The Marina Safeway Is Nearing a City Decision. What Changes for Your Grocery Run, and When?
San Francisco's Planning Department is expected to approve or deny the Marina Safeway project at 15 Marina Blvd. in October. When it does, the decision will probably be reported as the moment the neighborhood learns what will happen to its supermarket. In practice it settles less than that. The store has been on the waterfront near Fort Mason for nearly seven decades, and it will close only after a series of later steps happen. None of the city, the developer or Safeway has put a date on any of them.
As of early October 2026, there is no published construction timeline, no stated closing date and no commitment to a temporary grocery store. The rest of this post explains why the October decision doesn't change that and what would.
Align Real Estate first applied in December 2025 to demolish the Safeway at 11 and 15 Marina Blvd. and replace it with a two-tower mixed-use building. In the current version, a new grocery store would sit underneath 848 apartments, 86 of them affordable, in a building up to 22 stories tall. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it would be the tallest building on that stretch of the waterfront.
The project is moving under AB 2011, a 2022 state law. Under that law, qualifying housing on commercially zoned land skips Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors votes and a full California Environmental Quality Act review. The review has two 90-day stages, and the project is now partway through a longer sequence:
The October deadline is the second of those four steps. The Chronicle called the August eligibility finding "the first and more consequential" of the two Planning stages. It also said approval would not be "an automatic go-ahead for developer Align to put shovels in the ground." The store closes at step four. As of this writing, step two hasn't finished.
A lawsuit filed in September adds a second timeline. The YesAND Foundation, a new housing nonprofit, and four Marina residents sued in federal court in San Francisco. The complaint is stamped as filed September 11, 2026. NeighborsUnited SF, a coalition of neighborhood businesses and organizations, also joined.
The suit names Align, the city's Planning and Public Health departments, PG&E and Safeway's parent company, Albertsons. It argues the project shouldn't qualify for AB 2011, and that the developer was wrongly excused from hazardous-waste assessments on land where PG&E once ran a manufactured gas plant and a steam electric plant. KQED reported that the plaintiffs want a judge to reverse the city's streamlining decision. They also want Align to complete all health and safety requirements before the project moves forward.
A member of YesAND and NeighborsUnited SF explained the group's position to KQED:
"We were not asking for a veto. We were asking for proper review and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. When both are denied, the courts become the only option left."
When the suit was reported, the city attorney's office said it would respond in court once served, and PG&E said it had not yet reviewed the complaint. No ruling or hearing outcome had been reported by early October. So the October decision could come out while a federal case over the same eligibility question is still open. How that case moves is a separate factor in when, or whether, anyone breaks ground.
The dispute over eligibility began before the lawsuit. In June, Supervisor Stephen Sherrill and a group of residents asked the city to rule the site ineligible. Their argument was that AB 2011 requires at least 75% of a site's perimeter to border parcels developed with urban uses, and that Fort Mason and a city-owned parcel next to the Safeway are restricted to maritime and recreational use. The Marina Community Association and Neighborhoods United SF co-signed a letter. The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture sent a separate letter making the same argument about the adjoining parcels. More than 300 people came to a July town hall organized by the Marina Community Association.
Planning replied that it considers the site surrounded by urban uses. In a July 20 letter, the planning director wrote that the property is not on the state's list of hazardous waste sites.
Elected officials are split. Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Sherrill have both opposed the project. State Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who both worked on AB 2011, have supported it, as have other city supervisors. KQED noted that the city is working to meet state goals of building 82,000 housing units by 2031. A principal at Align told the Chronicle that "a majority of District 2 residents support this project because they understand that making housing more affordable starts with building more homes."
Under the usual San Francisco process, opposition from the mayor and the district supervisor could have pushed for changes at the Planning Commission, at the Board of Supervisors or through environmental review. The Chronicle noted that under AB 2011 those options are mostly closed. That's why the remaining open questions are now in permitting and in federal court.
No one has said how long the Marina would be without its supermarket. Align has confirmed the store would close during construction. In July, KQED reported that the developer had not released a construction timeline or a cost estimate. No reporting from mid-September to early October changed that.
The only mention of a temporary grocery store so far is a suggestion. In December 2025, Mission Local quoted Saikat Chakrabarti, then a candidate, saying he would like to see one during construction. That was not a commitment from the developer or Safeway, and nothing like it has been announced since.
That leaves several separate questions a resident might be tracking:
Until any of those dates exist, the Safeway stays open. These are the other grocery options closest to the Marina, as the available records describe them.
Marina Supermarket, 2323 Chestnut Street. Listed in San Francisco's Legacy Business Registry hearing materials from 2018, which describe it as a full-service neighborhood grocery serving local residents. Those materials are from 2018, so check current hours with the store.
Trader Joe's, 401 Bay Street. The company lists this as its North Beach location, east of Fort Mason.
Luke's Local Cow Hollow Market, 2190 Union Street. The company's location listing shows hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
All three stores are much smaller than a full-size waterfront supermarket with its own parking. If the Safeway does close, shoppers will go to some combination of these stores. When that happens depends on permits, the federal case and a construction schedule that hasn't been made public yet.
If you own a rental near Marina Boulevard and want to know how a long construction period could affect your next lease-up, Ray Amouzandeh can walk you through it using actual Marina leasing activity. Get a fast leasing plan by scheduling a free consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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