Details of ‘revitalization project’ begin to emerge

By THOMAS REYNOLDS

For more than a year and a half, a public silence has surrounded investor Neil Mehta’s plans to remake a prime stretch of Fillmore Street. 

A fund he created with a $100 million investment quietly acquired eight buildings containing 11 storefronts, including the historic Clay Theater, and christened itself the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project. Yet the opposite of revitalization has ensued: Ten-Ichi restaurant closed, Starbucks shuttered, the Alice & Olivia boutique went dark. Noosh is no more. La Mediterranee was iffy for a time. Empty storefronts were boarded up and branded UFRP.

It’s no wonder the neighbors have been suspicious — especially as the city continues to approve chain stores on Fillmore and considers a massive upzoning plan that would allow taller buildings and greater density.

Now some details are beginning to emerge. Here’s what’s in the works:

• Initial plans for restoring the Clay Theater as a single-screen cinema were submitted to city planners this week. The plans anticipate a restoration of the theater to show films and host talks and other community events, with an expanded concession area and a bookstore up front.
• Noosh will become a Korean barbecue restaurant.
• The Starbucks space will become a Thai noodle spot.
• Letters of intent for two other storefronts have been received — both for small, local businesses — but leases are yet to be signed.
• The former Alice & Olivia space next door to the Clay Theater remains to be filled. The goal is a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“We’re committed to our properties on Upper Fillmore being a home for San Francisco’s most passionate small business operators,” said Mehta’s right-hand man, Cody Allen, who was lured back from Shanghai to run the project. “That’s why we’re not engaging in any conversations with chain retailers or chain restaurants.”

Allen would give no specifics about new businesses coming to the street, saying, “It’s up to our tenants to share their own plans when the time is right.” He added: “What I can say is that every lease signed and every conversation under way fits our vision for the street and will be exciting additions to the fabric of the neighborhood.”

Work began this week to demolish the interiors of the storefronts that formerly housed Starbucks and Ten-Ichi.

Demolition of the Starbucks and Ten-Ichi spaces began this week, and soon will expand to the Noosh corner at Fillmore and Pine, the project’s only building not on the 2200 block of Fillmore between Sacramento and Clay.

A number of other renovations — not part of Mehta’s project — are also under way on the 2200 block: Miette patisserie is opening soon; Palmer’s is close to reopening; Athleta and Veronica Beard are completely remodeling; and a new shop, said to be a spinoff from the Marine Layer clothing brand, is in the works.

Allen said his project initially envisioned only restoring the Clay Theater. Then Mehta — who lived at Webster and Broadway until he was in third grade, when his family moved to Atherton, and now lives a few doors from Fillmore — found that the Clay and the retail shop next door came as a set, so he acquired both. Then the Prado Group, which had accumulated several buildings on the 2200 block, offered to sell them to Mehta’s project. And so did another longtime property owner on the block.

As a result, they ended up with a much bigger project — and a much bigger impact on the neighborhood — than initially intended.

“As neighbors raising our families here, our goal isn’t to build a luxury mall or condo corridor,” Allen said. “This is not Rodeo Drive.”

He added: “We’re building a community of unique, independent businesses that bring something new to Fillmore. Over the past year, we’ve created lease structures and support systems to help new tenants bring fresh energy to the street — and the stability to stay for decades.”