San Francisco Will Never Be the Same (December 2025 News & Updates)

The city's fighting back against a brand new high-rise that would be the largest housing development one of San Francisco's wealthiest neighborhoods has ever seen. Voters might be heading back to the ballot box to cast yet another vote for one of the most controversial ballot initiatives in years. The city's officially getting a brand new headquarters for a global music empire at an historic landmark in downtown. A stalled multi-billion dollar construction project in SoMa may be changing hands for pennies on the dollar, and lenders have officially taken control of a beloved landmark lost to COVID and are looking to usher it into its next era. This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco. And in this video, I'm breaking down the biggest news stories in San Francisco right now that are sure to change the San Francisco landscape heading into 2026 and for years to come. Let's get right to it and start with the redevelopment of a grocery store in the Marina into a gigantic new housing community. If you haven't already heard, a developer has been making headlines across the city over the past couple of months. In partnership with Safeway's parent company Albertsons, developer Align Real Estate has proposed 4 separate Safeways in different neighborhoods across the city to become the sites of brand new massive housing complexes. The first proposal was in the Fillmore with plans for approximately 1,800 new apartments above a brand new grocery store. The second one was in Richmond to replace the Safeway near Ocean Beach with an 85-foot-tall structure with over 500 new apartments on top of a brand new Safeway. The third in Bernal Heights to create another new Safeway with a 75-foot-tall 7-story structure with over 300 new apartments. And the fourth and the one that seems to be generating far and away the most controversy, a proposal to replace the Safeway on Marina Boulevard with a gigantic 25-story-tall complex with over 800 new housing units. And there are a few reasons why this one in particular out of the bunch is generating so much buzz. First of all, it would be far and away the largest development that the Marina has seen in years. Most of the Marina consists of low-rise buildings, and a substantial portion of the Marina is even designated RH-1, which means only single-family homes can be in a bulk of the neighborhood. Mm-hmm. Neighborhood. So this 297-foot-tall structure would be a pretty significant departure from what we see elsewhere in the neighborhood. Second, something that size at this specific location would impact a number of other residents because most of the marina is low-rise buildings and single-family homes. If you build something that's this tall and this wide, you're going to impact a lot of light and a lot of views for a lot of marina and Cow Hollow natives. And third, and this is why in large part the city itself is pushing back so hard against the proposal, including the mayor and the supervisor for the Marina District is that the proposal is not consistent with the recently enacted family zoning plan. The reason the developer was able to propose something of this size at this site is because of state density bonus laws, which allow denser housing projects if there's a certain number of affordable units, and they allow that denser housing without specific height limits. So even though this particular lot is only zoned for 4 stories tall, very consistent with a lot of what we see in other parts of the Marina, the developer was able to propose something 25 stories tall. 25 stories tall. Tall, taking advantage of these laws. So that's more than 6 times the amount of allowable height at this site. All of the other proposals in Richmond, Fillmore, and in Bernal Heights for these Safeway redevelopments are no more than 2x the allowable height at the site. So this particular one is substantially larger than the other ones. And it's also not consistent with the recently enacted family zoning plan. In fact, this proposal was made just shortly before the family zoning plan actually went into effect, and that might have been by design. So naturally, there's a lot of pushback from the city. My personal view, I love the way the building looks, but I think it should be shorter and spread across the site in a way that you can achieve close to the same number of units with more dense housing at lower heights. I don't think anybody can really debate that that site is ripe for new housing. It's a prime waterfront location and it's vastly underutilized. All that's there is a parking lot and a single-story grocery store. So you can obviously build a lot of new housing there, and I think they should. But 25 stories tall just feels absurd. I think it'd be oriented in a different way and still get one of the largest new development developments the Marina has seen in years. Whether or not a different sized or oriented development is feasible for the developer, I can't really answer that question. That's a math question for the developer, but it's probably something they're gonna have to start working through because I think the likelihood that this project moves forward in its current iteration is slim to none. But that's just what I think. Would love to know what you think, so let me know in the comments. I'll definitely be keeping you updated about the project. It has already become and is sure to continue to be one of the most hotly contested and debated projects going on in the city right now. So if you want to stay up to date, make sure to subscribe to my channel. I also make videos every single week about San Francisco lifestyle, history, current events, and all things San Francisco real estate. So if you like any of that stuff, would be great if you could subscribe. And if you're thinking about buying or selling a place in the city and have questions about how all the changes we're seeing across San Francisco right now 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 people 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. Now back to the latest headlines making waves across San Francisco, and this next story is Even more controversial than the Marina Safeway because it's about reopening the Great Highway again. 