12/27/2022 0 Comments Bridge baron not working![]() The city recently loaned the property owner $2.5 million to help with emergency repairs, work that started in May and will be wrapped up in March. “The basic problem is that the subsidies coming in are not high enough to offset the operating costs,” said Nagraj. Besides that, there is a small operating subsidy from the federal government, but it’s not enough to stay on top of repairs, he said. ![]() The property doesn’t have any Section 8 vouchers - residents pay 30% of their income. The problems were the result of poor design and a lack of subsidy to pay for property upkeep, according to Adhi Nagraj, senior vice president with McCormack Baron Salazar. While the lower-density building addressed some of the previous complaints - broken elevators, drug dealing in the hallways - it was only a decade before the new buildings started having serious issues with mold and leaks.įrom left: Anne Torney, an architect with Mithun, chats with community member Dennis Williams at Plaza East in San Francisco. The number of maintenance issues is shocking given that the development just opened in 2000, when it was celebrated as a more human-scaled alternative to what had been there previously, a 1950s-era 14-story building with 300 units. A recent San Francisco Public Press investigation found the city’s Department of Building Inspection has issued 90 notices of violation at the property in the past nine years - with 21 for plumbing and electrical issues, 10 for fire violations, six for sanitation problems, four for pest issues and two for mold. Plaza East’s 193 units are spread out in beige townhomes with roughly six units per building. Whatever is built, all current tenants will have the “right to return,” a requirement under city law.īut the history of the property, where Mayor London Breed grew up, is not something that inspires confidence in the current owners’ ability to do right by the tenants. And the developers are looking into including some market-rate apartments in order to create more of a mixed-income community and help subsidize the amenities - gym, open space, health clinic - that residents have been clamoring for. Beyond that, it’s likely there will be more affordable units added - possibly another 100. What is almost certain is that the current 193 units will be razed in phases and replaced with new public housing apartments in denser and taller buildings. What the redevelopment will look like will be finalized in March when the owners plan to submit an application with the city. Townsend’s group, WOW, will co-develop the troubled housing development. Arnold Townsend speaks to members of the Plaza East community. ![]() On Thursday, McCormack Baron Salazar, the co-owner of the 193-unit development on Buchanan Street, is set to announce that a new community development group Townsend founded - WOW, or Without Walls - will become a partner in the ongoing plans to rebuild Plaza East, a public housing complex on 3 acres that has been riddled with maintenance issues - mold, leaky pipes, tainted water - despite being only 2 decades old. “These may be brilliant ideas, but the people here are not going to believe a word we are telling them.” Arnold Townsend listened to it all with a heavy dose of skepticism. Veteran San Francisco civil rights leader the Rev.
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