Housing plan for Stonestown parking lot

The Stonestown Galleria shopping center in the Sunset District will have its massive surface parking lot turned into housing that fronts 19th Avenue, according to preliminary plans submitted to San Francisco Planning.

The development plan by Brookfield Properties, which owns Stonestown, calls for 2,930 residential units spread across a dozen new buildings ranging from three to 18 stories. The housing will essentially surround the mall itself, and connect it with 6 acres of parks, plazas and pathways, the renderings show.

“The planning department is excited by the prospect of new housing on the west side of the city, which will turn an auto-oriented set of parking lots into a walkable community that is well served by transit,” said Josh Switzky, the department's land use and community planning manager.

The entire 40-acre site, which is bordered by Lowell High School to the north and San Francisco State University to the south, will be reimagined in a form unrecognizable from the opening of the Stonestown mall in 1952.

Back then, the curb appeal to attract shoppers was acres of open blacktop drawing cars in to park. Now the appeal is a mixed-use community. The storefronts will face 20th Avenue, to be redesigned as a pedestrian-friendly merchant corridor. Retail and commercial space, now 775,000 square feet, will increase by 160,000 square feet plus 40,000 feet of space for community. There will also be up to 200,000 square feet of office space, where there is none now.

The multiscreen movie theater has already been demolished and replaced by theaters in the existing mall, which will remain as part of the plan. The 3,400 parking spaces, mostly in surface lots, will be replaced by 3,700 spaces in a new multistory parking structure and in an expansion of the existing underground garage.

Brookfield, which did not respond to a request for comment, has been working on the project since 2018. To date there have been 7,000 surveys mailed out, 12 neighborhood and HOA meetings, and 10 community events held, according to the planning department.

The department approved a preliminary project assessment for Stonestown. Next comes a review of an official project application. An environmental impact report, compiled by planning staff, is expected to take about two additional years.

Brookfield hopes to begin construction in 2024.