Construction finally starts on San Francisco's long-delayed 75-unit former laundromat project
After more than a decade of disputes, the former laundromat site in San Francisco’s Mission District is now under construction for a 75-unit apartment building.
Eight years after Robert Tillman first proposed converting his Mission District laundromat into a 75-unit rental building, construction has finally begun. Cresleigh Homes, the developer that purchased the site from Tillman in 2019, is now preparing the foundation and expects to start erecting the structure next year. The project earned notoriety as a symbol of San Francisco’s cumbersome discretionary approval system, where neighborhood activists forced multiple historic-significance and shadow-impact studies that stalled progress.
After the city delayed the project a third time, Tillman sued, prevailed, and the city approved the plan before he sold to Cresleigh. A combination of post-pandemic housing demand, rising rents, and recent state and local reforms that curb activist tools helped move the project forward.
Why it matters
The start of construction ends a protracted housing dispute and adds new rental units to a tight San Francisco market.
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