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'It almost feels like 2019': S.F.'s first groundbreaking of COVID era a sign of a return to normal
J.K. Dineen
March 4, 2021
Updated: March 4, 2021 4:45 p.m.

Over the past year the ceremonial groundbreaking, where politicians and developers put on shiny hard hats and celebrate the city’s latest real estate milestone by flinging ceremonial dirt with ceremonial shovels, has vanished into the COVID abyss.

But on Thursday, in a sign that the city could be starting to return to some sense of normal, Mayor London Breed and other City Hall officials gathered on a construction site just south of Market Street in masks to mark the redevelopment of a quintessential San Francisco mega-development that has something for everyone: a new union hall for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 38, 96 units of supportive housing for the formerly homeless, a park for the neighborhood and hundreds of market rate apartments that will sprout from a patchwork of surface parking lots.

The project will be made up of five buildings, which will total 595 housing units. The portion of the project being celebrated Thursday is 53 Colton St., the supportive housing for the formerly unhoused, which will open in 2023 . . . .

The development, which will take about three years to complete, broke ground in June, the only major project to start during the coronavirus era . . . .

Prior to speaking, the mayor and Supervisor Matt Haney lined up with the developers, which include Strada Investment Partners and Community Housing Partnership. They held silver-plated shovels with wooden handles. The shovels were engraved with “Groundbreaking Ceremony Local 38” and the date July 7, 2020 — when the original ceremony was planned.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/ar...t-16001550.php

Jerry will supply photos as it progresses I'm sure.