What happens to a building like this? What is its disposition? I have some dubious credentials and a burning (haha) interest in this story. The first order of business is to see if there’s anything the SFPD still has to share. I contacted their public information office, Mindy Talmadge.

She replied:

The only additional information that I have is that the estimated property damage is $200,000. In this case, I’m not sure who is in charge of it. I do know that the Fire Department is responsible for all Fire Department properties, occupied or unoccupied.

The cause is listed as Under Investigation.

$200k? That’s a lot of flaming pigeon feces!

This is probably the newsiest thing I have ever done, so of course I had to dig deeper.

I emailed Captain Chignell of the SFPD:

Hello, do you know which city department is normally in charge of the
old station?

If it is the police department, can you give any indication as to what
the city plans to do with it, if anything?

Captain Chignell erroneously answered:

The Board of Supervisors has declared the property surplus and available to be sold.

The property hasn’t made it to that stage yet. I’ll let my next email explain:

I see that the SFPD has been discussing making the property at 2300 Third (the old police station) surplus, and that a letter was submitted to the Board of Supervisors, but I can’t find anything about this being passed as a resolution. If it was passed, or will be passed, what is the process for making it available for purchase? How does the old police station stand relative to surplus property ordinances that relate to affordable housing? Until it is sold, is it exempt from blighted property rules? If not, is the police department responsible for its upkeep, the DPW (since they store some stuff there), or the City in general?

Thank you for any help that you can provide!

Here are all the official mentions that I could find:

• http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=3969
• http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=3927
• http://bit.ly/KG0l2H

Marta A. Bayol, District General Manager, Real Estate Division, City & County of San Francisco replied:

2300-3rd Street has been declared surplus by the San Francisco Police Commission and the next step is to prepare legislation for the Board of Supervisors to transfer jurisdiction from the Police Department to the Real Estate Division and to obtain approval to submit a Request for Proposal to either lease or sell the property. We expect to have the resolution ready to submit to the Board by Fall 2012. We are obtaining the necessary approvals from City Planning, etc. first. In the meantime, the property is still under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Police Department.

So, there you have it. Watch for more details this fall — or as I find them.