[timbad]

going forward!

Construction is set to start later this year on the long-delayed 5M development at Fifth and Mission streets, after a panel of judges rejected an appeal of the project neighbors filed more than 3½ years ago.

The First District Court of Appeal on Monday ruled that the development may proceed as planned, setting the stage for property owner Brookfield Properties to start work on a 652,000-square-foot office tower at Fifth and Howard streets, as well as a 288-unit apartment building on Mission Street.

The project will also eventually include a 400-unit condominium building on Fifth Street, to be built by Hearst Corp., which previously owned the entire site but in 2017 sold part of it to Forest City, which was taken over by Brookfield Properties last summer.

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In total the project will include 702 units: 400 market-rate condos, 211 market-rate rental apartments and 91 units targeting middle-income households earning between 100 percent and 150 percent of area median income, currently between $118,000 and $177,000 a year for a family of four.

In addition the developer agreed to pay $18 million to the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. for a 71-unit affordable project at 168 Eddy St., a few blocks from Fifth and Mission, and also build an 83-unit, low-income senior housing project on an 8,800-square-foot empty lot at 967 Mission St., between Fifth and Sixth streets.

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The project opponents still have until early May to appeal the First District Court of Appeal decision to the state Supreme Court, but have no plans to do so, according to neighborhood activists involved in the appeal.

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In addition to the Chronicle building, two other historic structures will be renovated: the Cameline Building and the Dempster Printing Building, which will be dedicated as new office space for CAST, the Community Arts Stabilization Trust.

SoMa activists objected to the fact that some of the on-site affordable units will be aimed at middle income households earning 150 percent of area median income, far more than most South of Market or Tenderloin families earn.

In addition they opposed the project because, they argued, the environment study for the project didn’t adequately study its shadow impact on Boedekker Park, the only public park in the Tenderloin. Critics also argued that the project would speed up gentrification of a part of San Francisco that is home to both high-flying tech companies as well as residential hotels housing some of the city’s poorest residents.