University of San Francisco plans campus expansion

The University of San Francisco may expand its campus in Anza Vista.

The private Jesuit university has filed plans to turn an 86,000-square-foot blood donation center at 250-270 Masonic Avenue into classrooms, labs, seminar rooms and offices, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The university paid $31 million for the property last September after a decade of discussion. The seller was Vitalant Blood Systems.

The school has proposed minor alterations to the building’s facade and signage and would reconfigure its parking lot for use by people and bicycles.

The proposed expansion is the second attempt at growing the school’s campus this year.

USF was poised to acquire the struggling San Francisco Art Institute and its 1.75-acre campus at 800 Chestnut Street on Russian Hill. But that deal fell through after USF determined the acquisition posed too much of a financial risk, according to the Business Times.

The school’s new 1.5-acre campus extension is across the street from its 55-acre main campus that spans the Inner Richmond and Western Addition. It will require a conditional use permit and signoff from the city’s Planning Commission.

The acquisition is the first major expansion of the university campus in more than a decade, USF President Paul Fitzgerald said last fall.

The Irwin Donation Center, the building’s current tenant, will remain in the building through March, according to the university.

— Dana Bartholomew

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