In southeast San Francisco, several sprawling redevelopment projects are in motion along the bay shore, from Candlestick Point and the Hunters Point shipyard all the way up to Pier 70. Some are moving faster than others.
But a smaller development, in an industrial pocket of Bayview-Hunters Point about a mile inland, is gaining momentum after a decade of delays — and how it fares will be a bellwether in San Francisco’s neverending tug-of-war over land use. It faces a key vote this afternoon at the city’s Planning Commission.
Update, 9/26/25: The Planning Commission approved the project’s environmental review and development agreement 6-0 after more than two and a half hours of public comment and debate. Commissioner Kathrin Moore was not present for the vote. “It’s really great that this area is going to get a great big modernization,” said Commissioner Derek Braun.
Unlike the giant projects along the bay, the SF Gateway is all about jobs. There’s not a single new home involved. The proposal calls for knocking down four old warehouses in the shadow of the elevated 280 freeway and replacing them with a pair of nearly 100-foot-tall buildings. All in all it would cover four very long city blocks.
SF-based Prologis, which develops warehouses and other supply-chain real estate, says the SF Gateway will serve in part as a parcel delivery service hub, with other uses — ground-floor retail, artist studios, light-industrial spaces, and more — sprinkled throughout.
Prologis has not named any clients. But two of the buildings slated for demolition are Amazon warehouses, fueling suspicion that the online giant will stay on and gain even greater purchase in the city.
The project also stirs up union politics and environmental concerns, and it could suffer fallout from last week’s Joel Engardio recall, even though the landslide vote happened on the other side of town.
And this being San Francisco, there are angry neighbors who don’t want their views ruined.
But the SF Gateway also has an ace up its sleeve — the backing of Sup. Shamann Walton who, in other instances, has amplified concerns that the project’s opponents raise. In fact, if he were at the wheel of a delivery van, one might say he’s made an unexpected turn.
Anti-Amazon
Prologis first proposed the SF Gateway in 2015. The company now says its design will accommodate a “diverse and evolving range” of light industrial uses, known in SF jargon as production, distribution, and repair (PDR).
PDR space has eroded over the years in the city. But the rise of online shopping, amplified by the pandemic, has boosted the need for package distribution centers.
Indeed, most of the SF Gateway’s 1.6 million-plus square feet could be dedicated to shipping and delivery. But it will also include at least 20,000 feet of “maker space” for local artists and roughly 8,400 feet of new ground-level retail. All told there will be 1,125 parking spaces and what Prologis says will be the largest solar power array in the city.
For years Amazon has looked to expand its SF operations at Recology’s old 7th Street site. The supervisors delayed those plans in 2022 with a unanimous vote to require special permission to open a new delivery warehouse in the city. The legislation was authored by Sup. Shamann Walton, who represents the Bayview. At the time he called it a tool “to make sure that businesses of that size and magnitude, when they come into the neighborhood … they’re going to benefit the community and the neighborhood.”
(Walton was interviewed for a pro-union news video called “How to Stop an Amazon Warehouse From Taking Over Your Town.”)
The Teamsters Joint Council 7 and other labor groups backed that 2022 vote. They also used California’s environmental laws in 2020 to appeal Amazon’s attempt to open a Whole Foods grocery in an empty spot in SF’s City Center mall. (Walton and the rest of the supervisors voted in favor of the appeal.)
Unions and their backers have frequently accused Amazon of anti-union politics. Teamsters official Peter Finn told The Chronicle in June that SF Gateway was a “sweetheart deal” that rewards “companies like Amazon.” (The Teamsters did not respond to questions from The Frisc.)
We don’t trust the process.
Rochelle Holmes, spokesperson for All Things Bayview and critic of the sf gateway project
When asked if Amazon will be an SF Gateway tenant, a company spokesperson told The Frisc, “We’re following the redevelopment process that Prologis is currently leading with the city. That said, our Toland Street delivery station remains operational, and we don’t have any plans to change our footprint in this area at this time.”
Comments in opposition to the project cite spoiled views from neighboring hills and its size that would “dwarf the neighborhood.” Sue Hestor, an attorney and longtime anti-development advocate, lives in Bernal Heights — separated from the site by several industrial blocks and Highway 101 — and tells The Frisc she already deals with “an Amazon swarm” of delivery trucks.
Health, history, and delivery
More concerns are related to potential environmental and health effects. Many of SF’s worst environmental sites, including the Navy shipyard and power plants, have been in the southeast, and the city is still dealing with their toxic legacies.
Racist 20th century redlining limited the city’s Black population from moving after the Great Migration to the neighborhood for World War II-era military jobs.
The SF Gateway is now part of larger concerns of environmental injustice. “There’s a burden of toxic pollution in this neighborhood,” longtime Bayview resident Blair Sandler, who lives four blocks from the project site, tells The Frisc.
Sandler says all the extra delivery vans are another case of dumping a problem on Bayview’s doorstep. Public health research has found that Bayview residents suffer greater rates of diseases like asthma and some cancers.
In a 2023 analysis, the California Air Quality Resource Board estimated the SF Gateway could add more than 6,000 daily vehicle trips to current levels on “local roadways.” The board also urged the project to plan for zero-emission technology.
A Frisc investigation last year found that opposition to parcel delivery expansion from unions and elected officials could slow the conversion to electric vehicles.
In response to questions about health concerns, Prologis spokesperson Mattie Sorrentino referred The Frisc to the company’s environmental impact report, required by state law. SF’s Planning Commission will consider the report at its meeting today.
The report references air quality hundreds of times and concludes that most effects “would be less than significant.” For potentially significant effects, such as exhaust from on-site equipment, the company says it will use electric tools and yard equipment such as forklifts, and limit idling of gas-powered vehicles to less than two minutes on-site.
California’s environmental laws are considered some of the nation’s most stringent. Rochelle Holmes, spokesperson for All Things Bayview and a critic of the project, doesn’t buy it: “We don’t trust the process. They don’t live here.”
But Shamann Walton, the project’s biggest champion in City Hall, does live in the neighborhood. “We have no support from Walton at all,” says Holmes.
A ‘milestone’
Amazon’s plan to convert the old Recology site in SF’s Design District into a distribution hub is still in the works. Whole Foods pulled the plug on its City Center plan last year; an Asian market says it will move into the space in 2026 — marking nine years of vacancy.
This April, Walton introduced a bill to clear the way for the long-stalled Gateway project. In a press release, he called it “a milestone for District 10” and a major investment in the neighborhood. Walton echoed Prologis with estimates of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars that the project will inject into the area. (The supervisor and his staff did not respond to requests for comment.)
Prologis spokesperson Sorrentino highlighted Walton’s support and the company’s own “strong focus on listening to ensure this project reflects local priorities.”
Timing and politics could play a role if and when the SF Gateway project reaches the Board of Supervisors. The legislation has six cosponsors, enough to win final passage when it gets to the board.
But one sponsor is the now-ousted Sup. Joel Engardio. It’s unclear when the board will certify his recall loss. His seat will become vacant 10 days after the certification, according to the Chronicle, so it’s unclear whether Engardio or his successor will have a say about SF Gateway. Mayor Daniel Lurie, who will appoint Engardio’s replacement, has many layers to consider — including labor and development politics.
But it might not come to that. If the Planning Commission approves the environmental report today, the project moves to City Hall. Depending how the bill moves through committee, potential amendments, and to a final vote, Engardio might still be on board. One might even say it’s a matter of logistics.