Latest / Best of: Features / A San Francisco mansion, owned by a foreign government, has been empty for 37 years

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A San Francisco mansion, owned by a foreign government, has been empty for 37 years · Best of: Features

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  A San Francisco mansion owned by a foreign government has been empty
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  for thirty seven years. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice, generated by Everlet. There aren't many good
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  reasons to leave a seven bedroom San Francisco house empty. In twenty
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  twenty six the idea seems almost perverse. The city's median rent has
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  risen twenty five percent in the last year, and Mayor Daniel Lurie
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  has declared what he calls a rent emergency. And yet on one
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  of the grandest blocks in the city, up on Presidio Heights, a
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  house big enough for a large family and its help has seemingly
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  sat empty since the year the Simpsons first aired. The home at
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  thirty two hundred forty seven Jackson Street was.
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  Built in nineteen ten. It rises four levels above the sidewalk, with
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  seven bedrooms, four bathrooms and about for thousand two hundred and fifty
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  square feet of space. Its broad gable, bay windows, fluted columns, brick
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  staircases and deep covered entry give it the stately proportions of an
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  old diplomatic residence which it once was. The property is worth around
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  six point four million dollars, according to Redfin, another century old mansion
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  on the next block sold for nine point six million dollars earlier
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  this year. Notable neighbors in Presidio Heights, where tall homes look over
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  the park's eucalyptus canopy toward the Pacific and Golden Gate, include Steve
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  Kerr and A's owner John Fisher. In nineteen eighty one The Federal
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  Republic of Nigeria acquired the seven bedroom house at thirty two forty
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  seven Jackson Street for fifty five thousand dollars. That's thirteen dollars per
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  square foot. For eight years it was used as a consular residence.
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  By nineteen eighty nine, Nigeria was in economic crisis, and the country
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  owed foreign creditors approximately thirty three billion dollars. The government decided to
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  shutter its San Francisco diplomatic mission, but for some reason didn't sell
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  its San Francisco house. The home soon fell into disrepair and into
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  the hands of squatters. City records show numerous building complaints over the
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  years. The first cluster concerned water emerging from the sidewalk, a sump
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  pump flooding the neighbouring property, garage accumulating outside, and an allegation that
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  individual rooms in the single family home were being rented. One complaint
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  to the city in nineteen ninety eight read Garbage thrown outside all
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  over the place. Neighbours are fed up. By two thousand six the
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  reported problems had become more serious. An inspector sighted a decayed rear
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  porch and stairs, deteriorated structural elements, evidence of roof leaks, a missing
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  second floor bathroom ceiling that exposed lath and plaster, a broken window
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  on the west side of the building, and structural problems involving the
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  garage roof. In twenty eleven, neighbor Serena Ventura told the San Francisco
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  examiner that she had spent years trying to persuade someone, Nigeria, the
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  city of San Francisco, and, eventually, the US State Department, to maintain
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  and secure The building. She described squatters moving in from time to
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  time. After the story drew attention, a private security guard appeared outside.
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  The police had noticed, too. A 2012 Richmond Station SFPD blotter described
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  the former consulate as abandoned since 1989 and said it had generated
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  numerous calls for service. In August 2011, police found a lone squatter
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  inside who boldly resisted our officers. That summer, the city assessed 1,192.40
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  against the Republic of Nigeria for delinquent code enforcement costs. In july
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  twenty twenty one, thirty Two
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  years after abandoning the property, the Nigeria government came up with a
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  plan. The country's secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said reopening
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  The San Francisco Consulate was at an advanced stage, and predicted it
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  would be running before the end of that year. Nigerian government officials
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  had visited San Francisco the previous month. The reopening was pitched as
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  relief for Nigerians across the west coast, who otherwise had to travel
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  to Washington, New York, or Atlanta for in person consular services. It
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  did not happen. In April twenty twenty two the US State Department
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  said it had received no formal request to reestablish the consulate. Two
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  years later, President Bola Tenubu approved converting 3,247 Jackson
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  into something called the Nigeria Startup House, a digital technology exchange hub
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  intended to connect Nigerian companies with Bay Area investment and expertise. The
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  Nigerian government said it would retain ownership while an unnamed consortium of
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  Nigerian technology companies financed and managed the operation. More than two years
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  later, S F Gate could find no public announcement that the hub
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  had opened at three thousand two hundred and forty seven Jackson. S
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  F Gate attempted to get some answers from the Nigerian Embassy and
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  the President's office, but got no response. The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission,
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  a Nigerian federal agency under the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said
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  that they weren't in a position to comment on The House. We
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  also reached out to someone whose name has been connected with the
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  property. He told us he had no idea what we were talking
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  about, and to go away. When SF Gate visited the house last
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  week, it remained impressive From across the street. Walk closer, though, and
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  the small signs of abandonment began to pile up. Dirty curtains or
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  sheets covered clearly every window. The white trim was streaked grey and
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  green. Paint peeled from a side door. Moss darkened the brick steps,
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  tall grass and weeds crowded the lower windows, and an old security
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  company sign was almost swallowed by plants. The garage door was grimy
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  and buckled at one bottom corner. A faded notice sat behind a
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  dirty ground floor window. This building is occupied, it declared. The sign
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  identified the owner as the Federal Republic of Nigeria and warned visitors
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  not to trespass. San Francisco Planning told SF Gate that the building
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  was registered as a vacant building in twenty twelve, but couldn't confirm
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  whether it still has that designation today. From the sidewalk, there is
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  no obvious sign that anyone lives inside, and nobody answered the door.
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  The broken garage door had clearly not been raised for months. After
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  nearly four decades of complaints, squatters, diplomatic assurances, and unrealized plans, the
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  grand house on Jackson Street remains in a peculiar limbo, officially occupied,
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  according to the sign, but otherwise eerily empty.