San Francisco supervisor Connie Chan fondly recalls her first visits to the legendary Cliff House as a 13-year-old immigrant to the city. The only cousin in her family who had a car drove her from Chinatown to the coast. Later, as an adult and a resident of Outer Richmond, Chan would take her late mother and young son to the sun-drenched seaside dining room for weekend brunch or visit them for a celebratory glass of bubbly during the holidays.
Now, like so many others in San Francisco, she is excited to see what will find space on the valuable lot, which has been vacant since 2020. And even though the building is in her neighborhood, Chan remains in the dark about his future.
The National Park Service, which operates the building in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, announced in February that a new restaurant had been chosen for the space — but would not say who, citing ongoing lease negotiations. The National Park Service again declined to disclose the mystery tenant last week.
Ever since the grounds’ beloved 157-year-old restaurant closed after lease talks collapsed between the National Park Service and the former longtime owners (who also trademarked the Cliff House name), there has been fervent interest in the Cliff House’s fate them). Since then there have been two tenders to find a new tenant, multiple delays and endless rumors about the future of the building. Reddit threads devoted to the subject abound with speculation and hopes for his next life (one poster suggested a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combo).
“Many generations of San Franciscans are connected with a lot of feeling and nostalgia. Everyone’s excited,” said Chan, who frequently answers questions about the Cliff House. “They’re really big footsteps for anyone to fill.”
The current incarnation of the Cliff House as seen in 2009, 100 years after it was last rebuilt in 1909.
Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle 2009
On April 14, 2022, nine organizations — including a longtime Bay Area bakery chain, a giant international real estate company, and a company affiliated with the President of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce — toured the building as part of the public procurement tender (RFP) process, according to National Park Service documents obtained by The Chronicle through a public records request.
The Chronicle successfully contacted eight of the participants and confirmed that none of them are opening a restaurant in the former Cliff House.
The ninth, Terminal Plaza Associates, a company registered with the city as a real estate, rental and leasing services company, and its owner, San Francisco Attorney Alexander Leff, did not respond to requests for comment, including emails, phone messages and a letter dropped off at his law firm’s office. Leff appears to have been involved in two similar previous projects: a 2007 bid to open a coffee shop in Coit Tower and a proposed revitalization of dining facilities on Malibu Pier. Terminal Plaza Associates also participated in a site visit for Cliff House’s first tender in 2019, according to National Park Service documents.
Some of the other eight tour participants said they had submitted unsuccessful bids for the aging, 27,000-square-foot site. Many have said that whoever does the lease must be someone willing and able to take on a large, likely multimillion-dollar project enmeshed in federal bureaucracy.
“It’s going to be someone with a lot of resources,” wrote Michael Mindel, who owns Poggio Trattoria in Sausalito and toured the property, in an email to The Chronicle. “This operation is like the Titanic in scope: so many moving parts, mandated requirements for operation, and delayed maintenance.”
Diners eat at the Cliff House in 2019. A new, unannounced restaurant will take its place.
Paul Kuroda/The Chronicle 2019 Special
Brian McGonigle of SF Wine Center, a wine bar, wine storage and wine school near the Embarcadero, was with several investor partners and a general contractor at the property inspection in April. He envisioned converting the building, perched on high, sheer cliffs, into a wine bar, accompanied by a separate, private dining and wine club in a banquet room with a private oceanfront terrace.
But the cost of updating and then maintaining the long-standing space felt prohibitive, even “scary,” he said. A 2018 property appraisal prepared for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy found that the Cliff House was in “fair condition” at the time, but required more than $3.5 million in repairs, from old plumbing fixtures and “extensive” rusting to ditch drains that were “partially” filled with sand and have grass growing out of them.” The building’s prime oceanfront location cuts both ways and offers dramatic views, but is exposed to the elements. Most damage, the report says, is “the result of delayed recurring maintenance or delayed component replacement.” A second report in 2021 found many conditions continued to deteriorate while the building sat vacant.
Eventually, McGonigle didn’t submit a bid because of the condition of the building. Had he bid, he would have demanded big concessions, rent-free for about five years. He theorized that maintenance issues have complicated lease negotiations and may be why they’re taking so long.
“It was hard to gauge because you couldn’t tell exactly when things would wear out or fail,” McGonigle said. “But the takeaway was that it could be great (or) it could be a nightmare.”
Boudin Bakery, another San Francisco institution present at the property tour, also declined an offer, confirmed CEO Daniel Giraudo.
International real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has submitted a bid on behalf of a client, Vice Chairman Kazuko Morgan confirmed. You didn’t get it.
“It’s unique, but it took a lot of work,” Morgan said.
Hundreds of people watched as the Cliff House sign was removed in December 2020 after the popular seaside restaurant closed.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle 2020
The lease covers both the Cliff House building and the coffee shop at the nearby Lands End Visitor Center at 680 Point Lobos Ave. The new tenant must offer fine dining and casual dining, a gift shop and valet parking, according to the draft lease. In the years leading up to the pandemic, all of the companies had annual sales of $15 million and employed nearly 200 full- and part-time workers, according to the National Park Service.
Meanwhile, the fate of Louis’ Restaurant, the nearby 83-year-old diner with a similarly spectacular view that closed in 2020 and is also operated by the National Park Service, remains uncertain. The federal agency said it plans to issue a solicitation for proposals to find a new tenant for the 902 Point Lobos Ave. to be found, although it is unclear when.
There are high hopes in San Francisco that the National Park Service will select a local facility to breathe new life into the Cliff House site, first built in 1863 and woven into the fabric of the city. It’s a major economic driver for the Outer Richmond neighborhood, Chan said, which has also lost nearby dining spots like Louis’ and the restaurant at the Seal Rock Inn during the pandemic. She asked the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to publicize the RFP in hopes of attracting a local business.
But it’s not clear that will be the case.
A persistent rumor was that one of the big companies already providing food in national parks would be a likely candidate. And ExplorUS, a hospitality management company that oversees food programs at parks across the country, participated in the property inspection last April. But the company hasn’t made a bid for the Cliff House, said Amy Trimble, ExplorUS vice president of marketing.
During the first bidding in 2019, other small, independent businesses toured the Cliff House site, including Outer Sunset Café Andytown Coffee Roasters and Half Moon Bay Restaurant La Costanera. At the time, an interested tenant asked the national park administration whether the federal authority had a “commitment” to award the lease to a local company.
“The basis of the respondent’s location is not a factor that the service takes into account,” the agency said.
Regardless, Supervisor Chan said she was very calm about the next chapter of Cliff House.
“Let’s give them a chance,” Chan said of the new tenant. “No matter who it is, I tell myself this: keep my judgement. Keep an open mind and welcoming because I want them to be successful.”
Reach Elena Kadvany: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
