therealdeal – excerpt

OK from city would still leave questions on whether 495-unit development will ever rise

A flashpoint in San Francisco’s ongoing YIMBY vs NIMBY wars is likely to be approved next week, a step forward following a controversial 2021 decision by the Board of Supervisors sent the 495-unit apartment project back for additional environmental review.

It nevertheless looks unlikely that the 27-story apartment development, with about 24% affordable housing, will be built anytime soon. In addition to the high construction costs and lack of capital partners plaguing developers across the city, project developer Build Inc., recently turned over another entitled downtown property for 460 units to its creditors…

And some close observers think the tower will never rise. The project’s main opponent, politically powerful affordable housing advocate TODCO, told the San Francisco Chronicle in October that it would stop its fight against the development precisely because it doesn’t believe the apartment tower will be built.

“It would be a waste of time to oppose it—it would be opposing something that doesn’t exist, that never will exist,” TODCO Executive Director John Elberling told the paper when Build refiled plans for the project last fall. “It could never get the rents that would be needed for that project to be financially feasible even before interest rates and construction costs went up.” …(more)

A number of SF projects are being dropped or turned over to creditors. Who will fund the next round of YIMBY politicians if the developers are broke? Might this be a good time for some new blood to step up.