Developer of long-delayed ‘Monster in the Mission’ apartments has new offer

A rendering of the 1979 Mission project. A rendering of the 1979 Mission project. Photo: Maximus Partners Photo: Maximus Partners Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Developer of long-delayed ‘Monster in the Mission’ apartments has new offer 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The developer of the long-delayed housing project at the 16th Street BART Station is prepared to use a ballot measure to gain approval if city officials don’t support the latest version of the plan.

Maximus Real Estate Partners, which has spent six years trying to build community support for a proposed 330-unit apartment complex at 1979 Mission St., dubbed the “Monster in the Mission” by its opponents, will present a new affordable-housing plan on Feb. 7 at a community meeting at Mission High School. Maximus calls it its “best and final” offer.

Under the new plan, presented to Supervisor Hillary Ronen in a recent meeting, Maximus would acquire two development sites in the Mission: 2675 Folsom St., which is approved for 117 units, and 2918 Mission St., a coin laundry whose owner successfully got the city to approve a 75-unit development after a long fight that included an appeal and a lawsuit. The sites would be handed over to the city for affordable housing, which Maximus would help finance.

Ronen said Maximus laid out the option of a ballot measure to gain approval of the arrangement if the city turned it down.

The previous proposal, introduced in November, called for 46 below-market-rate townhomes on the Capp Street portion of the property above the BART station. The homes would have been reserved for families currently living in single-room-occupancy hotels. Rents from the below-market-rate units, roughly $1.15 million per year, would help subsidize rents for low-income Mission residents.

A spokesman for the developer, Joe Arellano, said both proposals — the one from November and the new one — would be unveiled at the Feb. 7 Planning Commission meeting.

He declined to discuss the details of the latest plan, nor would he comment on Maximus’ ballot plan.

Ronen said the threat of a ballot measure made her skeptical of the deal.

“Threatening to go to the ballot — that is something I have never heard before,” she said. “If you are going to make a fabulous offer that is real, why would you do that with a threat of a ballot measure? It throws a lot of skepticism on whether their offer is genuine.

“It all sounded very fishy to me,” Ronen said. “I don’t buy it for a minute.”

Adding complexity to the new proposal is that Maximus doesn’t own either site. The company has the 2675 Folsom St. property under contract, but has not closed on it. Offers were recently due on the 75-unit laundry property project.

Public meeting A special Planning Commission meeting on the development at 1979 Mission St. will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Mission High School auditorium, 3750 18th St. For information: https://bit.ly/2sSvBZq

The Mission High meeting will be limited to four hours. The developer and the opponents, the Plaza 16 Coalition, will each have 10 minutes to present their arguments. Public comment will be limited to one minute per person because of the number of community members expected to weigh in.

The two neighborhood affordable-housing developers — Mission Housing and the Mission Economic Development Agency — are working on developing about 1,000 affordable-housing units in the neighborhood. About half of those are either under construction or close to breaking ground.

However, the frenzy of affordable construction activity, coupled with a slowdown in new market-rate development, means that the city lacks money for new projects like the two affordable ones Maximus is offering.

“I think people would be convinced if Maximus is paying to pay for 100 percent of the affordable housing and is willing to put that money in an account up front,” said Sam Moss, executive director of Mission Housing.

The current construction cost for a unit of affordable housing in San Francisco is more than $600,000, meaning that the two affordable projects would run more than $115 million to construct.

Moss said the Plaza 16 Coalition — the main group that has fought Maximus over the last six years — has “a united front.”

“The Mission has banded together,” he said. “This community is strong, and we understand what it means to build affordable housing and more importantly what it means to finance the construction of affordable housing.”

Angelica Santiago, a Mission District native who works for the pro-Maximus group Mission for All, said the public hearing will show that plenty of neighborhood residents support the development. She took issue with the characterization of Mission for All as a fake grassroots organization bankrolled by the developer.

“That has been the biggest thing for us to get past — people seeing us as an extension of Maximus,” she said. “Mission for All is our own people. We are our own segment of the community who believe that this deal can work for the people, that it brings the best community benefits San Francisco has ever seen.”

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen