San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
New development emerges as versatile microcommunity
Nearly a decade ago Michael Cohen was at the old City Ballet San Francisco building on Otis Street, waiting for his daughter to finish dance class, when he stepped out the back door into the alleyway for some fresh air.
Once outside the developer looked around and realized that he was standing in a hidden pocket of the city he was not familiar with — a mid-block oasis of quiet alleyways and empty surface parking lots tucked between Mission Street to the south, Market Street to the north, 12th Street to the east and Brady Street to the west.
“I thought I knew the city pretty well,” said Cohen, who previously headed up the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development under former Mayor Gavin Newsom. “But here was a place I didn’t realize existed.”
Cohen discovered that the property was owned by Local 38 Plumbers and Pipefitters, which operated out of an old union hall on the Market Street side of the property, and that the union was looking for a developer interested in building some housing on the 2-acre parcel, which also included the brick Civic Center Hotel. Cohen’s company, Strada Investment Group, came up with a proposal and inked a deal with the plumbers union.
“If it hadn’t have been for City Ballet, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said recently.
Fast-forward nearly a decade and the microcommunity emerging at what is known as the “Brady Block” may be San Francisco’s most versatile development, with something for everyone: Hundreds of market rate apartments a quick walk from Hayes Valley, Civic Center and Valencia Street. Supportive housing for formerly homeless folks. A historic residential hotel. A public plaza. Market Street retail spaces. And a union hall for the city’s plumbing and pipefitters.
While much of the property remains a construction site these days, Strada’s vision of the Brady Block is quickly coming to life. So far three of the six buildings scheduled for the property have opened: 96 units of supportive housing for formerly homeless folks at 53 Colton St.; a new union hall for Local 38 on Market Street; and a 189-unit market-rate apartment complex called One Brady.
The 69-unit “Building B” will open in October, while work on another 169-unit mid-rise is just starting. The completion of that building will coincide with the opening of Joseph P. Mazzola Gardens, a plaza and mid-block passages.
In addition to that, restored historic facades along Market Street will provide four retail spaces totaling 13,000 square feet while the historic Civic Center Hotel will be renovated to offer 60 studios.
The Brady Block has the potential to become the centerpiece of the city’s emerging “Hub” neighborhood. In the last two years, two new towers have opened at 1550 Mission St. and 30 Otis St., both within a stone’s throw of the Brady Block, a combined 844 rental units. Still to come are 10 South Van Ness, which will add 984 units, and 30 Van Ness, with 333 condos. Just west of 30 Van Ness, a 460-unit tower known as One Oak has been approved.
Architect Owen Kennerly, who designed the Brady Block project along with David Baker Architects called the collection of buildings “the lynchpin” of the Hub. The narrow alleys that cut through the site — Colton, Stevenson and Brady streets — offer a human-scale gathering place among busy boulevards and 40-story high-rises.
“In the Hub you have all these high-rises and arterial streets like Van Ness and Market and Mission,” Kennerly said. “You are going to have thousands of people living there, but there is not the kind of neighborhood center you typically find in San Francisco.”
Unlike those high-rise towers, the Brady Block features more low-slung buildings, more retail and a significant public park. The project’s amenities — gym, decks, rooftop lounges — are spread throughout the buildings and are available to all the residents. A cafe will spill out onto the park, which will have a children’s playground.
“It’s sort of a deconstructed high-rise where you have all the amenities of a glassy new highrise you might see in other parts
Above: One Brady is new market-rate apartment building. Below: Lawrence Rickey Jones relaxes in his room at the new Jazzie Collins Apartments for formerly homeless people. of the city, but in a very classic San Francisco neighborhood,” said Cohen.
Meanwhile the Local 38 building — which Cohen called “the nicest union hall on the western seaboard” — is up and running. Local 38 SecretaryTreasurer Larry Mazzola Jr., a third generation leader of the city’s plumbers union, said the Brady Block is a family legacy project. His grandfather Joe Mazzola, who died in a car accident in 1989, acquired the parcels with pension fund money and envisioned a development with stores below apartments.
“He always wanted to do housing and retail, but I don’t know if even he would envisioned it quite like this,” said Mazzola, whose took over leadership of the union from his father, Larry Mazzola Sr. “Thank God this job started in the pandemic when all the other jobs were put on hold.”
Mazzola said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came by the other day to check it out. “The old union hall hosted everyone from presidential candidates down to dogcatchers,” he said. “It’s always been a hub for political union activity and we are going to keep that going in the new hall.”
So far, about half of the units of the supportive homeless building — named Jazzie Collins after a SoMa activist — are occupied. Some of the formerly homeless tenants moved over from the Civic Center Hotel, while others had been temporarily housed into “shelter-inplace” hotels during the pandemic. The building is owned and managed by HomeRise, which specializes in supportive housing.
One of the first residents to move into the 53 Colton building was Lawrence Rickey Jones. Homeless on and off for decades, the longtime security guard has a studio apartment on the fifth floor. All units are pre-furnished, micro-studios with private bathrooms and kitchenettes. Residents have access to a community room and kitchen, outdoor courtyard, full-time property management
and on-site resident services.
Jones, 62, and who has been clean from a crack addiction for 13 years, is still getting used to living inside. Each resident was given a bag with dishes, silverware, cleaning supplies, coffee makers, dish racks and laundry baskets. On Thursday, he made waffles for breakfast and chicken and pasta for dinner.
“When I got in the room I cried. It’s a blessing to have your own apartment. I never had that,” he said. “It’s mine. I can look out the window. I got air conditioning, man. It’s cool. I keep my place clean because I pride myself on cleanliness. What they provided for us, man, is so wonderful.”
After years of panhandling at Fisherman’s Wharf and living in shelters and tents, he likes to hang in his room listening to Smokey Robinson and the Temptations.
“I’m blessed. I thank God and all the workers who put their effort into building this place,” he said “I got keys to my own place, I mean come on, man!”
HomeRise Executive Director Rick Aubry said being part of a larger mixed-use, mixed-income development helps make residents feel like they are not being pushed to the side.
“It’s not what you would imagine homeless housing would look like,” he said. “Folks can use the amenities across the way. It’s breaking the city mentality that the only way to solve homelessness is to continually move people into the Tenderloin.”