SF is helping nonprofits buy up distressed real estate
Sixty years ago, San Francisco officials worked to raze entire ethnic enclaves, such as the Fillmore and Manilatown, in an attempt to remake and “modernize” the city. Now that major office tenants have fled, City Hall is helping members of those communities reclaim sections of downtown.
The Bayanihan Equity Center, a nonprofit that serves Asian American and Pacific Islander seniors in SoMa and the Tenderloin, this month took advantage of a city program, the API Equity Fund, to purchase an office building at 616 Minna St., which it will use as its new headquarters.
The pool of cash, comprising unspent federal and state Covid relief funds set aside for budget shortfalls, was established in 2022 by Supervisor Connie Chan and is meant to subsidize real estate acquisitions and facility improvements for nonprofits in one of the most expensive U.S. cities.
According to city documents, the Bayanihan Equity Center bought the Minna Street property Oct. 10 for $1.75 million, a discount from the previous sale price of $2 million in 2012. The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, which administers the fund, chipped in $1.487 million, meaning the nonprofit spent just $262,500 of its own on the purchase.