2 years ago, voters passed Ballot Proposition K to convert the Upper Great Highway into a park now known as Sunset Dunes. And immediately after its passage, there was uproar, especially from Sunset residents. The majority of people who supported closing what was a major thoroughfare for commuters were people who did not live in that area. Most of the supporters lived elsewhere in the city. In contrast, voters who lived near the Upper Great Highway the measure, citing concerns about traffic congestion due to the closure of the main road. And it was such a hot-button issue that it led to the recall of Supervisor Joel Angardio in September of 2025 because he specifically supported putting that ballot initiative on the ballot. But like, okay, fine, there was a vote, you know, something passed. Some people weren't happy about it. Some people are happy about it. Like, why are we still talking about it? Well, District 4, which is the district in which the Sunset is located, has a new supervisor, Alan Wong. And he announced in September that he would sponsor a new ballot initiative to reopen open the Great Highway to cars again. So even though we now have a new park that a lot of people use and enjoy, and the city has spent a ton of money to create, because of a validly passed ballot measure years ago, there may be a new initiative to revert it back to how that portion of the Great Highway was used before, which was open to cars during the week, closed on weekends. And honestly, for me, that's how I preferred it. I thought using it as a park on weekends but allowing cars to pass through it for commuting during the week was a perfect compromise. But I don't live in the Sunset, and I don't use the Great Highway to commute. So honestly, I don't really have a dog in the fight. It's just really interesting to me how all this is playing out. Like, we can't let sleeping dogs lie. 3 other supervisors need to join in the effort to get something back on the ballot. So completely open question whether it actually makes it to the ballot. But we do know the debate over the Great Highway is far from settled. There's sure to be more discussion about the issue heading into the election year next year. But you've got my views. Would love to learn your views about the closure as well. And if you do lend a view, it'd be really helpful to me me and to everybody else who's watching to let us know if you live there or if you live elsewhere in the city or not in the city at all. That area is so pretty. It's an awesome spot for a park, but we already have Golden Gate Park there. We have Ocean Beach there. So, you know, I understand why a lot of people don't think we need yet another park there, especially at the cost of a main transit thoroughfare. As with all these stories, this one is still developing. There should be more news to come about the Upper Great Highway, so subscribe if you want more updates. This next story is the one that I'm most personally excited about. Empire Records, a global— music label started by a San Francisco native has received official city approval to turn a downtown historic landmark into its brand new headquarters. One Montgomery is the site of an Italian Renaissance Revival building originally built in 1908 with help from renowned architect Willis Polk. The original structure was way taller than what stands there today. In the 1980s, the top 10 floors of the building were removed in conjunction with the development of the nearby Crocker Galleria. During this process, the rooftop at the bank was converted into privately owned public space, and that's really important for the future of this development. So earlier this year, Empire Records purchased the building for $24.5 million with the intent of spending another $40 million plus on the renovation and restoration of the site. And as part of their permit application, and a key to their planned use for the space, was closing the privately owned public space. Not surprising at all, closing the rooftop was met with resistance from the city, but there were valid security concerns over keeping the space open to the public. And as a compromise, Empire and the city agreed they would hold 4 public concerts each year at the space. And in addition to concerts at the rooftop, they're creating a restaurant space and an event space at the site. And Empire Records actually gave me a tour of the space inside. It's one of the most breathtaking buildings I've ever seen downtown. The vault doors, the ceiling details, the floors, just the sheer scale of it all. It's so awesome. I can't wait to tour the space again, and hopefully when I do, I'll be able to get footage for all of you too. And it's really exciting to see a local invest in the city and breathe new life into a space like this. Music has always been a huge part of San Francisco's culture, and it's been a critical part of San Francisco's comeback. A lot of downtown First Thursdays and free concerts all across the city. So this is sure to be a key part of the future success of San Francisco, and I'm really excited to see it. No firm deadline on the reopening and when construction is gonna complete, but I'll definitely keep you updated. All right, next is an update on the most notorious construction project in the entire city that's been a blight on the SoMa neighborhood for years. And in good news, it might finally be getting some traction. If you haven't heard of the Oceanwide Center, you've probably been living under a rock. Oceanwide Holdings purchased the 1.2-acre site at First and Mission in Selma about a decade ago for just shy of $300 million. And despite entitlements for two massive towers designed by world-renowned Foster and Partners that would house offices, residences, and a brand new hotel, all that exists at the site right now after a decade is a gigantic hole in the ground. The city approved a 910-foot tower with 1.2 million square feet of office space and 109 housing units, plus a separate 600-foot-tall tower with 156 housing and a Waldorf Astoria Hotel. By 2019, construction costs had got out of control, and the developer needed an additional capital infusion to keep the project going. But after falling short on their initial capital raise efforts, they had to stop construction. And that financial situation became even more dire with the pandemic, not only because of inflation— so further rising, rapidly rising costs— and supply chain issues and delays that made the project more expensive, but because of changes in the overall San Francisco market that made the project even less feasible. Changes in the office market, changes in the housing market, in