San Francisco developer Nick Podell has agreed to pay half a million dollars 10 years after he first pledged it to Mission District groups. The promise was part of 2016 negotiations to build a 203-unit housing project in the neighborhood.
“I said I’d do it, so I’m doing it,” Podell said on Monday, without explaining further.
Mission Local reported in October that Podell owed $500,000 to different groups involved in building a community arts space at the 681 Florida St. That work was finished in late 2024, and the funds were due after that. The Florida Street affordable housing project sits next to Podell’s market-rate housing project, which sold last year for $119.3 million, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
Last week, District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder asked the city attorney’s office to subpoena developer Podell after he failed to confirm his presence at a city hearing on the allegations. The city attorney’s office readied that subpoena last week, Mission Local reported.
Podell said he told the relevant parties on Feb. 5 that he was disbursing the funds.
The dispute dates back to September 2016, when Podell’s attorney committed $500,000 for the art space at 681 Florida St. That 100-percent affordable housing complex was built on land that Podell donated as part of a deal with neighborhood activists to drop their opposition to his market-rate project at 2000 Bryant St.
Reporting from the Mission District and other District 9 neighborhoods. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.