Shorenstein Properties originally bought the site and sold it to the city as part of a deal<\/a> to fulfill its affordable housing requirements for a separate project. It has since forged ahead with that 304-unit market-rate development<\/a> nearby at Market and Jones; District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood rented an apartment there until recently. <\/p>\n Affordable housing at 101 Hyde, meanwhile, seems a distant aspiration.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anne Stanley, the spokesperson for the mayor\u2019s housing office, blamed the plan to stall housing at 101 Hyde on the state\u2019s designation of the Tenderloin as a low-resourced area, which puts it down on the priority list for state funding. She said the city has better chances of using its limited dollars to fund other projects.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, she added, with La Cocina in the 101 Hyde building, the city saves up to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in fees it would otherwise owe for keeping it vacant.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a matter of prioritization, it\u2019s about feasibility,\u201d Stanley said in a statement. \u201cGiven limited resources and the competitive nature of affordable housing finance, we must be strategic and responsible stewards of public funds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A \u2018public-serving\u2019 use not for the public<\/p>\n At the start of the city\u2019s first lease with La Cocina, it appeared that the Tenderloin would get a community space to revitalize a block once known for rampant drug activity. That was in 2018, after La Cocina won a competitive bidding process to temporarily activate the site with a public food hall.<\/p>\n The $6 million food hall at 101 Hyde opened in 2021, serving $5 meals<\/a> that were affordable for the working class neighborhood. The place was meant to bring commerce, foot traffic and cheap food to the area, and to give its immigrant food entrepreneurs a customer base from the community and nearby office workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n For a time, La Cocina delivered: Residents recall when the marketplace was filled wall-to-wall with diners, even though it opened a year after the pandemic had sent office workers home. But in 2023, La Cocina reverted to operating a private commissary kitchen like the one in the Mission. Office workers were staying home, it said, and lunch crowds were lacking.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nowadays, the building is almost always shut to the residents of the Tenderloin. While drug activity there has waned, the sidewalks outside it are deserted and unappealing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tenderloin residents say La Cocina\u2019s promise of a public-serving establishment \u2014 open to all and funded with more than $3 million in government funds \u2014 has been broken. La Cocina says it wishes the food hall was sustainable, and that it still hosts community events when it can and activates what would otherwise be a blighted block.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey got the money for having that building based on that premise that they were going to be providing that ongoing benefit for the community,\u201d said Kasey Rios Asberry, a community advocate who once worked on building La Cocina\u2019s now-dismantled parklet<\/a>. \u201cMost of the time, the metal doors are down. It\u2019s again a blighted space on the sidewalk instead of a free flowing contributor to public health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, La Cocina still pays well below market rate rent, and will continue to do so under its new lease. According to the mayor\u2019s housing office, the city covers basic utilities while the nonprofit pays $1,000 base rent plus 5 percent of its net income; La Cocina said this amounts to about $20,000 per month for the nearly 5,000 sq. ft. building. The city calls it a \u201ccost-effective solution\u201d preferable to leaving the space vacant.\u00a0<\/p>\n La Cocina spokesperson Aniela Valtierra said they had little choice but to close: The marketplace was \u201cconsistently empty\u201d most hours of the day aside from lunch, as the anticipated office workers began working from home, and \u201cfoot traffic was non-existent after 4 p.m.\u201d Free community events that La Cocina hosted went unattended, Valtierra said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were trying to create economic opportunities for working-class immigrant and women-of-color small businesses while providing a welcoming space for the Tenderloin,\u201d said Valtierra. \u201cPlaces like the Marketplace can\u2019t survive on admiration alone, they require consistent patronage and support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After closing the food hall, La Cocina \u201cheard the community\u2019s disappointment,\u201d Valtierra added, and offered free rent to two businesses to maintain food and drink service during breakfast and lunch. Even then, it wasn\u2019t financially sustainable for either business, and the two business owners dropped out.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe alternative to our presence could be vacancy, and we believe the Tenderloin deserves an activated corner,\u201d said Valtierra, who said La Cocina\u2019s work with budding restaurant workers is a benefit to the whole city. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to serve our mission of providing pathways to entrepreneurship at this location.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 85 affordable housing units delayed<\/p>\n The Mayor\u2019s Office of Housing and Community Development seems to agree. Stanley said it was \u201cnot at all unusual\u201d for the affordable housing end of housing development deals to drag several years behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the competition for state funding, developers get points for factors like affordability or building in high-priority locations, like resource-rich areas. That works against the Tenderloin: According to the state, the entirety of the Tenderloin<\/a> is considered \u201clow resource,\u201d which Stanley said makes state housing money for 101 Hyde lower priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those factors, combined with the fact that the city sees La Cocina as a successful interim use of the 101 Hyde space, means the city has shelved the project for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n The project is \u201cstill in our pipeline,\u201d Stanley said, but the department won\u2019t seek a developer until La Cocina\u2019s lease ends in 2031.<\/p>\n While the state designation<\/a> of \u201clow-resource\u201d also applies to the Bayview, most of SoMa, and chunks of the Mission District, affordable housing continues to be built in these neighborhoods. The project at 1979 Mission St.<\/a> at 16th and Mission streets just moved forward to seek financing this year, and 1515 South Van Ness Ave. is under construction \u2014\u00a0both are relying on large amounts of state funding, and are located squarely in low-resource areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot all projects are equally positioned to attract funding; lenders and investors bring their own preferences, and projects must align with available programs,\u201d Stanley said in a statement, adding that affordable housing projects in San Francisco compete for the same pool of funding, and other funding is available to specific projects with specific attributes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although would-be chefs are still training there, the La Cocina site is no longer a community hub where neighborhood groups could hold meetings, or where residents grab a cheap bite.\u00a0<\/p>\n The benefits to Tenderloin residents today are limited. They can rent out the space for events, and La Cocina sometimes hosts free programs. But not always: Tickets<\/a> to a recent pop-up night market open to the public cost more than $50.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Glass](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_6173-853x640.jpeg\")
The doors of La Cocina\u2019s former marketplace is closed to the public and serves as a commissary kitchen. Photo by Eleni Balakrishnan.<\/p>\n![\"Interior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20210621_153026-853x640.jpg\")
Inside La Cocina\u2019s municipal marketplace in 2021. Photo courtesy of David Elliott Lewis.<\/p>\n