West Portal's Halloween Stroll Passes a Block Still Waiting on Its Future
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
So far in 2026, every change on West Portal Avenue has fit inside a building that was already there. A Thai brunch spot moved into a 32-year-old diner corner. A café and florist opened a few doors up. Muni painted the station horseshoe red. The one proposal that would change the avenue's height, a 12-story apartment building on the old Empire Theater site, has grown on paper but hasn't broken ground. No start date has been announced.
So when the West Portal Halloween Stroll fills the avenue on Saturday, October 31, from 4 to 7 p.m., trick-or-treaters will walk a street that looks much as it did a year ago. Most of the storefronts are the same, and so are the low rooflines.
The most visible change of the year happened at 1 West Portal Avenue. Squat & Gobble set January 25, 2026, as its last day after 32 years on the corner, as the Ingleside Light reported. Tur opened in the same space on May 13. Co-owner Arkaranit Dusitnitsakul told The San Francisco Standard that landing the location was "luck."
A few doors up, Hardware Coffee Co. opened in May at 32 West Portal Avenue, pairing a café with a florist. Owner Sam Pederson told the San Francisco Chronicle, "We wanted to do something for our community and in our community."
Both arrivals took over existing storefronts on the same low-rise frontage. That's how the avenue has turned over for decades. One business leaves, another moves into the same shell, and the block's shape stays put.
The other finished change sits at the foot of the avenue. SFMTA now calls its West Portal Station Safety and Community Space project complete. The work included the red transit lane, turn restrictions, speed calming, station murals, decorative crosswalks, planters and bikeshare.
The agency's July 2026 evaluation measured the results against conditions before the project. Mission Local reported that SFMTA found 60% fewer collisions in a half-square-mile study area and 75% fewer illegal U-turns at the station. SFMTA's own summary adds that serious-injury crashes fell and that sales-tax growth in the area outpaced the citywide trend.
The sales-tax figure suggests the merchants did fine through a period of construction and new curb rules, and the avenue is about to test that again. The current materials are designed to last three to five years, and SFMTA is seeking grant money to replace them with something permanent. So the painted plaza you'll walk past on Halloween is the interim version.
Across from BookShop West Portal, the Empire Theater has been dark for more than five years. It opened in 1925 as the Portal Theatre and was renamed the Empire in 1936. Cinemark closed it for good in February 2021, as SFGATE reported at the time.
The redevelopment covers the theater at 85 West Portal Avenue and the neighboring building that holds Supercuts and Goodwill. It has changed shape this year:
| Earlier 2026 plan | Plan announced late August 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Apartments | 64 | 172 |
| Height | 9 stories | 12 stories |
| Ground-floor retail | Not a headline figure | 7,000 square feet |
| State and local rules cited | AB 2011, SB 330 | Family Zoning plan, AB 1287, SB 423 |
In January, the Chronicle reported that the nine-story version relied on SB 330, which doubles the allowable density on the site, and AB 2011, which requires a streamlined 90-day approval.
SFYIMBY reported the expanded version on September 1, with DM Development acting for Empire West Portal LLC. The outlet listed the city's Family Zoning plan, AB 1287 and SB 423 as the rules behind it.
The paperwork was still in motion at the end of summer. The Chronicle reported on August 31 that the development team said it had submitted the revised plan. The Planning Department's chief of staff told the paper he hadn't seen it, and that only the January application had come in. The same story said Goodwill had already announced it would close, but gave no date for Goodwill or Supercuts. No approval, demolition date or construction start for the 172-unit version has been reported.
Earlier timelines floated for the smaller plan, including a 2027 groundbreaking, belong to a design that has since been replaced. None of them should be read as the schedule for this one.
If construction comes, the people closest to it will be the business owners already on the avenue. The Standard's September 5 story talked to several of them, and they didn't all see it the same way.
Anna Bullard has run BookShop West Portal across from the theater for about 20 years and sits on the West Portal Merchants Association board. She told the Standard that the main feeling among merchants is anxiety, even with the prospect of hundreds of new customers.
"We put our heart and souls into our stores." Anna Bullard, BookShop West Portal, to The San Francisco Standard
Esperanza Mahan has owned El Toreador since 1980, and the space has been a Mexican restaurant since 1957. She and Maureen Stoss, who manages the grocery Eezy Freezy, both told the Standard they're worried about what two years of construction would mean for independent businesses.
Others expect it to pay off in the end. Giuseppe Vivacqua, who has owned Spiazzo Ristorante for 30 years, said, "The construction will be a pain, but customers will come anyway. And then the new housing will bring many more people." Pedro Galletti's Mozzarella di Bufala sits between the theater and the Supercuts and Goodwill building. He chose not to sell, so the new building would rise around him. He told the Standard he sees "a great opportunity to get more people and customers into the neighborhood."
Galletti floated the idea of construction relief grants for small businesses. Supervisor Myrna Melgar told the Standard that businesses could apply for city funds once construction-related losses happen. The paper noted that DM Development had not opened a grant fund.
These are the businesses that make up the avenue today. Nothing has displaced them yet, and the questions they raised in September are still open.
Here are the details for Halloween, from the West Portal Merchants Association:
The costume contest is at the bookstore that faces the Empire, so the crowd will gather right across from the dark marquee.
The rest of the fall calendar runs through the same small venues:
None of these dates depends on the Empire plan.
If you own a home in Forest Hill or near West Portal and want to understand how a project like the Empire plan could fit into your own timing, James Kil can walk you through what has actually been filed and what that could mean for your property. Schedule a free consultation.
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