Neighborhood groups are asking Mayor London Breed to place in the next city budget funding for the Geneva Office Building so the Recreation and Parks Department can finalize “shovel-ready” plans.
Located at the corner of San Jose and Geneva avenues, the facility opened in 1901 and served the city’s transportation needs until 1989 when it was damaged by the Loma Prieta Earthquake. It has sat vacant ever since. The attached Powerhouse, which opened in 1904, was recently renovated for $14 million and occupied by the nonprofit Performing Arts Workshop.
“Completing the Geneva Office Building renovation will bring tremendous value to this intersection of transit and housing by bringing beauty, arts, and culture to the community,” NMTIA President David Hooper said. “We anticipate that the Geneva Office Building and Powerhouse will eventually attract both tourists and people from across the Bay Area when programming opens in both buildings.”
The Ingleside Merchants Association’s letter requested that the support be given because academic research shows that arts venues drive economic activity.
“The completed project is the best way to get tourism dollars to our part of town,” IMA Chair and Ocean Ale House co-owner Miles Escobedo wrote. “This part of the city deserves that investment. The community advocates who have championed it since the 90s deserve to see it completed in their lifetimes.”
Friends of the Geneva Office Building & Powerhouse, a nonprofit founded in 2002 to advocate for the project, has been steadfast in its commitment to the facility.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit and other neighborhood groups didn’t forget their commitment. On April 22, 2021, the FGOBP celebrated the 120th anniversary of the building with a physically distant rally.
Like NMTIA and IMA, they are calling on Breed and the Board of Supervisors to assist RPD to complete the project as well.
If Breed does not put the funding in her budget, the supervisors may in their budget process later this year.
