Until this year, few had heard of Align Real Estate. The San Francisco firm’s website shows only its logo on a black screen. Its portfolio is not publicized. There have been no newspaper features written about founders Jason Chadorchi and David Balducci, and the pair have never given an on-the-record interview.
But facing loud opposition to their proposal to replace a beloved Safeway store on the Marina waterfront with a 25-story housing complex taller than everything around it, the pair agreed to sit down with The Standard to discuss their development philosophy and 20-plus-year record of building housing in the city.
In a 30-minute interview from their offices on California Street, Chadorchi and Balducci were coy about how their latest projects — which include redeveloping three other Safeway locations, in the Fillmore, Bernal Heights (opens in new tab), and Outer Richmond — would be financed at a time when building new housing in San Francisco is generally too expensive to pursue. They doubled down, however, on their contention that the city’s residential neighborhoods, unlike downtown, make “excellent development opportunities,” since demand for new housing outpaces supply.
They seemed cautious not to villainize themselves any further, demurring from lashing back at critics who have likened them to greedy, opportunistic land-grabbers and their projects to a “Miamification” of San Francisco’s waterfront.
“We’re not doing anything bad,” Chadorchi said. “The volume is just at 11 right now.”
Rendering of Align’s proposed redevelopment in the Marina. | Source: Courtesy Arquitectonica
But they were adamant that building housing at each site is the right thing to do. In the case of the Marina Safeway, swift pushback has come from Mayor Daniel Lurie and five members of the Board of Supervisors, who have slammed the project as an affront to the mayor’s rezoning plan and wildly out of character for the quaint neighborhood next to Fort Mason.
“If you focus on our Marina proposal, we are adding more than two times the housing, both market-rate and affordable housing, than has been added in the district in over 20 years,” Balducci said. “Shouldn’t a crisis of historic proportions be met with projects of historic proportions?”
If built, the Marina project would create 790 homes, 86 of which would be designated as affordable. Safeway would close during construction, then would reopen on the ground floor of the horseshoe-like structure in a bigger, more modern space.
But the plans have set off high-profile spats. State Sen. Scott Wiener and former Supervisor Aaron Peskin have taken turns blaming each other (opens in new tab) for allowing developers to pursue that much density.
Lurie and his allies on the board contend that Align is doing the city dirty, since the application for the Marina project was submitted just two days after the supervisors passed his citywide rezoning plan, which preserved the site’s 40-foot height limit, but doesn’t go into effect until next year. If the city’s plan somehow ends up superseding state law, Align would have to chop off more than 20 floors from its proposal.
But to hear the Align partners tell it, that is an unlikely outcome. “We’ve been working on the project for years,” Balducci said. “This is not something that came out of the blue yesterday.”
The developers argue that state law takes precedence, since Align’s application was submitted before Family Zoning goes into effect. To bypass local opposition in the Marina, the developers intend to wield state density bonus laws to gain what is essentially automatic approval. These rules, signed into law in 2022 and 2023, allow for housing to be built on commercially zoned sites and limit the city’s ability to delay or block housing proposals that meet certain affordability and labor standards.
Chadorchi said Align spent “a lot of time” studying state laws it could leverage to build housing once the economics of development improved. The new laws have essentially removed public meetings from the entitlement process, which used to take an average of four years for approvals.
“If you drive into the city, what you notice is there are no cranes in the sky,” Chadorchi said. “I give credit to Sacramento for trying to recognize that and get in front of it.”
Safeway will retain ownership of its stores in the Marina, Bernal Heights, and Outer Richmond, while Align will own everything built above them, according to application documents. The company has not announced plans to reopen its Fillmore supermarket, which it closed in early 2025, although Align’s redevelopment plans at Webster Street include space for a new grocery store.
Three of the four Safeways will reopen on the ground floor of Align’s housing projects. | Source: Courtesy Arquitectonica
One of Align’s signature projects is The Chorus, which opened in 2022 and is also home to the City Ballet School. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
For years, developers in San Francisco, such as Oz Erickson of Emerald Fund (opens in new tab), have sought and failed to secure Safeway as a business partner and unlock the large and conveniently located sites it possesses. Chadorchi and Balducci declined to elaborate on the nature of their negotiations with Safeway but emphasized that their record of financing and completing complex mixed-use housing projects sets them apart.
