San Francisco’s Outer Richmond District will see the temporary closure of the neighborhood’s only full-service grocery store, with Safeway slated to shutter its store near Ocean Beach as developers plan to build a major housing complex anchored by the grocer in its place.
That’s according to a proposal submitted to San Francisco planning officials by Align Real Estate, which on Tuesday pitched a plan to redevelop 850 La Playa St., a 3.3-acre property between Fulton and Cabrillo streets that houses the Safeway store and is also owned by the grocery chain, into hundreds of new homes. That location has struggled with public safety issues, including a nearby shooting earlier this month.
The project would bring a total of 526 new rental homes — most of which are envisioned as market rate — spread across two, eight-story buildings to a neighborhood that has seen little housing construction in recent decades. Meanwhile, Safeway is slated to close its doors on La Playa Street during construction, though representatives of the company promised that the store will eventually return to a larger footprint within the planned development…