It was the words of Harvey Milk that Michael Delgado-Dang, project manager of the Milk Block, said sparked the idea for the new mixed-use development project at 422 E. 900 South.
“It comes from my mom,” he said. “She came across an old speech from Harvey Milk himself, somewhere in the Castro District in San Francisco, and he stood up on a stoop and mentioned that he believed in building community one neighborhood at a time.”
Delgado-Dang said his mom—Kathia Dang—was brainstorming their future development of the space after the Southeast Market closed in 2022. But she didn’t want it to be just another project in the city, he recalled. She wanted it to have a unique brand and identity. “That’s what prompted her to call it the Milk Block, and then that’s what prompted us to have the tagline of ‘Building community one block at a time’,” Delgado-Dang said.
The family development team—made up of Delgado-Dang alongside his mother and his father, Sam Sleiman—knew what they wanted the block to be. Delgado-Dang said they wanted to make a place built on kindness and inclusivity for individuals from all walks of life…