More on the big box: SF strip mall wants to add housing

Katie Worth reports in the San Francisco Examiner that the owners of the Potrero Center strip mall in the city are seeking a planning amendment that will allow them to build several stories of housing on the site, on top of the current retail outlets.  The eight-acre site, unusual in the city, now contains an Office Depot, Safeway, several other chain stores and hundreds of parking spaces.

The owners say that this would happen sometime in the future when economic conditions improve.  (My guess is that they will improve sooner in the city than on the fringe where most big boxes are located.)  They have pledged that 22 percent of housing units would be affordable at below-market rates.  Go here for the story.