SF Rent-Controlled Housing Is Up for Demolition. Here’s Why Officials Said Yes
Published by John on
A 117-year-old Nob Hill property is slated to turn into 33 condominiums. It’s rare, legal, and has an unusual twist.
The property slated for a tear-down spans from 842-860 California Street. The plan calls for a new eight-story building with 33 condominiums, most of them one or two-bedroom homes.
That’s the kind of development Nob Hill rarely sees. The neighborhood only added 13 new units last year, ranked 18th in SF. (One new building did add 44 units in 2021.) For context, the top-ranked Tenderloin just down the hill added nearly 800 new homes last year.
The main part of the property at 842-860 California. (Google Street View)
The current buildings include two commercial spaces and five residential apartments, all built in 1907. SF’s rent-control stock is limited to apartments built before 1979. That’s still about 70 percent of the city’s rental units.
When Mayor London Breed proposed a law last year to allow demolition of rent-controlled apartments in one-or-two unit buildings without a hearing in certain narrow cases, the outcry forced her to ax it.
In this case, the project sponsor testified that the five apartments in question were empty. Vince Sosnkowski, a Tahoe-based realtor and developer, bought the buildings for $5.2 million in 2020. Prior to that, Nob Hill mainstays the Wiebe sisters owned the whole place, operating the Twin’s Armoire Boutique in one of the commercial spaces and living in two of the apartments for more than 50 years. The other three apartments were empty all that time, according to the Planning Department.
The other commercial space housed doctor’s offices until a few years ago, but one of the doctors told The Frisc all occupants have either retired or moved.
“This is indeed a rare set of variables that led to a demolition,” said SF Planning Department spokesperson Anne Yalon.
What’s more, the project complies with two main requirements of a state law, SB 330, that governs demolition of rent-controlled apartments.
