John and Raelynn Hickey File Plans for Foreclosed SF Site

Developers John and Raelynn Hickey took steps to move forward with their controversial Outer Sunset behemoth despite losing the development site to foreclosure recently.

The couple submitted a new application to build a 50-story apartment tower in the heart of the neighborhood, the San Francisco Standard reported. The plans call for 100 percent affordable apartments with 682 units.

Their ambition doesn’t line up with reality, however. Last month, the Hickeys’ lender, Loan Oak Fund, seized control of the lots at 2700 and 2750 Sloat Boulevard through a judicial foreclosure. The Hickeys no longer have any connection to the site, a spokesperson for the lender said.

The Hickeys bought the property in 2020 for $8.5 million and framed their plan as a density-boosting, state-law-enabled workaround to Outer Sunset’s height limits. City planners rejected previous applications, including a smaller two-building concept.

Behind the scenes, the couple was trying to fend off lenders, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year in an attempt to stall foreclosure. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge tossed the case two weeks before the auction, siding with Lone Oak’s claim that the bankruptcy was a delay tactic rather than an effort to restructure. When the lots came up for public auction last month, the Hickeys had racked up more than $12 million in unpaid debt; Lone Oak seized control by submitting a credit bid of $11.1 million.

John Hickey has a criminal history in California real estate.

The developer proposed building one of the biggest residential towers in the state in San Francisco’s India Basin in 2004. The plans collapsed when he was prosecuted and sentenced to eight years in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme regarding land development in Napa and Sonoma Counties.

Hickey and an associate were found to have scammed more than 700 investors out of $20 million by falsifying property records, using the money to pay off early investors and personal purchases rather than to acquire real estate for redevelopment. The accusations were reminiscent of that of embattled Sonoma developer Ken Mattson, who is facing prison time for similar allegations.

Hickey had paid just $5,150 of the more than $17 million he owed in restitution by 2016, three years after his release from prison.

Raelynn Hickey intended to sell 2700 Sloat Boulevard this year to a joint venture of developers that reportedly were prepared to move forward if the redevelopment was entitled, she told the San Francisco Business Times earlier this year.

A Planning Department spokesperson said the Hickeys’ newest proposal is active but not complete or code-compliant. Architecture firm SCB, which submitted the application on behalf of the couple, said it is “not currently actively working on progressing the design documents.”

— Chris Malone Méndez