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A new Filipino grocery store could take over a vacant retail space in the Outer Mission, the San Francisco Business Times reports. Filipino specialty grocery chain Island Pacific Market submitted planning applications and a formula retail use request to the city on Monday, which revealed the company’s intention to open a store at 2900 Alemany Boulevard. The space was previously home to Chinese grocer Pacific Market, which closed earlier this year. The neighborhood is also home to the city’s sole location of the uber-popular Korean grocery store H-Mart, which opened its doors in 2021 just a mile away from the would-be Island Pacific Market location.
Similar to H-Mart, which features a destination food court with outposts of restaurants such as Daeho Kalbijjim and Paik’s Noodle, the plans for Island Pacific Market include an on-site restaurant. Per the Business Times, the store would offer “a San Honore Bakery, Chirp Bakery, and Boba Opa Tea window,” as well as a kitchen for producing the grocery store’s own line of “Philhouse authentic home-cooked Filipino meals.” Proposed hours would be 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.
Currently, Island Pacific Market has four locations across the Bay Area in Union City, Hayward, Vallejo, and Pittsburg. It’s unclear how quickly the new store could open, but the company has “committed to a long-term lease,” per the Business Times. Construction on the 33,910-square-foot space should be minimal since it previously housed a grocery store, but the company will have to navigate the city’s regulations intended to prevent formula retail — read: chains — from taking over San Francisco.
