By Thomas K. Pendergast

Blueprint plans to build 83 units of housing in the old Alexandria Theatre at Geary Boulevard and 18th Avenue were formally submitted to the San Francisco Planning Department, although a construction timeline was not.

Once a grand old movie palace serving generations of fans since it opened in 1923, it closed in 2004 and has been sitting derelict ever since, despite different owners and pressure from three different Richmond District supervisors.

The mix of dwelling units focuses on family-oriented housing: 51 two-bedrooms with one bathroom each; 18 with three-bedrooms plus two bathrooms each; and 14 one-bedrooms with one bathroom each.

The one-bedrooms range between 676 square feet up to 712 square feet. The two-bedrooms are between 851 square feet and 956 square feet and the three-bedrooms are between 1,046 square feet and 1,340 square feet.

It will be a mixed-use building of mostly residential units and will include commercial and retail space on the ground and second floors.

Last April, a Special Use District (SUD) was created there allowing a maximum height of 85 feet instead of the usual 40-foot limit. Also, the required backyard area will be reduced from 25% of the total area down to 15%.

The usual 15% allotment for lower-income or “inclusionary” households will be reduced in this SUD down to 12%, with 10% dedicated to low-income and the other 2% for moderate-income households.

In San Francisco, “low-income” household means earning 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), which, according to the City, is an annual income of $87,300 for an individual and $99,750 for two people. Moderate-income is set at 105% of the AMI, which translates to $114,550 for an individual and $130,950 for two people.

For this property, the “moderate-income” definition has been expanded up to 120% of the AMI annually, which is defined as $130,000 for an individual or $149,650 for two people.

The San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission recommends giving the building landmark status, but this has not actually been done. It is listed as a “known historic resource.”

Nevertheless, the blueprint from the architectural firm Gonzales Architects states the intention to reconstruct and re-install the theater’s historic blade sign damaged in a 2022 storm and taken down for safety reasons.

The plan also aims to:

• Reconstruct and re-install the marquee sign above the main entrance.

• Put in new terrazzo flooring at the forecourt entrance.

• Restore and relocate two curved murals and plaster ornamentation features into a proposed new clubhouse community space.

• Restore and relocate the starburst chandelier into that clubhouse.

• Restore and reconstruct the curving open staircase leading from the entry lobby to a new commercial mezzanine.

• Restore and reinstall historic drinking fountain in the new lobby.

The lower five stories will fit into the original building envelope, but the upper three floors will be set back about 15 feet from the edge.

The roof will be solar-ready and they are proposing a “green roof” option.

The theater was designed by Reid Brothers architects using an Egyptian Revivalist style. It opened on Nov. 26, 1923, with a single-screen auditorium that had a unique, concrete bowl-shaped floor which seated 2,000 people.

In 1942, stepped seating was added to the auditorium and Art Deco interior ornamentation was installed, while a large blade sign and marquee were mounted outside along with terrazzo paving in the entry area.

In 1976, the auditorium was subdivided into three theaters with two smaller, upper-level theaters on a new balcony deck.

The theater closed in 2004 and has been sitting vacant ever since. There have been at least two unsuccessful attempts to develop the property.

After a group of investors bought it, they proposed keeping the building but expanding the second floor to include a restaurant, while keeping one of the theater screens to accommodate 221 to 250 seats. The ground floor would have been converted into retail spaces, with a series of openings through the east side facade to create store fronts.

This plan had the support of the district supervisor at the time, Eric Mar, but was never developed.

In 2015, Yorke Lee took possession of the property and proposed a building with a “swimming center” featuring two pools on the first floor, a “learning center” on the second floor and a “business center” on a third floor.

The district’s supervisor at that time, Sandra Lee Fewer, expressed her frustration at the lack of action to develop the theater.

“Birds are living in the marquee and it’s falling down. It’s just really an eyesore and we’re sick of it,” Fewer said at a community meeting in April of 2017. “Two gentlemen that live in the South Bay have bought it. Before the owners were in China. It was very hard to talk to them because they were just going through a middle man. But now, it switched owners about three or four times; these two owners I actually met.”

The department approved the plan in October of 2019, however, a few months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and places like public swimming pools were among the first to get shut down. So, after that, investor funding evaporated and momentum for the project went down the drain.

Calls and emails to Lee and his attorney seeking a timeline or construction cost estimates were not returned by press time.

Yet there remains another issue to be dealt with – pigeons.

The birds have been nesting up in the rafters and recent efforts to fence it off with boards and wire mesh resulted in them getting trapped inside.

The nesting pigeons and their droppings are a health concern but how to get them out without killing them has proved challenging.

“There is a lot of concern about our friendly pigeons being displaced,” said Robyn Burke, a legislative aide for District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan. “There are the people who are concerned about the mess and how disgusting it will be and then there are people who are concerned about the lives of the pigeons.

“Pigeons lives matter, is where we are with this,” she quipped.

A schedule for work on the project has not yet been finalized.