After a 10-year battle to bring affordable housing to the beloved Mission Market site at 2588 Mission Street, community activists lost Thursday when the San Francisco Planning Commission approved a 10-story development — with 93% of its 181 units priced beyond reach for the neighborhood’s working-class Latinx residents.
The site, once home to a bustling indoor market and 65 upstairs residents, has remained vacant since a deadly 2015 fire. Its redevelopment has become a rallying point for housing advocates fighting gentrification in the Mission.
“This is what exclusion looks like — and what ethnic replacement looks like in modern times,” said Larisa Petroncelli, a small business owner who petitioned for the Planning Commission hearing. Petroncelli said that in the past, communities of color were displaced through large-scale redevelopment projects like the destruction of the Fillmore. “Those methods are illegal now,” she said, “so they do it building by building.”
“This project is pushing out people who can’t afford to live where they were born,” said Martha Sánchez, a third-generation Mission resident. “This project is bringing high-income housing to an area where low-income housing is desperately needed,” she added. “There are homeless pregnant women and seniors who have no one and desperately need a home.”
Sánchez was one of about 20 people who testified against the project during a packed and sometimes rowdy hearing inside City Hall’s Room 400.
A vote shaped by state housing laws
In a 4–3 vote, the Planning Commission approved the project, citing state laws that limit their power to reject high-density developments that include affordable housing — even if most units are market rate.
Laws like the Density Bonus Act and the Housing Accountabilty Act restrict local authority, leaving cities with little leverage to oppose projects if they reserve even a small number of units for low-income residents.
A beloved community site, destroyed
For decades, 2588 Mission Street was a cornerstone of Mission life. The Mission Market’s flower-lined entrance gave way to a lively indoor plaza where neighbors browsed food stalls, a children’s shoe store, and a grocery stocked with goods from across Latin America. Upstairs, 65 tenants lived in 17 apartments.
On January 28, 2015, a fire of undetermined origin swept through the building. It displaced dozens of families, decimated 26 small businesses, injured six people and killed one man, Mauricio Orellano. Since then, the site has sat fenced off — a gaping wound in the heart of the neighborhood.
But in the years since, that wound gave rise to a movement. Local residents, nonprofits, and housing advocates have fought for the site to become 100% affordable housing. The building’s owner, Hawk Lou, turned down a $4 million offer from the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), countering at $20 million — far beyond what any nonprofit could afford.
The community now refers to Lou’s proposed development as La Muerte de la Misión — the death of the Mission.
A neighborhood transformed
Since 2001, more than 14,000 Latinx residents have been displaced from the Mission District, according to Planning Commissioner Gilbert Williams, who voted against the project.
The Mission’s unhoused population has risen by 55%, with family homelessness up 91%, according to a 2023 MEDA study. The American Indian community is four times more likely to be unhoused.
Lou’s proposed market-rate, mixed-use building would include only 19 low-income units out of 181 — a ratio Williams said would accelerate displacement. “For every 100 market-rate units, the expected out-migration is 14%,” he told the Commission.
Activists warn that this trend could easily continue, as older, multifamily buildings across the Mission deteriorate and become ripe for redevelopment. Meanwhile, the City has no dedicated budget to acquire land for nonprofit housing projects.
A movement that isn’t finished
Following the Commission’s decision, longtime Mission activist Gloria La Riva shouted, “This is not over!” as she left the chamber to huddle with organizers already planning their next steps in the hallway.
“They can’t build if we occupy the space,” said activist Keith Pavlik, who testified earlier in the hearing.
Sánchez mentioned possible lawsuits to challenge the approval, while others pointed to growing support online. A petition circulated by the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District had reached 799 of its 800-signature goal by the end of the meeting.
“This project has been called La Muerte de la Misión because it continues to cause the death of the Mission,” the petition reads.
