MAJOR New Developments That Will Reshape San Francisco in 2026

San Francisco's in the midst of a major transformation right now. The hottest rental market in the nation, the hottest office market in the nation, retail coming back, crime falling, tourism rising, billions of dollars being invested in new communities across the city, and employers mandating return to office. From massive infrastructure projects to beautiful new public spaces, the city's evolving at an unprecedented pace. This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County. And in this video, I'm breaking down some of the most exciting new developments that are gonna reshape San Francisco in the coming years. From the revamp of one of San Francisco's most iconic dining and view destinations, the takeover of a previously abandoned construction site to create a 20-story housing development, and the conversion of a shuttered grocery store into nearly 2,000 new homes, to the renovation of a century-old library in one of San Francisco's most beloved districts, and the redevelopment of a fire-ruined building that's become a battleground for historic preservationists, let's get right to it and start with the redevelopment of one of San Francisco's most iconic dining and view destinations, the Cliff House. This place isn't just a restaurant, it's a tangible piece of San Francisco's history and cultural identity, and I can't wait for it to reopen. The original Cliff House building opened in 1863 as a seaside resort for the wealthy at what was then a very remote part of San Francisco, right on the edge of the city. It was purchased in 1883 by Adolph Sutro and burned down in 1887 after an abandoned ship that had run aground at Lands End exploded. In 1896, Adolph Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House into a 7-story Victorian-style building known as the Gingerbread House, but unfortunately, Unfortunately, that burnt down in 1907. Starting in 1909, Adolph Sutro's daughter commissioned architects, the Reed Brothers, to rebuild the Cliff House into the neoclassical style building that we know and love there today. The National Park Service acquired the building in the 1970s and incorporated it into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. And since then, it has served as a social and cultural landmark for decades. A restaurant operated at the building until it was announced in early 2020 that because of the pandemic, the restaurant in the building was going to close. And ever since then, it's basically sat vacant as the National Park Park Service searched for a new operator to take over the space. All the while the building was vacant, it was getting absolutely brutalized by the harsh environmental conditions in the area, that harsh salt air and that weather. And nobody was there maintaining the building while all that was going on. In 2023, NPS finally found an operator, Sutro Lands End Partners, and signed a new 20-year lease for operation of the building. And the operator's plans are to open multiple new food concepts at the space. A family-friendly restaurant that serves burgers and had an outdoor patio, a seafood, like, signature venue, a coffee and pastry shop in the former gift shop space, and a fourth concept that is still being worked out. Plans haven't been announced yet. There will also be outdoor vendor carts around the plaza, remaking the site more than just dining. It'd be a renewed destination place for locals and visitors to hang out and take in all the incredible views. But before getting there, there is so much work that needs to be done on the building. Major structural improvements, facade improvements, roof, HVAC, elevator. And that's before you even get to all the actual improvements and cosmetic improvements to the spaces to create the restaurants that they want. There's so much infrastructure work that has to go into repairing all the deferred maintenance and updating all the systems of the building. And all of that is being made increasingly more complicated and more expensive because the building remains in one of the harshest environmental areas of the entire city. When they first started this undertaking, budget estimates were around $10 million, and they've more than doubled by this point. And the timeline for reopening was supposed to be in 2024, but now that slipped 'til late 2026 and realistically probably won't even be 'til 2027. Definitely a bummer things have been delayed so much and it be getting so much more expensive, but progress is being made and it's great to see that something is gonna come back to this awesome space. That far west side of the city doesn't have as many like iconic, like very well-known food destinations. This is sure to be one of them. So we'll definitely check it out and give you more information closer we get to opening. I'll be posting updates about the building along the way. So if you wanna stay up to date about this building or any of the other developments that I'm gonna be talking about in this video other developments in San Francisco or other facets of San Francisco real estate, lifestyle, current events, or its awesome history, subscribe to my channel because I make videos about all that stuff every single week. And if you're thinking about buying a place in San Francisco and are wondering how all the changes we're seeing across the city are impacting our local real estate market, reach out to me. I was a lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world before getting into real estate, and I've helped numerous clients relocate here from all over the country. Be happy to be a resource for you. My contact info is in the description below. Reach out anytime. Now back to some of the most exciting developments happening in the city right now. And this next one is the resumption of construction of a 20-story housing development that will take over for an abandoned construction project at a site that's known