The pair met more than 20 years ago at the San Francisco offices of global real estate firm Tishman Speyer and became fast friends. Chadorchi started there in 2002 after graduating from USC, and Balducci arrived three years later after selling his life science company and obtaining an MBA at Stanford in order to pivot to a career in real estate. Over a decade, they helped develop two affordable housing projects and high-profile residential skyscrapers downtown, including Lumina, the Infinity, and Mira.
In 2015, they left to start their own firm. Rather than name it after themselves, they chose the name Align to signal their intent of getting investors, contractors, and partners “running in the same direction,” Balducci said.
Shortly thereafter, they lost a key investor on a project. Balducci recalled going into Chadorchi’s office in a panic. “He responded in a way I didn’t expect, saying, ‘That’s great; we can do better.’” Balducci said. “He ended up being right, and it was one of the best things to ever happen to us.”
Their firm now has more than 50 employees. Balducci is known for his ability to structure deals and interpret complex zoning and entitlement laws, while Chadorchi, the more outgoing personality, builds and manages relationships with investors and partners and sources new opportunities.
“If someone reads about a project we’re doing and they’re interested in talking with us, chances are Jason already knows them,” Balducci said.
“We have tried to keep the focus on our projects and not on Align,” Chadorchi added. “We try to find deals where we believe we can create the most value for the stakeholders involved.”
Raising money from major banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and foreign capital, Align has completed five projects in San Francisco and one in Walnut Creek, at the former site of the city’s only McDonald’s. One apartment building, The Landing, completed in 2019, required excavating and redistributing serpentine rock (composed of asbestos) from a sloped Potrero Hill site in order to build foundations stable enough to accommodate 263 homes and underground parking.
The Landing was developed on a Potrero Hill mountainside by Align in 2019. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
2177 Third Street in Dogpatch was completed by Align in 2020. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
“They were super proud of it, but their [partners] were sweating bullets watching them literally shave off the side of a mountain,” said a source who toured the construction site and requested anonymity to protect working relationships with other developers. “They take big swings, but they deliver the goods.”
While primarily focused on the Bay Area, Align is also pursuing projects in Los Angeles and Seattle.
In a city littered with ambitious projects that never break ground and others that are little more than performative stunts, such as a 50-story tower in the Outer Sunset, the Align developers are rare in their ability to complete projects that once seemed audacious. Most developers and land-use experts who spoke to The Standard said they hold the firm in high regard, even if they don’t necessarily agree with the founders’ seemingly dismissive approach to angry residents in places they’re seeking to redevelop.
Even though state laws and local regulations have changed in recent years to remove obstacles for developers, some observers say the political consequences of proposals like the Marina Safeway should not be underestimated. In addition to the mayor and five of the 11 supervisors, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani has voiced opposition (opens in new tab) to Align’s Marina Safeway proposal.
“Maybe they think they have state law on their side and the backlash doesn’t matter now, but what if this saga propels Connie Chan into Congress and the rules change again?” asked one developer who requested anonymity to speak candidly.
“They take big swings, but they deliver the goods.”
Source that toured an Align project
Despite forces in the city lining up against them, Chadorchi and Balducci insist they are simply following rules that were established well before attention turned to the Marina Safeway. For example, the Board of Supervisors in 2017 zoned the nearest residential district to the project site to allow for one unit per every 200 square feet of lot — which translates to more than 560 units on Safeway’s 2.6-acre site. Align intends to tap into state density bonuses to add more than 200 units to that total.
Once the economics of housing construction improve, the developers said, Align will be in pole position to break ground first, since its projects are in highly desirable areas with enough density to justify the costs.
“Our goal has been just to do projects that we think are smart, that would help change the skyline, and do well [financially],” Chadorchi said. “Housing has always been a primary focus.”