the hotel market because of falling tourism, rising crime, homelessness, all of that. So at a time when they were trying to raise money and kickstart the project again, it was basically one of the worst possible investments at the time. So they had a hard time raising money. Eventually in 2021, the lenders took over the project and no meaningful progress has been made at the site ever since. We've just been left with a massive hole in the ground with some of the early foundation work that was started. But the long-stalled development might be getting some new legs through a brand new investment vehicle called the San Francisco Recovery Fund, and they're about to get a steal of a deal on this site for about $95 million when over a billion dollars has been invested at the site to date. The fund was started by developer Dan Kingsley and private equity investor Jay Yang, and while we don't know their specific intentions for the site, word on the street is it's going to be high-end offices, which makes perfect sense given what's going on in the broader San Francisco right now. If you look at what else has been happening across the city lately, especially in downtown, there's real demand for high-end office space. Luxury amenity spaces, wellness spaces, new food and beverage concepts, gyms, spas, all of that stuff. Transamerica Pyramid is the poster child for how successful a venture like that can be. So it would make a lot of sense to see some brand new luxury office space go there. But you know, it's anyone's guess at this point what the project might look like. The good thing though, and you know, the real story here is that a project that nobody would touch with a 10-foot pole for years might finally be getting some traction. And we might be finally getting something to fill that hole in the ground that's been sitting there for years. And— it's not just a great sign for this project in particular, it's a great sign for San Francisco, a positive sign for confidence in the city as the city continues its comeback. And the last update for you that I have in this video is an update about what might be the most infamous mall in all of America. There's no real question that San Francisco is in the middle of a comeback. Retail vacancies are falling, office vacancies are improving, crime is down, tourism is rising. But right in the heart of the city, one of the most iconic shopping centers in the city continues to unravel. Vacancies mounting, valuations collapsing, and what was one the crown jewel of shopping in San Francisco is a blight on the city's comeback. Hopefully that's not the case for long in light of the latest update. And before I get there, I want to give you a very brief history of the mall. This building wasn't always a cautionary tale. Long before it was the Westfield San Francisco Center, it was the Emporium, an architectural landmark and anchor of Market Street retail for generations. After surviving the 1906 earthquake and fire, the site evolved into a massive award-winning mixed-use mall that opened in 2006 and went on to absolutely dominate the city's retail scene, boasting near-full occupancy industry-leading sales per square foot, and millions of annual visitors. And then came the pandemic. The very things that made that mall so successful— office workers, commuters, tourism— all those things completely vanished with the onset of the pandemic. Retailers left, anchor tenants vacated, and the mall was eventually surrendered to its lenders in 2023. Over the next several years, tenants continued their exodus, and auctions were scheduled by the mall's receiver to find a potential buyer for the site. But every time an auction was supposed to happen, it was postponed. That happened 8 times. Deadlines came and went until recently. Lenders officially took ownership of the mall via a credit bid through an auction. They basically used the debt owed to them instead of a cash bid to buy the mall. The effective purchase price, a mere $133 million, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the over billion dollars the mall was valued at before the pandemic and the $600 million-ish actually owed to the banks. Since taking formal ownership, the bank has retained CBRE, a, you know, world-renowned renowned commercial real estate brokerage to market the property and help find it an actual buyer who can turn the site into something completely different. They've also given notice to the last few remaining tenants at the mall that they need to vacate so that the mall can be sold basically vacant. And there are endless possibilities available for this specific site. The existing height limit for the mall site is 400 feet, which is way higher than what's currently there right now. We have an administration in place that will undoubtedly be involved in and supportive of getting movement on new uses for that site. Things like housing, new offices, new event spaces, new restaurants, you name it. The site is so large at over 5 acres, and with that height limit, there's really a ton that can be done here. I've got a separate video on the mall's history if you're interested in learning more. I'll link that in the description below. Go check that out. Suffice to say, if we can get something new at this site, it's going to be absolutely transformational for the city. And I hope that whatever gets done in the process, some of the historic features get preserved because they are absolutely stunning. Well, there you have it. Those were the biggest news stories from the end of 2025, and each of them are sure to have an impact on the city in 2026 and beyond. If you're interested in San Francisco news, current events, lifestyle, history, new developments, or all things San Francisco real estate, subscribe to my channel because I make videos about that stuff every single week. And if you're thinking about buying or selling a place in San Francisco and have questions about how all the changes we're seeing across the city impact our local real estate market, reach out to me. I've lived in the city for over 13 years and I've helped numerous people 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. And before you go, if you want to learn more about what factors are influencing San Francisco's impossible comeback, I've got a separate video on that that I'll link in the description below as well. Go check it out. I hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll see you in the next one.