From Laundromat to 75 Apartments: Construction Begins at 2918 Mission Street

At the corner of Mission Street and 25th Street, a long-delayed housing project is finally moving from approved plans to active construction.

A foundation is not dramatic from the sidewalk. It is concrete, rebar, excavation, inspection, and a steady stream of deliveries. But at 2918 Mission Street, the foundation marks a major change.

Construction is underway at the former historic laundromat site in San Francisco’s Mission District. Cresleigh Homes is developing an eight-story, 75-apartment mixed-use building with ground-floor retail. Crews are moving ahead with foundation work now. Vertical construction is expected to begin in early 2027, with interior work scheduled to start later that summer and a grand opening currently planned for early 2028.

The project’s basic story is simple. Entitlements were approved in 2018. The property changed hands in 2019. Years passed. Now the site is entering the part of the process where sequencing, inspections, logistics, and field coordination determine whether the approved plan becomes a finished building.

The 2918 Mission Street project is a useful reminder that construction delivery is rarely a straight line from approval to opening. The work has a long tail. The foundation is only the first visible proof that the project is moving again.

A decade-long delivery timeline

The approved project dates back to a lengthy planning and entitlement process. San Francisco planning records identify the site at 2918 to 2924 Mission Street and document an eight-story, 75-unit mixed-use project. The city’s building permit record describes a new residential building with retail and lists the permit as issued in November 2018. (San Francisco Planning Commission records, San Francisco housing project record)

Cresleigh Homes purchased the entitled property in April 2019 for a reported $13.5 million. That transaction moved the project from its earlier ownership into the hands of a local developer with the approved housing plan already in place. (Mission Local)

The laundromat was later demolished after disputes over historic status, preservation, housing production, and neighborhood change. San Francisco’s historic resource review concluded that the former structure lacked sufficient integrity to qualify for listing in the California Register. (San Francisco Planning Department historic resource record)

That history matters because the project has already absorbed the delays that often occur before a shovel reaches the ground. The current construction phase is not a fresh concept. It is the next stage of a plan that has been reviewed, challenged, revised, purchased, and carried forward over several years.

What is being built at 2918 Mission Street?

The completed building is expected to rise approximately 84 feet and contain roughly 67,100 square feet. About 59,000 square feet will be dedicated to housing, with approximately 7,000 square feet of ground-level retail.

The project will include 75 apartments. The second floor will provide an amenity deck and private terraces. The building will also bring new storefront space to a heavily traveled section of Mission Street, close to the 24th Street BART Station and the Cesar Chavez Street corridor. BART lists the station at 2800 Mission Street, placing the project within a short walk of one of the Mission’s major transit hubs. (BART 24th Street Mission Station)

The project is commonly identified in contractor materials as Mission 18. Those materials describe an eight-story mixed-use apartment building with two retail spaces and 75 dwelling units. They also identify a concrete and metal frame for the lower levels, with wood framing above. (West Builders project profile)

That structural transition is worth watching. A lower podium must handle retail uses, building services, circulation, and the loads transferred from the residential floors above. The handoff between concrete construction and upper-level framing requires tight coordination among the structural engineer, architect, contractor, inspectors, and trade partners.

On a busy Mission Street corner, the logistics are just as significant as the structure. Deliveries must be scheduled around traffic. Pedestrian protection must stay in place. Utility work, concrete placement, inspections, and neighborhood access all compete for limited space.

Designing an 84-foot building for a neighborhood street

The design by Multistudio, formerly Gould Evans, uses several tools to reduce the apparent scale of the building.

The facade is divided into distinct sections rather than presented as one uninterrupted wall. Different exterior materials add variation across the elevations. Bay windows face Mission Street. A seventh-floor setback pulls the upper portion of the building away from the street edge.

These decisions do not make the building small. They make its mass easier to read.

That distinction matters in urban infill. A project can meet its height and density targets while still responding to the pedestrian experience at the sidewalk. Facade articulation creates breaks in the building plane. A setback gives the upper levels a different relationship to the street. Bay windows add depth and help avoid a flat facade.

The northern elevation includes a placeholder mural area. The final artwork has not yet been revealed. That unresolved element could become one of the project’s most visible community-facing features, particularly because the wall will be seen from the surrounding streets and by people traveling through the nearby transit area.

Why the foundation phase deserves attention

Foundation work is where the approved design meets the actual site.

Before the building rises, crews must confirm dimensions, elevations, reinforcing steel, waterproofing, utility locations, and the relationship between the new structure and surrounding properties. Each of those items affects the work that follows.

A foundation error is expensive because it travels upward. If an embedded item is misplaced, a wall line is wrong, or waterproofing is incomplete, the correction can affect framing, mechanical systems, finishes, and inspections. That is why the foundation phase tends to involve frequent coordination meetings and detailed field verification.

The project’s current schedule calls for vertical construction to begin in early 2027. Once the structure starts rising, the site will shift from excavation and concrete operations to a more visible sequence of framing, enclosure, windows, building systems, and interior buildout.

Interior work is expected to begin in late summer 2027. That schedule will require the project team to manage several workstreams at once. Exterior walls may still be closing in while mechanical, electrical, plumbing, drywall, and fire protection crews begin work on lower floors.

That is ordinary construction sequencing. It is also where a project can lose time quickly if procurement, inspections, and trade coordination fall out of step.

The operating reality of a Mission Street corner

The finished building will add residents and retail to a corridor already shaped by transit, pedestrians, businesses, and constant vehicle movement.

For the construction team, the corner location means the public realm cannot be treated as an afterthought. Sidewalk access, truck staging, noise, dust, fencing, lighting, and communication with neighboring businesses all become part of the work plan.

For future operators, the same location presents a different set of questions. Retail turnover, residential move-ins, waste collection, deliveries, security, elevator service, and maintenance access must be coordinated from the start. The building may be complete, but its success will depend on how well the shared spaces operate every day.

This is where design-build and construction management principles matter. The construction documents need to account for long-term maintenance, not just the certificate of occupancy. Equipment access, replacement paths, water management, and durable finishes can make a major difference after the first residents move in.

What to watch between now and opening

The current timeline points to several clear milestones:

Foundation work continues through the current construction phase.
Vertical construction is expected to begin in early 2027.
Interior work is scheduled to begin in late summer 2027.
The grand opening is currently planned for early 2028.

Those dates remain targets, not guarantees. The next meaningful markers will be structural work above grade, building enclosure, installation of major mechanical and electrical systems, and the start of interior finishes.

The project has already taken the long route from entitlement to construction. Now the work shifts to execution. The foundation must support the design. The design must survive the field. And the schedule must account for the realities of building on one of San Francisco’s busiest neighborhood corridors.

2918 Mission Street is more than a replacement for a former laundromat. It is a case study in how urban housing projects move through years of approvals before reaching the jobsite. The foundation is the first major physical step, but the difficult work continues through structure, enclosure, interiors, inspections, and turnover.

For owners and developers, the lesson is direct. A successful project plan must carry through every phase, from entitlement and acquisition to construction sequencing and building operations.

Ready to move your project from concept to completion?

Contact Atlas Premier Services and Consultants today.

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Disclaimer: This content is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, engineering, construction, regulatory, or other professional advice. Reading this content does not create a client or contractual relationship with Atlas Premier Services & Consultants. Because every project and property is different, consult qualified professionals regarding your specific circumstances. Atlas Premier Services & Consultants makes no warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of this information and is not responsible for third-party content or references. Testimonials, examples, and case studies are illustrative only and do not guarantee similar results.

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