JS Sullivan's 1515 15th project is teed up to become Mission's future hot spot. And we've got a first look (it's so new even the hipsters aren't aware). Urban Group prez Louis Cornejo has been working on the 7,400 retail SF assignment for a lengthy four years. (Good things—or in this case filling four retail units—take time.) He's studied the market's evolution and watched artisanal food users shift to that side of the Mission (Southern Pacific Brewing, Sightglass, Central Kitchen). Now that the time's right along South Van Ness, he hopes to see a sit-down restaurant take the bigger 2,800 SF space (that one behind him), and he's in talks with a well-known artisanal food truck for one of the other units.

It's extremely rare to have private outdoor patio space in S.F., and this site's got 1,800 SF of it (some is pictured above, left). Ideally, small biz tenants will have a local following already; a funky spin on an ice cream parlor (rice pudding perhaps?) and coffee shop would work well, he says. Louis officially goes out to market the end of this week. Why the wait? Renderings only do so much justice. (Those 16-foot ceilings and soaring windows really pop in person.)

JS Sullivan, who's delivering 40 condos upstairs simultaneously, is one of the few developers that really puts a lot of thought into the retail component to activate the street, says Louis. Last week at our Silicon Valley event, SRS Real Estate Partners SVP Randol Mackley echoed that pressure on developers, saying the experience of a mixed-use building is really on the ground floor. (If retail doesn't take off quickly, it can detract from the rest of the project, says Louis.) Vents are already installed in some spaces for cooking. He expects the first opening in four to six months. Architect Stanley Saitowitz loves illumination, and the patios create nice lighting for the residential piece.