Developer ups affordable housing

The developer of one of the most controversial developments proposed for the Mission District — derided by activists as “the Beast on Bryant” — now says he will donate one- third of the property to the city for affordable housing.

Developer Nick Podell, who owns a 64,000- square- foot site at 18th and Bryant streets, has agreed to give the southern portion of the property to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.

The land, worth an estimated $ 26 million, is big enough for 129 units of affordable housing. Podell will develop 186 units of marketrate rental housing on the remainder of the property. That works out to 41 percent affordable housing, up from 17 percent in Podell’s original proposal.

“We have completely redesigned this project,” said Linsey Perlov of the Nick Podell Co. “This is a large concession for us, but we listened to the neighborhood and are hoping to provide something that the community can get behind.”

Along with a commercial property at the 16th and Mission BART Station, Podell’s 1.5- acre parcel at 2000- 2070 Bryant St. has become a lightning rod for Mission Dis-

trict residents upset that the neighborhood’s Latino character and arts community is being decimated by escalating housing costs and the influx of high- end restaurants and shops.

Those proposals, along with others in the pipeline, inspired a failed 2015 ballot initiative that would have paused marketrate housing in the neighborhood. In January, the Planning Commission passed more modest interim controls that will require some developers to provide information on how their proposed projects might affect the larger neighborhood’s economic diversity.

Architectural tweaks

Podell has also added 11,000 square feet of space to be dedicated to arts and what are called PDR — production, distribution and repair. The new design features a mid- block passage that would cut between the two housing complexes. The market- rate building, designed by Jonathan Ennis of BDE Architecture, will be brick with custom wrought ironwork and wooden storefronts.

Under the plan, the Mayor’s Office of Housing would select a nonprofit developer to take on the project, which would be funded through a combination of city money, affordable housing tax credits, and state and federal grants.

In November, San Francisco voters passed a $ 310 million affordable housing bond measure, $ 50 million of which will be set aside for the Mission. Right now the city owns four sites in the Mission — 2070 Folsom St., 1950 Mission St., 1296 Shotwell St. and 490 S. Van Ness Ave. — where 425 units of affordable housing will be built. Podell’s Bryant Street project would swell the pipeline to five sites totaling 554 units.

Kate Hartley, deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing, said, “With land prices so expensive in the Mission, having the opportunity to build new affordable housing on that site is great.”

Hartley said that there will be $ 200 million spent on affordable housing in the Mission over the next few years. That includes the $ 50 million in bond money, plus affordable housing tax credits and development fees.

“We have a huge amount of affordable housing investment going into the Mission, and we are not done yet,” Hartley said.

In addition to providing land for below- marketrate housing units, Podell has agreed to use 100 percent union construction labor, to which he had previously not been willing to commit. In June the Building Trades Council, which generally supports major developments, voted against endorsing the Bryant Street project, both because it didn’t include enough affordable housing and because Podell had not committed to a union job.

The affordable housing commitment, combined with the hiring of Build Group, an allunion general contractor, means that the trades council will probably back the project.

“When you can have labor working with the community on affordability, that is a great model,” said Jay Bradshaw, director of organizing for Carpenters Local 22. “We want a city that not only has good union jobs but a place that folks can afford to live in. It all ties together for us.”

Resistance remains

Still, some Mission groups oppose all marketrate housing in the neighborhood and are not buying into the new plan. Scott Weaver, a tenants rights attorney who worked on last year’s moratorium initiative, said the new proposal came up Wednesday night at a meeting of United to Save the Mission, a coalition of neighborhood groups.

“There wasn’t a great deal of enthusiasm — I would say that is an understatement,” he said. “I don’t want to pooh- pooh progress, but that is still a lot of marketrate housing for the Mission.” J. K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E- mail: jdineen@ sfchronicle. com Twitter: @ sfjkdineen