as Trash Lake. In 2017, Trammell Crow Company obtained entitlements to redevelop 365th Street and Soma into an 8-story apartment building with 127 new housing units, 8,000 square feet of industrial use, and ground floor retail. Construction started on the building foundation in 2019 but was paused in March of 2020, and ever since then, construction has been paused. Nothing has been developed or happened at the site. And ever since then, it's become a hole in the ground filled with dirty water and trash, colloquially known as Trash Lake. And there's been no game plan in sight for what's going to happen with construction of that site until recently. The site was eventually sold to a new developer, Nevada-based Thompson Builders, who is moving forward with plans to increase density at the site by over 100%, so more than double the initially planned units. They first proposed 115 for-sale condos in early 2025, but has since pivoted to a much larger apartment building, so for rent units. Their latest application seeks to create 258 apartments, 40 of which would be designated affordable housing, half of which would be dedicated to people making 50% of area median income. Canto Architects, who is responsible for several high-end residential projects around the city, is helming the design. And if built, we'd see a brand new 240-foot-tall structure with over 252,000 square feet for housing, 62 studios, 88 one-bedrooms, 108 two-bedrooms, parking for 130 cars and 196 bikes. We don't have firm timelines on approvals or construction completion just yet, but it can't come soon enough. San Francisco is pretty behind on its state housing mandate. We need to build over 80,000 new homes by 2031. We are nowhere close at this point to hitting that goal, but the city's doing a lot of work to get there. We currently have the highest rent growth rate in the nation because we have so many people moving here for new jobs, a lot of which is because of the AI boom happening right now. We don't have enough good quality new housing units to support all the new demand coming back to the city, and that's causing rents to surge at very quick paces. So any new housing is gonna help prevent out-of-control rent growth. It really can't come soon enough, and I'm excited that this abandoned site is finally getting some new legs with a new developer. And speaking of unutilized sites, this next project I want to talk about would see the creation of about 7 times the number of units in a different transit-heavy part of town, right by Japantown in Lower Fillmore. The Safeway at 1335 Webster in that Lower Fillmore area right next to Japantown announced in 2024 that it was going to close, citing public safety concerns and theft concerns in the area. And the news was met with uproar from the local community, who had very valid concerns about what would create a food desert in that area, lack of really any major grocery stores if Safeway were to close. Those calls have been answered, at least we hope, by developer Align Real Estate, who recently proposed a project that would triple the amount of new housing built in the area in the past 20 years, with over 1,800 new homes in a brand new mixed-use community, by far one of the largest residential projects there in decades. Approximately 15% of those units would be dedicated to affordable housing, although not clear at this time what levels of affordable housing they'll be designated. But according to the developer, There'll be a diverse mix of income levels, unit types, building types. It's going to be a brand new community in that space. So think multiple mid-rise and high-rise buildings, some as large as 300 feet tall with a bunch of different unit types. And beyond just housing, the developer plans to allocate at least 20,000 square feet for a new grocery store that will replace the Safeway that closed. This is an incredibly important project, not just for San Francisco, but this area in particular. A ton of businesses in that lower stretch of Fillmore have really struggled, and a lot of potential redevelopment efforts in the area have sort of fallen by the wayside because of the pandemic and conditions in the city immediately following the pandemic. So it would definitely be a huge win to get a brand new mega development in the area that will bring a ton of new jobs, new businesses, and new residents to that location. Preliminary applications for the project were just filed within the past few weeks. So we are a very long way away from this even getting shovel ready. But it's great to see positive momentum, more developers looking to build large projects in underutilized spaces in San San Francisco. The next project I want to talk about is actually something opening soon, so we can actually go enjoy it soon and experience it. It's the revamp of a century-plus-old library in one of San Francisco's most beloved districts, the Mission. The Mission Branch Library, designed by architect Albert Landsberg, opened 110 years ago and was one of the 7 Carnegie branches that opened in San Francisco. It became a designated landmark in 2004 and closed for renovations in 2020. But what was supposed to be a relatively short project took a number of unexpected turns. The city unveiled its initial renovation plans in 2018, including earthquake retrofitting, ending the library's use of natural gas, adding solar panels, restoring the original entrance on 24th Street, building a brand new staircase, new children's area, new teenage area, new community rooms, and new bathrooms. Initial construction estimates were just shy of $20 million, and it was expected that the project would take between 1.5 to 2 years. But construction didn't even start until over 3 years after the building first closed. And after the timeline that it was initially supposed to reopen. During the pandemic, costs ballooned, supply chain issues, inflation. We all experienced that during the pandemic, and it happened