S.F.'s historic greenhouses may be saved
A developer who had planned to build townhomes on the site of the longabandoned greenhouses in San Francisco’s Portola district has agreed to sell all or part of the property to a neighborhood nonprofit that wants to create an urban farm and agricultural education center on the abandoned 2.2 acres.
There is a catch, however: The neighborhood group has about a year and a half to come up with about l8.5 million to purchase the entire site, or l3.4 million to buy 40% of the land.
The deal, brokered by Supervisor Hillary Ronen, comes after a fouryear fight over whether housing would be built at 770 Woolsey St., the last remaining remnant of the city’s oncethriving flowergrowing industry.
5nder the agreement, the Friends of 770 Woolsey, a nonprofit that has spent a decade working to repurpose the property as an urban farm, has an option on the site that
would allow the developer to recoup its costs on the project. The developer, 37, purchased the site for l7.5 million in 2017 and has spent more than three years going through the approval process for a 62unit development.
If the nonprofit is not able to raise the money, it will have an option to buy 40% of the site, a scenario that would shrink the size of the development from 62 to about 40 homes. If the group isn’t able to buy any portion of the parcel, 37 has still agreed to rebuild two of the existing 18 greenhouses, preserve the existing boiler room and create a community space, in addition to the 62 housing units.
Eric Tao, a partner with 37, said he remains committed to building the proposed housing, but wanted to give the greenhouse advocates a chance to see if they could buy the property.
“The process has just been so contentious and, as San Francisco developers, we plan to be building housing here for the next 20 years,” said Tao, who founded
37 a few years ago with wellknown builder Joy Ou. “We are not going to fall on the sword over one project.”
His company is a prolific San Francisco builder — it is currently finishing up 232 condos and a hotel at 950 Market St. and has 500 more units planned at 1270 Mission St. and 1560 Folsom St. Supervisor Ronen said that while she is supportive of housing in most situations, the greenhouse site offers something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the city.
“To have a working farm in the middle of San Francisco’s garden district is a pretty wonderful opportunity,” she said. “We are not talking about that much housing, and cities are not only made up of housing — you need other amenities to make a neighborhood beautiful and unique.”
Ronen said she will support the housing development if the greenhouse project doesn’t come to fruition.
“It’s such a wonderful way to ensure that the land becomes useful again and at the same time give the community a chance to make their dream come true,” said Ronen.
The property was once the 5niversity Mound Greenhouses where, starting in 1922, the Garibaldi brothers produced seven varieties of roses as well as snapdragons, dahlias and delphiniums. The glass and wood structures were San Francisco’s last remaining active commercial greenhouses until they were shut down in the early 1990s. Prior to World War II there were 19 blocks of greenhouses in the Portola, mostly operated by Italian and Maltese immigrants who settled in the neighborhood. The Woolsey Street parcel is the only block that hasn’t been redeveloped with singlefamily homes.
Over the past decade, a group of Portola residents has embraced the neighborhood’s history as the city’s “garden district.” In addition to advocating for the greenhouse project, they have created green spaces on a series of dead ends that back up onto Highway 101.
Portola resident David Gabriner, a Berkeley firefighter who has led the greenhouse revitalization effort, said all three alternatives are acceptable to the neighborhood.
“There is no gouging happening — it feels like a very fair deal,” he said. “Even if the neighborhood is unable to raise the funds and realize our vision, we still end up with something that emphasizes preservation and feels like a decent compromise.”
If the nonprofit buys the property, it would likely rebuild some of the greenhouses to Department of the Interior standards and dedicate much of the land to the growing of flowers, herbs and vegetables. Restaurants and florists could sublease their own plots, and there would likely be an education center where San Francisco schoolchildren and college students could learn about sustainable agriculture.
“The vision has always been about finding ways to connect to that history — some of that is the architecture and some of that is cultural,” said aura Crescimano, a principal with Sitelab, an urban planning firm that has been working with the neighborhood group for six years.
The projects Sitelab works on — like the development of Pier 70 and the Stonestown Galleria — tend to be large and include a lot of housing. This one is different, Crescimano said.
“I’m obviously prohousing, but I don’t think it’s all or nothing,” she said. “In this particular neighborhood, there were 19 blocks of greenhouses, and 18 of them have been converted into housing.”
Tao said it has been interesting getting to know the overgrown greenhouses, where wild roses still grow amid the rotted wood and booze bottles that proliferate after weekend parties.
“It’s a little scary there,” he said. “It’s me and a bunch of teenagers who sneak in there to get drunk.”