The Haight Street Gus’s Community Market store is already about 7,000 square feet, but it just won City Hall approval to grow to almost 11,000 square feet, by expanding into the long-vacant space next door that used to be the Haight Ashbury Music Center.
Gus’s Community Market founder Konstantinos “Gus” Vardakastanis was tragically killed in a hit-and-run in 2017. But his family-owned grocery shop on Haight near Ashbury Street, established way back in 1981, has only grown since his passing. They opened a Mission Bay location in 2018, added an Outer Sunset location in 2019, and purchased Glen Park’s Canyon Market in 2022.
Now Gus’s Community Market is getting bigger again — but it’s the original Gus’s Community Market at 1530 Haight Street that’s getting bigger. On Thursday, the San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved Gus’s Community Market’s request to expand into the vacant spot next door that used to be home to the Haight Ashbury Music Center, which closed in 2020. That space has been vacant since.
From the outside, the space in question already looks like it’s part of Gus’s Community Market. It’s painted “Gus green,” and has dining tables for Gus’s customers in front of it. But as evidenced by the table smack dab in front of the doorway, that doorway is not currently in use, and the space behind it is currently vacant.
That vacant space amounts to about 2,500 square feet. Once the currently 6,858-square-foot Gus’s Market completes the expansion, it will be an overall 10,548 square feet.
What will Gus’s Community Market do with the extra space? This is not yet clear. But their Planning Department application says the larger market will offer “an expanded inventory of fresh, prepared, and pantry groceries, as well as a larger in-store coffee bar.”
And Gus’s rising tide is expected to lift a few other ships, too. The market currently employs more than 50 people, but according to that Planning Department application, the expansion will “allow for the addition of 15-20 new jobs for San Francisco residents.”
Image: Lynn F. via Yelp
