SF Market, the Bayview’s Overnight Produce Market, Gets City Approval for a New Distribution Center

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, approved changes to the city’s lease with SF Market, the nonprofit wholesale produce market in the Bayview, clearing the way for a 64,000-square-foot distribution center at 1900 Kirkwood Ave., The San Francisco Standard reported. The market plans to break ground in the first half of 2027, pending final financing, with construction expected to take about 15 months.

What the Supervisors Approved

The measure is a resolution (Board file 260881) authorizing the city’s Director of Property to amend and restate the market’s lease. According to the legislative record, the change lets the market sign additional parcel leases that can secure private construction loans, and it includes the environmental (CEQA) and planning findings the project needs. The item was introduced on July 28, 2026, continued by the Budget and Finance Committee on September 23, and recommended by that committee 2-0 on October 21. Supervisors Stephen Sherrill, Danny Sauter, Bilal Mahmood, Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman, Jackie Fielder and Shamann Walton are listed as sponsors.

The Standard reports that the lease amendments also allow the market to demolish an outdated, mostly vacant building on the campus to make room for the new one. Bi-Rite co-CEO Patrick Mills spoke in support of the plan at the committee hearing.

The New Building

• Address: 1900 Kirkwood Ave., on the market’s Bayview campus.
• Size: 64,000 square feet of distribution space.
• Cost: Tens of millions of dollars, paid for with market profits, government money including a $5 million state grant, and low-interest loans (SF Standard).
• Builder: Plant Construction, a local firm.
• Timeline: Groundbreaking in the first half of 2027 if financing closes, then about 15 months of construction.

The project has been in the works for several years. A project profile application for a single-story warehouse at the address, designed by Jackson Liles Architecture, was filed in early 2023, SF YIMBY reported at the time. The Standard reports it would be the market’s first new building in more than a decade.

What SF Market Is

SF Market is the city’s wholesale produce market. Nearly two dozen independent merchants sell fruit and vegetables in bulk to restaurants, grocers, caterers, hotels and corner stores, and the market says they support more than 500 jobs on site. It has operated as a nonprofit since 2013 and runs a 23-acre campus with more than 485,000 square feet of warehouse and logistics space in Bayview Hunters Point, according to the market’s website.

The market has been on city-owned land in the Bayview for 63 years and traces its roots to the 1870s. The city leases the land to the nonprofit at no charge on the condition that it reinvests its proceeds in its operations, per the Standard. Trucks start arriving around 11pm, trading is busiest around 3am, and the market winds down by 10am, six days a week. Its merchants buy from more than 350 regional farmers. One tenant, Stanley Produce, was founded in 1941.

The market’s food recovery program collects about 4,000 pounds of surplus produce a day from merchants and passes it to community partners, and the market says the program has redirected more than 10 million pounds of produce to Bay Area residents facing food insecurity.

“The market is part of the resilient fabric of San Francisco,” executive director Michael Janis told the Standard. Janis said he is also talking with real estate firms and philanthropists about other uses for the campus, including kitchens for caterers and daytime activity, and that he hopes the market can eventually run around the clock.

Can the Public Shop There?

No. SF Market sells wholesale only and is closed to the public. Businesses can find suppliers through the market’s merchant directory. Shoppers can find produce at the city’s farmers markets and grocery stores, including T&T Supermarket, which opens its first San Francisco store on Geary Boulevard on November 5. For more ideas around the city this month, see our guide to things to do in San Francisco in November.

Photo: SF Market. The market’s Bayview campus before sunrise.