Developer takes on one of S.F.'s toughest corners - San Francisco Business Times:

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The nonprofit housing group paid $9.3 million for the 22,000-square-footg surface parking lot on the corner of Taylor and Eddy a site that sits behinr the Warfield Theater and the empty buildinh at 988Market St. that housee the San Francisco Examiner from 2001to 2004. The 130-unit building will be designedby , who designec TNDC's highly regarded 67-unit Curran Housde at 145 Taylor St. "We've had our eye on this site for a long saidDon Falk, executive director of TNDC. "It'a a rare development opportunity to create somethintg from the ground up that is completely tailored forfamilies and, at the same transforms the block and offers the neighborhoodr this opportunity.
" Eddy & Taylor Family Housing will be comprisex of 130 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. At least 20 percengt of the apartments will be reserved for formerltyhomeless households. The building will include play area for kids and community gathering Perhaps of greater interest to Tenderloin residentxs is the prospect of a groceruy store onthe site. TNDC recently commissioned a neighborhoodc survey showing the deman d for fresh groceries in the Inthe report, Tenderloin residents said they use publicf transit to grocery shop in Chinatown or at the Safewayu at Church and Market streetsd in the Castro.
Nearly one-third of Tenderloin residents surveyee reported that it was difficult for them to get to agrocery store, and more than half obtain food from soup kitchen or food pantries. The Tenderloin has 30,0000 residents, including 4,000 children. Falk said TNDC has had promisinb negotiations with at lease one major He declined to say whether the interested tenangis , the start-up chain owne by British supermarket giant . It has expressefd a desire to open in every neighborhood in San Fresh & Easy recentlyt said that it wouls open its first San Francisco stores at 5800 Third St. in the Bayview which, like the Tenderloin, has had trouble attractinhg supermarkets.
"Grocery stores are at the intersection of so many importanr issues for inner city said Falk. "It's about It's about choice. Why shouldn't inner city neighborhoodds have choices?" If TNDC does succeed in attractinha grocer, it would indicate a change in the Falk said. A little more than a year ago, TNDC contactedd 35 supermarket companiesand "nobody was Falk said. "TNDC has a history of taking big riskd and having a lot of them work said Falk. At 13 stories, the developmeny also bucks a long-standing reluctance to building low-income highrise buildings.
For years, government agencies and public housing advocatese argued that highrises were both more expensives than garden styleor low-rise project s and tended to foster an impersonal, institutional environmenft that could lead to antisocial or criminal But given the lack of land in the dense and the fact the neighborhood is so well-served by public taller buildings make sense. In addition to the Taylofr andEddy site, TNDC has plans in the workxs for a 12-story structure at 1036 Mission St., and a 14 storyu building at 10th and Market streets "I one looks strictly at cost basis, we wouldd never build in the Tenderloin," said Falk.
"Bur density is way of the future and heigh t is the way ofthe future." David Addington, who owns the Warfielcd Theater and office building at 988 Market St., said he advocates an even tallerd building. "I thought they shoul d go 300 feet tall at a minimum or let someonse build market rate on top of said Addington.