As San Francisco pushes to turn its struggling downtown into a 24\/7 neighborhood through flashy entertainment and nightlife, a quieter, community-led effort just blocks away in Chinatown may offer a more durable path forward. A nonprofit’s purchase of the iconic Empress of China Building is set to feature a new museum that would anchor a growing cultural campus in the neighborhood, envisioned to generate lasting economic and cultural activity.<\/p>\n
The Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative, or CMAC, finalized the purchase of the six-story building at 838 Grant Ave. on Wednesday, marking the nonprofit’s second acquisition in the heart of Chinatown in five years. While the price of the deal was not disclosed, the nonprofit said the purchase was made possible through private donations and financing from the seller. It marked a notable win for\u00a0CMAC’s founders, who had vied unsuccessfully to acquire the property when it first hit the market a decade ago.<\/p>\n
The building’s famed namesake, the Empress of China banquet hall, shuttered at the height of the city’s tech boom in 2015, after nearly half a century of operation. The building was sold for $17 million the following year, after the city rejected a proposal by the property’s owners to transform it into co-working offices.<\/p>\n
Now, it will join other community-owned or leased buildings on and around Grant Avenue to help create a cultural hub along the retail street. In the wake of the pandemic, neighborhood groups targeted Grant Avenue for transformation into an “experiential corridor” infused with art galleries, cultural events and dining.<\/p>\n
Rain drizzled down the ornate facade of the 62,000-square-foot Empress building on Wednesday, streaking its pale concrete walls and glinting across the metal-framed windows as representatives of the six local groups that formed CMAC gathered inside to reveal their vision: A museum likely focused on the history of Chinese Americans nationwide, which would activate a vacant gallery space on the first and second floors.<\/p>\n
Details of the museum plan are still being solidified. Mabel Teng, CMAC’s co-executive director, said that the team has tapped the San Francisco Asian Art Museum’s former executive director, Jay Xu, to assist with fundraising and programming for the new museum.<\/p>\n
“We need a lot of planning to make sure this vision will be realized and sustained – we don’t want to buy the building and then do something mediocre,” Teng said. “We want to do something really fun and exciting.”<\/p>\n
Renderings by architecture firm Gensler were hung inside the former banquet hall, which spans the building’s entire fifth floor. They show plans to modernize the Empress’s facade, add floor-to-ceiling windows on every level and open up its ground floor to create a thoroughfare from Grant Avenue to Portsmouth Square.<\/p>\n
When the work to revitalize the property could begin is not yet clear, though David Ho, a political strategist who sits on the CMAC’s board, said the gallery spaces could be activated immediately. Two restaurants – City View and Empress by Boone – will continue to operate out of the building’s basement and top floor for the foreseeable future, he said.<\/p>\n
“We believe that arts and culture can anchor the experiences – and give us an opportunity to reclaim the narrative – of Chinatown and Chinese Americans,” said Jenny Leung, executive director of the Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco, a founding member of CMAC. “With this building purchase, we are imagining what Chinatown can be for the next generation and are really seeing this as a legacy project that will last beyond all of our lives.”<\/p>\n
Under Leung’s leadership, the Chinese Culture Center three years ago purchased 667 Grant Ave. as the 60-year-old organization’s first permanent home. In 2022, CMAC purchased a 14,000-square-foot building at 800 Grant Ave. that features art galleries and is now called The Edge on the Square. Those buildings, along with a leased space at 41 Ross Alley that hosts art exhibitions and events and the Chinese Historical Society of America’s home at 965 Clay St., will serve as pillars of the planned cultural campus.<\/p>\n
Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, said that the Empress’s seller provided what is known as “seller financing,” which allowed\u00a0CMAC to skip securing a traditional loan.<\/p>\n
“We have to acknowledge the role of the existing owner playing a huge part in making this happen,” Yeung said.<\/p>\n
Yeung added that CCDC, which develops and operates affordable housing, views the Empress building acquisition as a “broader community development strategy for Chinatown.”<\/p>\n
“San Francisco needs it – and in many ways, this is an invitation to the city to consider this building as an asset and to use it. It is for Chinatown at the end of the day – but we’ll share,” he said.<\/p>\n
The iconic building’s acquisition by a nonprofit comes at a critical moment for San Francisco’s art and cultural institutions: on the other side of downtown, the Contemporary Jewish Museum has been closed for more than a year, and its landmark building hit the market last week. On the same block, the four-story space where a Mexican art museum was for decades planned remains an empty shell.<\/p>\n
Teng, of CMAC, acknowledged that the city’s arts and culture community has taken some major hits in recent years, but said: “We are a unicorn.”<\/p>\n
“When we conceptualized this vision 10 years ago, naysayers said it was too big for our stomachs,” Teng said. “We saw the opportunity at that time. And we are doubling down now because San Francisco’s arts and culture scene has really suffered.”<\/p>\n
Vincent Pan, co-executive director for Chinese for Affirmative Action and CMAC’s vice chair, said that in the context of downtown’s recovery, Chinatown represents the “type of offerings that are critical to making places relevant.”<\/p>\n
Pan said that Chinatown’s success is linked to downtown’s success and so it’s important to make sure the revitalization efforts for both neighborhoods are in sync.\u00a0 <\/p>\n