{"id":59888,"date":"2025-11-19T06:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59888\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:29:20","slug":"outer-richmond-neighbors-fume-over-safeway-redevelopment-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59888\/","title":{"rendered":"Outer Richmond neighbors fume over Safeway redevelopment plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The only supermarket in the Outer Richmond, Safeway, may be closing temporarily. Neighbors are not happy.<\/p>\n

Align Real Estate on Tuesday submitted to the city plans to construct a 526-unit housing complex at 850 La Playa St. The plans call for mostly market-rate apartments to be built over a renovated Safeway, plus a parking garage.<\/p>\n

Shoppers are bracing for the worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so fucked up,\u201d Alex Shcheglov said Tuesday outside the store. He lives near the closed Safeway in the Fillmore district<\/a>, which Align also plans to redevelop into housing<\/a>, and drives to the beachside location for certain items he can\u2019t find closer to home.<\/p>\n

Align has not announced when it will break ground, how long it will take to build the Outer Richmond housing, or a time frame for Safeway\u2019s reopening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Max Bush, who works at a social services agency, said he often plans outings for his mentally disabled clients around the Safeway, where they can pick up cheap lunches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a critical part of planning,\u201d he said. \u201cWe rely on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush is torn. More housing could increase foot traffic for struggling nearby businesses, he said, but he worries about parking shortages and heavier traffic in a neighborhood already squeezed for space.<\/p>\n

\"ASafeway is slated to temporarily close for redevelopment into a mostly market-rate housing complex with a ground-floor grocery store. | Source: Garrett Leahy\/The Standard<\/p>\n

San Francisco-based Align was founded in 2015 by former Tishman Speyer executives Jason Chadorchi and David Balducci. The company has carved out a niche in transforming supermarkets into housing-forward mixed-use projects. In the Fillmore, Align has proposed converting the shuttered Safeway on the corner of Webster and Geary into 1,800 housing units, as well as a new grocery store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Align\u2019s other projects in San Francisco include the 416-unit Chorus high-rise in SoMa, the 144-unit 2177 Third condo building in the Dogpatch, and the 95-unit Konrad on the Park in Cathedral Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Employees at the Outer Richmond Safeway said they had not been notified that the store would close and learned of it when the San Francisco Chronicle first reported (opens in new tab)<\/a> on the redevelopment plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just as shocked as anybody,\u201d said one employee who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their job.<\/p>\n

\"ASource: Garrett Leahy\/The Standard<\/p>\n

The employee expects to be moved to another store, rather than being laid off, but has no idea if the assignment will be in San Francisco. A Safeway spokesperson confirmed that all employees will keep their jobs and \u201cbe temporarily reassigned to nearby Safeway stores as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another employee who had not received word of reassignment nonetheless supports the housing development, believing it will make the area safer and boost home prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll make the Richmond better,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n

Matt, who declined to share his full name for privacy reasons, owns a condo at 855 La Playa St., across the street from Safeway. He was despondent when told of the development plans and ticked off a list of grievances: more homeless people, worse traffic, loud construction, and falling real estate values.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re gonna do whatever they\u2019re gonna do. It doesn\u2019t matter what I say,\u201d he said, rubbing his head with his hand.<\/p>\n

Mary Beth Rockwell, who has lived in the Outer Richmond for 28 years, said Safeway is a neighborhood staple.<\/p>\n

Rockwood, who works as a personal trainer, said she runs into friends at Safeway and chats with employees, some of whom have worked at the store for as long as she\u2019s lived in the area. She sees shoppers come in to buy food for bonfires on the beach or concerts in nearby Golden Gate Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a community gathering place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"AMary Beth Rockwell, 61, says the Safeway is a \u201ccommunity gathering place.\u201d | Source: Garrett Leahy\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Rockwell said she supports the redevelopment, \u201cas long as there is enough affordable housing,\u201d but is skeptical the project will ever break ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll believe it when I see it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Align said in a statement that the project will get \u201cby-right\u201d entitlement, bypassing the city\u2019s discretionary review process and making approval all but certain. But given the city\u2019s financing challenges \u2014 which have stalled or killed numerous housing projects in recent years \u2014 even a fully entitled development is far from guaranteed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only supermarket in the Outer Richmond, Safeway, may be closing temporarily. Neighbors are not happy. Align Real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[757,20733,1337,29815,388,29838,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-59888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-closures","9":"tag-grocery","10":"tag-housing-development","11":"tag-outer-richmond","12":"tag-real-estate","13":"tag-safeway","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","16":"tag-san-francisco-news","17":"tag-sf","18":"tag-sf-headlines","19":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}