Old Mint

The Old Mint — the "Granite Lady" at 88 Fifth Street — passed from the federal government to the city and has been waiting for a settled use ever since. In 1998 the Mid-Market project area committee was writing to the mayor's office asking for help assembling a public-private partnership to restore it, recording that the building's unsightly condition was a deterrent to the area and projected a negative image. The transfer was negotiated at nominal cost, and the city's register of real property duly lists the Old Mint, 47,515 square feet on Block 3704, Lot 11, "quitclaimed from the Federal Gov to City". The city then went looking for an operator. A 2002 request for proposals invited qualified entities to lease, rehabilitate, develop and operate the building; an Old Mint Task Force reviewed the resulting development proposals in January 2003; and the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society brought forward a re-use proposal of its own. A 2005 environmental determination describes the intended project — rehabilitation plus seismic upgrade and an addition to the three-storey-plus-attic building of about 86,300 square feet. What has actually been permitted since is holding work: $729,000 to strip out non-historic tenant interiors, temporary shoring of two attic walls, a temporary fire alarm system, and the replacement of a single entrance door for accessibility, with the deteriorated historic doors kept on site "to guide future restoration".