The San Francisco Wholesale Flower Market will reopen in Potrero Hill “well before the end of 2023,” according to Mike Grisso of Kilroy Realty Corporation, which owns both the Market’s existing and new sites.
“They had the option of remaining at Sixth and Brannan in a new facility but chose instead to move to Potrero Hill,” stated Grisso, senior vice president of development and land planning at Kilroy. “They had concerns about the future development and street changes around their new location and the traffic that it could bring to a neighborhood that already has heavy traffic.”
Grisso flatly denied that the move was triggered by Kilroy’s plan to turn the Market’s existing site into residences.
The Flower Market has been located South-of-Market since 1924, in an area where significant amounts of new housing have been built over the past few decades, with increased traffic congestion, particularly off the Interstate 280 Sixth Street exit.
Jeanne Boes, the Flower Market’s general manager, told The Potrero View that “we are looking forward to adding color and community to the already vibrant Potrero Hill neighborhood. The SFFM has been in the City since 1912. The move will be an exciting time for our historic Market and the many small businesses which make our marketplace so unique.”
According to Grisso, relocation to 901 16th Street, at Mississippi Street, adjacent to Interstate 280, should be completed by the fourth quarter of 2023. The shift “required more than five years of planning and environmental studies,” she said. “Such a time-consuming effort is always difficult. But we are grateful for the support we received from the Planning Department and the City of San Francisco. The Project was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.”
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