Arkansas Park

Transforming open space into housing can be a sensitive issue in densely developed San Francisco. With Arkansas Park, developed on a 1.5-acre parcel of land in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, perseverance and compromise proved a winning combination. Despite initial community opposition, McKenzie, Rose & Holliday Development won over residents with a mix of affordable and market-rate housing, a community art and performance space, and a new green space. The project was adjacent to the Goodman 2 project, which provided city-mandated housing for ArtsDeco, the nonprofit arts-advocacy organization that was our partner in the project. Arkansas Park, McKenzie, Rose & Holliday Development’s first new construction venture sold out within a year.

Completed: 1995
Project value: $17.5 million
Number of units: 65
Project area: 115,610 square feet
Site area: 65,000 square feet
Average unit size: 1,200 square feet
Average unit price (1996): $270,000
Average unit price (2003): $600,000
Density per acre: 63 units/acre
Parking: 91 spaces

• The Potrero Hill community and a local brewery mounted an active opposition to the development, delaying the approval process for two years.
• Funding dried up after the plans were finally approved.

Framework

This for-sale, market-rate development was a sister project to Goodman 2, a below-market-rate rental development on the same land parcel. For both projects, compromise was the name of the game. McKenzie, Rose & Holliday Development worked with the ArtsDeco Group, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and the Potrero Hill community to satisfy conflicting interests. We reduced the height of the town homes, mixed materials—stucco, vinyl, metal siding, and wood—to ease the appearance of density, and purchased an additional parcel of land from the public school district on which we developed a terraced public green space between buildings and public school. When the initial funding partners were unable to move forward, Hearthstone Advisors, a private concern administering an affordable-housing investment fund for CalPers, stepped in and provided project financing.

Impact

In the end, Arkansas Park—which comprises 24 condominium flats, ten town homes, two live-work buildings containing 59 units, a single-family home, and a community art center—proved to lenders and the community that a mix of small-scale commercial and residential space was both viable and valuable. For more information about the land-development aspects of this project, please see the description of Goodman 2.