For more than two decades, an ornate movie theater in San Francisco’s Richmond District has sat vacant and crumbling. Developers have tried and failed for more than a decade to redevelop the Alexandria Theater site, struggling with political pressure to keep at least part of the theater intact while designing a project that adds residential and commercial space to the site.
Now, a new proposal to bring housing to the site is dividing pro-housing activists, some of whom are worried about the high costs of preserving the historic facade and interior elements. And it’s not yet clear if the latest plan will be realized.
San Francisco supervisors are set to consider whether to create a special district to facilitate the redevelopment of the derelict theater on the corner of 18th Avenue and Geary Boulevard. The plan is to turn the former theater into 75 two-and-three-bedroom units , 12% of which will be affordable…