residents, it was important for Mission Housing to honor the community that made this new housing possible.

“We didn’t just get a building that we’re going to manage,” said Mission Housing’s community engagement coordinator Chirag Bhakta. “We’ve got a responsibility that we gotta hold with respect, with dignity and with the community.”

The crowd eventually moved from the alley and into the Gran Oriente itself. A small handful of residents still live there, and when it comes time to remodel the building, they’ll be moved into temporary housing nearby.

The airy center of the Gran Oriente is lit by a massive skylight three stories up. Residents use an outdated communal kitchen outfitted with a shared stove and individual half-size refrigerators. The building’s well-worn staircase winds in circles, leading to dozens of 96-squarefoot apartments and shared bathrooms. From the top floor, one can lean over the railing and peer all the way down, past dozens of SRO doors, potted plants and San Francisco soul.

By 2020, it’ll all look different. The Gran Oriente will be filled with mostly new residents, with mostly new paint and new apartments. It’ll be modern and fresh and available to people who, right now, might not have a home. But on Thursday, as this historic property ceremonially changed hands, a small group of excited San Franciscans celebrated some of the city’s Filipino pioneers whose 97-year-old, $6,000 purchase will continue its legacy as a safe, solid space for people who need just that.

“We’ve responsibility got a that we gotta hold with respect, with dignity and with the community.” Chirag Bhakta, Mission Housing