Real Estate Investor Is Trying To Develop Ingleside Project Again

A new proposal to tear down four commercial buildings on Ingleside’s stretch of Ocean Avenue for a five-story residential building has been put forward years after a similar proposal was shelved.

Real estate investment firm TJ Development Inc. submitted preliminary plans on April 16 to redevelop 1601-1633 Ocean Ave. three years after closing a proposal to develop the site. The new proposed building would contain four small ground-floor commercial spaces and a total of 92 apartments with 56 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom units. No vehicle parking is planned.

The new plans were designed by Southern California 3 Six Nine Architects.

“Mixed-use projects always live up the streets when you have commercial and then residential up above, so I hope this adds on to that development that’s happening along Ocean Avenue,” said Juan Francisco Flores, the design firm’s principal.

While the project is in the early stages, Francisco Flores said, the plan is to get permits from the city within the next year, but larger projects, like this one, could take two to three years.

District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who represents the part of Ingleside where the properties sit, is open to supporting developments like this one as long as the community’s needs are met.

“There are many cherished, neighborhood-serving small businesses that have been rooted on that block and we want to make sure that development proposals include them,” Chen said. “We want to support development that is responsive to community needs and that means ensuring that there is a good balance of family-sized units to reflect our [Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside] communities and that new housing units are priced to reflect the affordability needs of working residents in the OMI.”

Ingleside has been a hotbed of housing development on San Francisco’s west side since the Balboa Park Area Plan upzoned Ocean Avenue and nearby streets in 2008. Planning Department Director Rich Hillis recently held up the area as an example of upzoning done right as the city embarks on a sweeping upzoning of the west side to meet housing requirements set by the state.

But housing development success hasn't been equally spread in Ingleside. TJ Development has owned the properties since November 2014 and has struggled to make its development plans a reality.

In 2021, the company partnered with developer Global Premier Development to build an eight-story senior housing development. During a public meeting, representatives from the Department of Toxic Substances Control appeared to chastise the developers for ignoring notices about contamination from long-gone dry-cleaning businesses on the site. In 2022, it canceled with the Planning Department its plans dating back to 2009 and the previous developer, Willart LLC. Last year, the developer put the properties on the market for $6,990,000.

Bugra Arkin, the company’s CEO, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Miles Escobedo, co-owner of Ocean Ale House bar and grill, said it’s shameful that the developer has been able to leave the storefronts vacant and in a state of disrepair. He counted five windows boarded up with plywood.

“I think it's like obvious the developer has an extreme disconnect with the community,” Escobedo said. “They're obviously not here [and] seeing that it's a blight. They're just in it for the money.”

The Plant Lady SF is located next to the proposed development. Owner Jeannie Psomas isn’t opposed to the construction as long as it’s done quickly, efficiently and thoughtfully.

“Ninety people moving into this street would be the best thing for my business imaginable,” Psomas said. “We’d be furnishing all their apartments.”