18 November 2025/SF News/Joe Kukura (SFisrt.com)
The same developer that wants to build out the Fillmore Safeway property into apartments now has the same idea for the Ocean Beach Safeway on LaPlaya Street, though in this case, that Safeway would reopen once construction was finished.
All the controversy around the closure of the Fillmore Safeway seems to have seen the dust finally settle, now that the Safeway has long closed, and the new developer called Align just submitted their plans last week for an 1,800-unit housing development at that site (which they say will eventually have a large grocery store built in). But that same developer Align now has plans to shut down — and then reopen — another pretty important Safeway, the 37,000-square-foot Safeway on LaPlaya Street at Ocean Beach.
Today’s Chronicle reports that the developer Align has submitted plans to tear down the Ocean Beach Safeway and replace it with housing, but then place a larger Safeway on the ground-floor once the structure is rebuilt. What is now the one-story Safeway would become two eight-story buildings with 526 housing units, covering the whole 3.3-acre property on LaPlaya between between Fulton and Cabrillo streets that is currently also a large parking lot. The new buildings would be 85 feet tall, and parking would be moved underground.
Again, the Safeway would close for some extended period of time, but reopen as an even larger Safeway once construction was complete.
The Chronicle’s report merely says that the developer Align has “pitched a plan” to the SF Planning Department, and they add there is “no timeline for the planned closure, or the completion of the project.” This whole process of planning, approvals, and construction will likely take years, though the Chronicle says it would be built using “by-right” entitlement, which involves automatic approval of many City Hall bureaucratic processes that can often be quite lengthy.
The grocer Safeway also commented to the Chronicle on their report.
“Safeway looks forward to continuing to serve this community for generations to come,” a spokesperson told the Chronicle, saying there was no “specific temporary closure date” for the Ocean Beach Safeway store, though the company insisted it would provide “clear and timely updates as those details are available.”
There is also the matter of Daniel Lurie’s proposed “family zoning” upzoning plan that would raise height limits in the Outer Sunset. But this project does not need Lurie’s new upzoned height limits. The project already qualifies for state height and density bonuses that will let it go even higher than Lurie’s proposed new 65 feet limit for the Outer Sunset, because it meets affordable housing inclusion requirements.
But this revelation, which comes after Align indicated they had more development plans around the city to announce, could be part of a larger strategy by Align to partner with Safeway on the redevelopment of its dated and underdeveloped urban properties. Which leads us to wonder if the Castro Safeway — long rumored as a potential development site where a store could return in a similar ground-floor configuration — could be next on the developer’s list.
This is, we should note, still just conjecture, but Safeway has been undertaking this strategy broadly across the country, selling its assets for redevelopment as mixed-use with housing, as with this large property in Atlanta.
Related: Plan Finally Emerges For 1,800-Unit Development at Former Fillmore Safeway [SFist]
Image: Mystery M via Yelp
