Decaying S.F. block of greenhouses is for sale again. Could it become single-family homes?

“Our city needs devoted, permanent space for urban agriculture, especially as we see skyrocketing grocery prices that continue to climb. We support the community’s long established interest in this historic agricultural site,” Fielder said.

By J.K. Dineen
SFchronicle
Feb 9, 2025

The decaying block of greenhouses in the heart of San Francisco’s Portola district is on the market once again, possibly marking the end of a community group’s quest of resurrecting the historic ruins as an urban farm and agricultural education center.

The brokerage Colliers International is looking for a residential builder to take on the 2.2-acre site at 770 Woolsey St., which has approvals for 62 housing units, a mix of single-family homes and flats. Marketing materials pitch the site a “shovel-ready” development opportunity site in the “beloved residential enclave adjacent to John McLaren Park and just south of Bernal Heights.”

For a decade, a rag-tag group of friends and urban ag enthusiasts have been on an improbable campaign to acquire the property, the last vestige of what was once a 19-block district of greenhouses, mostly cut flower growers of Italian and Maltese descent.

The brokerage Colliers International is looking for a residential builder to take over the abandoned greenhouses at 770 Woolsey St. in San Francisco.

In 2022 the group, which called itself the Greenhouse Project, raised $15 million in private and public money to acquire the site — the amount the property owner Group I had initially agreed to. But the bid was rejected. Since then the developer has been unsuccessfully trying to raise capital to build housing there. Now it has decided to sell.

While it’s hard to predict the property’s value — almost no approved development sites have sold since the pandemic — real estate brokers who follow the market say it’s unlikely the number will exceed the $15 million the Greenhouse Project offered. Several brokers put the value of the land at about $200,000 a unit, which pencils to $12.4 million, or about 18% less than the urban agriculture group had offered two years ago.

Neither the property owner nor Colliers responded to multiple requests for comment. Greenhouse Project co-founder Juan Carlos Cancino said neither group reached out to let them know the property was hitting the market.

The 2.2-acre site at 770 Woolsey St. has approvals for 62 housing units, a mix of single-family homes and flats.

“San Franciscans came together and raised and offered $15 million in just 18 months to carry on a 100 year old agricultural legacy at 770 Woolsey — I think that says a lot about this town and reasons to love it,” Cancino said. “This has always been about two things: the need for urban ag and securing land for community-led development. We still hope that’s how the story will end.”

While it’s unclear whether the seller would be willing to rekindle negotiations with the greenhouse group, the offering does include a requirement that one-third of an acre be set aside for some sort of community space and that two of the greenhouses be restored. That requirement was negotiated by former Supervisor Hillary Ronen as a fall-back deal in case a preliminary agreement between the property owner and the Greenhouse Project group fell apart.

Since then there has been little communication between Group I and the nonprofit, according to Project Greenhouse’s Caitlyn Galloway, who spent years operating Little City Gardens near the site and developed the plan for the farm, which was going to focus on “cool-season produce” as well as tender greens, herbs, flowers and seedlings that could be sold to backyard gardeners.

The property at 770 Woolsey St. is the last vestige of what was once a 19-block district of greenhouses, mostly cut flower growers of Italian and Maltese descent.

She said the fact that the property owner turned down the Project Greenhouse offer only to list the property for sale two years later was “heartbreaking.”

“It’s such a shame the way this community has been completely blown off,” Galloway said. “This developer swooped in and bought a rare, magical site where there was clear community interest, and over the years they sucked all the imagination and energy out of it.”

The block of greenhouses was part of the Garibaldi family’s old University Mound Nursery, known as “Rose Factory.” After World War II, as the rest of the flower-growing families moved to more spacious environs to the south — and the former greenhouses were replaced by single-family homes — the Garibaldi Nursery hung on, the last of the cut-flower nurseries. It closed in 1990.

A previous rendering of the proposed 62-unit development at 770 Woolsey St.. in San Francisco.

Several brokers said the property might be more marketable than the typical San Francisco development site because the building type — low-density flats and townhomes — is 20% to 30% cheaper to construct than the typical six- or eight-story multifamily complex common in the city. It can also be built in phases, which makes it less risky in a market downturn.

One developer familiar with the project said the property might appeal to a large homebuilder like KB Homes or D.R. Horton, which tend to build larger homes in suburban subdivisions. The average home size in the Woolsey project is over 1,700 square feet, far more spacious than a typical San Francisco condo. The Colliers marketing package estimates that the property would hit an “achievable sell out” of about $1,200 per square foot, or $2.05 million per home.

If the development gets built, it will be among the only new for-sale housing in the city and would stand out from other multi-family projects, according to Alan Mark, a condominium marketing consultant who handled marketing and sales of dozens of San Francisco projects over the last 35 years.

Marketing materials pitch 770 Woolsey St. as a “shovel-ready” development opportunity site in the “beloved residential enclave adjacent to John McLaren Park and just south of Bernal Heights.”
Marketing materials pitch 770 Woolsey St. as a “shovel-ready” development opportunity site in the “beloved residential enclave adjacent to John McLaren Park and just south of Bernal Heights.”
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
“This is one of the only projects with a preponderance of single-family homes that I’ve seen entitled in my career,” he said. “Most people who buy a single-family home in San Francisco have to put money into renovating the home, if not prior to moving in, then at some point later.”

He said 770 Woolsey could have the same impact as 300 Ivy St. in Hayes Valley, the Brannan in South Beach, or Madrone in Mission Bay — pioneering projects that attracted other homebuilders to those neighborhoods.

“We had record-breaking registration, pricing and absorption on all three of those,” Mark said. “You and I have seen what happens when there is a slow economy and a dearth of available product. The first projects to be built get absorbed quickly.”

Marketing materials pitch 770 Woolsey St. as a “shovel-ready” development opportunity site in the “beloved residential enclave adjacent to John McLaren Park and just south of Bernal Heights.”

Meanwhile, Greenhouse Project’s volunteers hold out hope that they might get another crack at the property. While the group has not been given any indication that it may be offered a chance to buy the site, Yensing Sihapanya, executive director of Family Connections Centers, which runs programs for families in the Portola and Excelsior neighborhoods, said she remains hopeful. She called the fact that the property is for sale “both surprising and exciting.”

“It could give the neighborhood another opportunity at it,” she said. “As a community member who lives in the neighborhood, I’d love to see us all come together to (make an offer) again.”

Short of that, Sihapanya said she “hopes that the little piece of land dedicated to the Greenhouse Project remains part of whatever happens to the property.”

In a statement, Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who took over in January for Ronen, said, “If the proposed housing project moves forward, we will at the very least ensure that the new owner adheres to the negotiated community benefits that are attached to the project’s entitlements.”

The 2.2-acre site at 770 Woolsey St. has approvals for 62 housing units, a mix of single-family homes and flats.

“Our city needs devoted, permanent space for urban agriculture, especially as we see skyrocketing grocery prices that continue to climb. We support the community’s long established interest in this historic agricultural site,” Fielder said.

Galloway said she continues to visit the fenced-in, overgrown greenhouse site, the edge of which is frequently filled with trash, shopping carts, discarded furniture and abandoned vehicles.

“It’s definitely dilapidating month by month,” she said. “I still love it. I still go by and look and dream — as many do.”

Read the complete article here.

Source: https://cityfarmer.info/decaying-s-f-block-of-greenhouses-is-for-sale-again-could-it-become-single-family-homes/