This last October, all tenants of the entire south half of the block surrounding the Bart Plaza at 16th and Mission were informed that the property had been sold by the Jang family to a company called Maximus Real Estate Partners. From Walgreens to the City Club, everyone was told they would have to go as
Maximus had submitted plans to build two ten story 105 feet high apartment towers on the lot.
The Mission Local story states that Maximus hired “Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, to design the building has completed hundreds of projects internationally, including Lincoln Center in New York, the New York Stock Exchange, the World Trade Center, the Bank of America World Headquarters in San Francisco, the International Terminal at SFO and the Oakland Museum.”
As part of the city’s planning process, Maximus is required to notify property owners nearby and then hold meetings to obtain input from them about the proposal. A number of tenants at the Redstone Building
received this letter from them in late February inviting them to an March 13th meeting at Centro Latino de San Francisco. A number of tenants and the building manager attended, expressing strong opposition to the proposal.
The meeting itself was organized to limit the number of people attending. A brief presentation by Maximus people, took place along with reps from their architect in attendance. A former Mission Housing (MHDC) honcho was hired to greet people at the door with a rep from Mission Economic Development Assoc (MEDA) showing up afterwards.
The focus of the meeting was to promote the building claiming that it would reduce neighborhood crime. There was nothing else positive about the plan other than the fact they weren’t building Condos. Just 351 upscale apartments of which only 30 units had to be market priced (see bottom for official proposal description)
The worst news of course is that they plan to add only 150 parking spaces which will mean further gridlock and parking wars of disastrous proportions for the dozen free parking spots on Capp that has already left locals scarred and angry. Imagine the three other massive projects all coming online besides this one within a block right now – and all built for rich people with lots of money and cars!
KPOO did a short piece about the meeting on the 12th, which attracted the attention of Dolores Street Community Services’ Mission SRO Collaborative project. A number of news stories have already started circulating including a piece interviewing Chile Lindo about gentrification concerns.
A close look at who Maximus shows it to be run by Robert Rosania – a former partner in a large Manhattan real estate firm that went belly up on several of its largest projects after 2008 but has recently been bailed out. This is of major concern here in San Francisco with their purchase from the infamous Leona Helmsly of the city’s largest apartment complex at Park Merced.
Their failed deals including a massive apartment complex in Harlem, plus Park Merced that were both saved by a hedge fund called Fortress that is funded by Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brother insiders.
We have a Manhattan based Hedge Fund network invading SF, with no concerns whatever in driving up the prices of housing in the city as shown with what they are doing with the Marin purchase as well as their redevelopment plans at Merced, that is threatening rent controlled units.
The Manhattan Invasion & Robert Rosania
1. He was part of a Manhattan real estate entity called Stellar Management that owns 24,000 rental units in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and South Florida. His primary holding in SF is the Park Merced apartment complex with nearly 1,683 residents, the 2nd largest complex of its kind east of the Mississippi. Stellar went into default on loans in 2010 on the property but was bailed out by a Manhattan hedge fund called Fortress that is run by Goldman Sachs insiders.
2. He just broke up with his main partner at Stellar partnership over a financial dispute. Stellar was blamed for the foreclosure of a 1,200 unit Harlem apartment complex after 2008.
3. He was caught in a major wine scandal using an auctioneer who was arrested for selling faked wines.
4. Tenants Together has listed a number of stories about Park Merced.
5. Maximus also just purchased properties in Marin for $138 Million, that will be driving up the price of that 284 unit complex.
The big question as pointed out in the Park Merced scandal would be what relationship does Robert Rosania have to the Manhattan hedge fund entity known as Fortress that came in to bail out his Merced financial collapse? Fortress is made up of Lehman Bro. and Goldman Sachs characters!
Park Merced Timeline
May 24th 2011 – Supes vote 6-5 to allow massive expansion by Stellar over concerns of congestion and rent control.
June 7th 2011 – Mayor signs Park Merced expansion deal – petition drive started… supe Chiu cut deal allowing development.
Oct 10th 2011 – Low income tenants at Park Merced threatened
Project Description (from City Planning Deparatment)
The project proposes to demolish all existing improvements on the project site and to contruct a 5 to 10 story up to 105′ high, 345,013 sq.ft. building exclusive of a 56,643 sq.ft. basement parking garage. The project would construct 351 residential units containing 108 studios, 103 one-bedrooms, 133 two-bedrooms, and 7 three bedrooms. Off-street parking that meets the Planning Code requirements will be located in the basement garage level which will contain 155 off-street parking spaces (22 independently accessible spaces for retail use and 133 spaces for the residential units, of which 70 spaces will be stacker spaces). The basement garage and ground floor levels will also house approximately 166 Class 1 bicycle space and a minimum of 27 Class 2 bicycle spaces, meeting Planning Code requirements. Ingress and egress to the basement garage, three (3) off-street freight loading, and four (4) car-share spaces will be off Capp Street via a 20′ wide garage door and a 20′ curb cut.
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1. He was part of a Manhattan real estate entity called Stellar Management that owns 24,000 rental units in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and South Florida. His primary holding in SF is the Park Merced apartment complex with nearly 1,683 residents, the 2nd largest complex of its kind east of the Mississippi. Stellar went into default on loans in 2010 on the property but was bailed out by a Manhattan hedge fund called Fortress that is run by Goldman Sachs insiders.