Tony Robbins buys location for SF’s homeless-helping nuns

The building at 1930 Mission St. where nuns of the Fraternite Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth Soup Kitchen will relocate after they were evicted from their former location on Turk Street. The building at 1930 Mission St. where nuns of the Fraternite Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth Soup Kitchen will relocate after they were evicted from their former location on Turk Street. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 45 Caption Close Tony Robbins buys location for SF’s homeless-helping nuns 1 / 45 Back to Gallery

First he saved them from being evicted. Now multimillionaire business coach and self-improvement guru Tony Robbins has gone one step further: He has bought the imperiled French nuns of the Tenderloin their own soup kitchen.

The new digs are on Mission Street near the 16th Street BART Station — and appropriately enough, next door to the one-stop Navigation Center for the homeless. Robbins forked over $750,000 in cash this week for the property’s purchase, the offer was accepted, and the two nuns of the Fraternite Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth Soup Kitchen plan to tote their pots and pans over there by the end of April.

Sister Mary Benedicte, who with Sister Mary of the Angels serves meals to hundreds of homeless people a week at their soup kitchen at 54 Turk St., was flabbergasted.

“It feels like God’s providence,” she said in a thick French accent, pausing during a week of Easter prayers to ponder the gift. “This is God’s blessing. Wow.”

Robbins read of the nuns’ plight last month when The Chronicle reported that their little soup kitchen in a tatty corner of the Tenderloin was being evicted by their landlord so he could make more money on the building. Robbins flew into town, brokered a deal with the landlord to let them stay until the end of the year, and dropped $25,000 cash on them to help them with their troubles.

He kept talking with the nuns and Mother Superior Mary Martha, their leader at the Chicago headquarters of the Notre Dame order — and as the weeks went by, they all agreed it would be best to get out from under the instability of renting a place.

Needing a place to live

Mary Martha flew to San Francisco in mid-March, the nuns found a real estate agent, and in short order they had their kitchen at 1930 Mission St. All they need now is a condominium or apartment for the sisters to sleep in because, unlike at Turk Street, they can’t live in their new space.

Robbins — known internationally for infomercials, books and for counseling bigwigs from former President Bill Clinton to actor Leonardo DiCaprio — is tapping some of his billionaire friends for help and advice on the housing front, too. A solution, Robbins said, shouldn’t be long in coming. Meanwhile, he’s also kicking in $50,000 to help the nuns outfit their new kitchen.

“It’s been a wild journey,” Robbins said by phone from his home in Florida. “My original intent was just to get them a place to lease, but this building opportunity looked too good.”

‘Inspired by their story’

Robbins said the nuns’ plight resonated with his philanthropic work to feed the poor around the world. Having spent time homeless before he hit fame as a business coach dubbed “the CEO Whisperer” by Fortune magazine, Robbins said, he takes the issue personally.

“I was so inspired by their story,” he said. “I was deeply touched that not only are they feeding people, but their entire lives are spent toward loving and taking care of people.

“I was struck by it, and I trust my instincts. I have a deep love for the nuns, and I want them to be able to put all their efforts into doing the wonderful things that they do.”

After The Chronicle wrote of the nuns’ plight, hundreds of people from around the world called or wrote the newspaper offering to help — including several real estate agents, who began scouring the city for buildings that could house the soup kitchen. But in the end, the agent who did the trick was found by Mary Martha and the sisters on a stroll through the Mission District on St. Patrick’s Day.

“I had just closed the office when I heard something outside, went to the door — and there were these nuns,” said Antonio Gamero, an agent with Re/Max Future on Valencia Street. “I thought, ‘I don’t want to talk about religion right now,’ but then they told me who they were and what they wanted. And, like, the next day we got working.”

‘Like a resurrection for us’

Gamero said when he called the finance office for the seller, “they literally laughed at me on the phone when I said Tony Robbins — the Tony Robbins — wanted to buy the place for cash. I just said, ‘Tell me, dude — this whole thing is an honor for me.’”

The space Robbins bought is on the first floor of a four-story building, a 1,430-square-foot rectangular retail spot that has been empty for two years. The year-old Navigation Center is one next-door neighbor, and the other is a medical marijuana center.

The building also had residential space, but Gamero said, “The nuns didn’t want to consider that because they’d have to evict tenants, and that’s not who they are.”

From Chicago, Mary Martha said, “Finding this building is really like a resurrection for us — it goes so well with the holy week of Easter. We were so concerned for the sisters in San Francisco, and we were praying so hard for them, and then God sent Tony to help us.”

Robbins and Mary Martha said they are also working on ways to market the fruity French pastries the nuns bake and sell at farmers’ markets, the lone funding source for the soup kitchen. Robbins said he likes to encourage collaborative efforts to solve larger problems, so he’s calling his celebrity chef pals to brainstorm.

“If everyone works together, you have what I call a virtuous circle,” he said.

Help from donors

Actually, some of the money he’s giving to the nuns came from other people taking his advice.

While he was onstage conducting a weeklong business seminar last month in Sun Valley, Idaho, for former President George W. Bush and 250 of the largest donors to his foundation, one of the nuns from Chicago, Sister Mary Valerie, called to discuss updates on their situation. He put her on speaker phone and let everyone hear as they strategized how to keep the soup kitchen afloat.

“Three days later it was my birthday, and while I was doing my program, this music came on and three people dressed like nuns came walking toward me,” Robbins said. “It was members of my team, and they gave me a check from my platinum partners (large donors) for what they called ‘the nun bailout.’ It was $400,000. It was the best birthday present I ever had.”

As for the soup kitchen sisters, they won’t start planning any move until next week. After Easter.

“For now, this is a time only for prayer,” said Mary Benedicte. “We are closed. But in our prayers, we thank God for this miracle.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron

Online

To watch the real estate agents discussing working with the nuns, go to http://bit.ly/1UPcd8E