for this project. Vibration monitoring during demolition, new structural issues that were discovered. There were a myriad of different issues that they faced, and all that was exacerbated by the complications surrounding renovating a building of landmark status, of this historic character. The budget has nearly doubled, and the overall timeline for completion is going to be about 6 years instead of 1.5 to 2. But at least we finally have an anticipated reopening in 2026, and it will hopefully return to being one of the most beloved buildings in the Mission. We're so focused on building like new housing and new office towers right now, and rightfully so. That stuff is important. But revamping and, you know, keeping beautiful our historic spaces in San Francisco is obviously important too. So it's great to see this project move forward and reopening soon. And the last project on my list relates to another historic building, except history has not been as kind to this building. The Verity Building at 659 Union Street in North Beach was built over a century ago and housed 4 restaurants on lower levels and residences on the upper levels. It's in an awesome location right across the street from Washington Square Park, right next to Columbus Avenue and all the shops and restaurants and bars there. But multiple fires over the past decade-plus have destroyed different facets of the building, rendering it completely uninhabitable. A fire broke out in 2013, caused a bunch of damage to the residential units, rendering those uninhabitable. And in 2018, another fire started in one of the restaurants, completely destroying the interior of the building. Such that only the historic facade remains. So right now there's just a hollowed-out building with an historic brick facade on one of the most iconic corners of North Beach. Over the years, strict zoning laws, historic preservationists, and continuously increasing construction costs have prevented anything new being built at the site. So the developer and the building manager, Powell Partners and Redbridge Partners, haven't been able to really make use of the building. But as recently as October, there's a renewed push by the developer to rehab the building, taking advantage of state laws that enable denser housing development with streamlined approval processes. Bonuses to create a new 8-story apartment building. The new building would see the creation of 89 new housing units, 5,700 square foot of retail, and a brand new rooftop restaurant. And to qualify for those density bonuses that I talk about that enable building something of this size in that area, 15 of those units would be dedicated affordable housing. And if earlier plans weren't met with enough resistance from historic preservationists, these plans are going to be met with even more because these plans basically triple the number of residences and increase the height that's being proposed for the building. And all of this is playing out At the same time that historic preservationist groups in North Beach are moving to have North Beach designated an historic district. If they're able to succeed in obtaining that designation, any redevelopment would face very stringent review processes, environmental reviews, special planning reviews, Historic Preservation Commission meetings, et cetera. It would basically be a death knell to any new development because it would drastically increase the cost of a project by elongating the timeline. A hearing on the designation has been delayed until at least next year, so it's possible that these current plans for the building get their approvals before there's a hearing or decision on the historic designation for the district. And we really need more housing in North Beach in particular. North Beach hasn't seen much new construction in the area. The last, you know, somewhat large building to open there was just 19 condos, and that opened in 2018. So it's been many years since we've had, you know, any sort of larger scale development in the area. And like I said earlier, it's such a great neighborhood. I love Washington Square Park, one of my favorite parks in the city. I love the shops and restaurants in and around Columbus. I lived in North Beach for the first 5 years that I lived in San Francisco. Easily one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city. It's walking distance to downtown, walking distance to the water. There's so much to offer in North Beach. So it would be great to get more new housing in that area and see kind of the redevelopment and, you know, bringing back to life an historic building as beautiful as this one. Well, there you have it. Those are 5 incredible new developments that are sure to reshape San Francisco in the coming years. Excited to see a lot more new development in the city as the city continues news, its impossible comeback. We're really excited about it. If you want to learn more about what's going on in the city— current events, new developments, San Francisco lifestyle, San Francisco real estate, or about its incredible history— subscribe to my channel because I make videos about that stuff every single week. And if you're thinking about relocating and have questions about different areas to live in or how these changes that we're seeing are impacting our local market, reach out to me. I've lived in San Francisco for over a decade and I've helped numerous clients relocate here from all over the country. I'd be happy to be a resource for you. I'll put my contact info in the description below. Reach out anytime. And before before you go, if you want to learn about some other developments going on in the city right now, I have several videos about these awesome developments at Stonestown, Yerba Buena Island, Treasure Island, and a ton of other different areas in San Francisco. I'll link a few of them in the description below. Go check them out. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one.