A group of Black leaders rallied Monday to demand that San Francisco give the Fillmore Heritage Center, a mostly vacant city-owned building, to a soon-to-be-formed non-profit representing Black business, cultural, religious and community groups.
At a rally in front of the center, actor Danny Glover and NAACP San Francisco chapter President Rev. Amos Brown, as well as other Black leaders, said the 50,000-square-foot complex, which has languished since it shuttered in 2019, should be donated to a nonprofit as reparations for the city destroying the once vibrant Black Fillmore neighborhood during urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s.
“I was born here and came here with my dad when there was magic on this street,” said Glover while standing in front of the building at 1330 Fillmore St. “They have not delivered on their promise. That’s what we have to fight for.”
The group pushing for the transfer of the building — but not the adjacent structure that holds residences — includes members of the city’s recently formed San Francisco Reparations Advisory Committee. The committee is charged by the Board of Supervisors with exploring what reparations for Black residents might look like.
For years and through any number of revitalization dreams and promises, the complex, which covers much of a city block, has been an under-performing asset. Among the ventures that have tried and failed were Yoshi’s jazz club and several restaurants in the marquee storefront at the corner of Fillmore and Eddy streets.
But whether the plan is viable isn’t yet clear. Mayor London Breed was noncommittal Monday about whether she supported the proposal and said transferring the building may not be legal under state law.
“I’m not sure if the ability to provide it to the community is even an option without financial support being attached to it in some capacity,” Breed said.
As a supervisor, Breed negotiated the departure of one of the building’s tenants, the Church of John Coltrane, over unpaid rent so she’s familiar with the financial challenges.
“I would like to see the venue open. I would like to see the venue become a huge success,” she said. “I don’t want to see the venue continue to be a financial drain on the city. And so that’s one of the things that we need to work towards, but ultimately a lot of the guiding principles are how we make good decisions about them and have everything to do with state law.”
Despite the difficulties over the years, operators have continued to express interest in the center. But it hasn’t always been clear what the city was looking for in an operator. In 2017 the city rejected all the bidders who wanted to run the center, angering some in the community.
In 2018, the city filed suit to recover $5.5 million it loaned to developer Michael Johnson to finance a return of the concert venue under the name the Addition, and a corner restaurant called 1300 Fillmore. Both ventures failed. The city attorney’s office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the status of the lawsuit.
Then after a shooting outside the building in 2019, the space went dark despite several nonprofits continuing to express interest in activating it.
None of these challenges have shaken the resolve of people who either remember or have heard the stories of when the strip of lower Fillmore Street was the hub of a vibrant nightlife scene that earned it the nickname “the Harlem of the West.”
Then came redevelopment in which much of the Fillmore was destroyed and rebuilt in the name of urban renewal.
“Redevelopment was about Black removal and it is about to happen again,” said Brown. “We will have a revival of the Harlem of the West. That’s why we were here today.”
Organizers said they decided to hold the rally because they’d heard that the city’s Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII) which manages the building, plans to sell the center on the open market. OCII couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“If we are going to have reparations in San Francisco, there must be the deeding of this building to the African American Community,” said Brown. “We are here to let the world know that San Francisco has the moral obligation to include African Americans in the rainbow of this city.”
The heritage center, which is now sparsely occupied as office space, has become the focal point of the reparations movement.
At the rally, attendees did a call and response of “It starts with the building.” A Dixieland band played “When the Saints go Marching in,” and Supervisor Matt Haney promised that as chair of the budget committee, he’d make sure the building would “stay in the community.”
It’s unclear when the nonprofit entity the group would like to form would be created or what it would be named.
Haney suggested that it is the city’s obligation to pay off whatever debt is owned and settle the lawsuit and any other encumbrances on the property.
“No one said it is going to be easy,” he said after his turn at the podium. “It’s complicated but it’s the right thing to do.”
Chronicle reporter Trisha Thadani contributed to this report.
Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com.Twitter:@samwhitingsf
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