A proposed low income 15 story housing project in San Francisco Chinatown is moving forward, reports the San Francisco Examiner.

The San Francisco Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the city adopt an ordinance to allow the project to proceed.

It would be located at the former New Asia restaurant which closed during the pandemic.

The plan calls for at least one resident in each unit to be at least 62-years-old and every unit must be affordable.

The site is currently a supermarket that replaced one of the last remaining banquet halls in the neighborhood.

The non-profit Chinatown Community Development Corporation earlier this year stepped in to build the project, SFist reported.

Before she died in 2016, Chinatown power broker Rose Pak pushed hard to get the city to buy the building and to allow a developer to build low-income housing on top. The city bought the building seven months after her death for $5 million, but her goal for housing fizzled during the pandemic.

The unanimous recommendation by the Planning Commission provides new momentum for the plan that would build 175 housing units and resurrect a restaurant with a banquet hall on the first floor.

“As a Chinese immigrant, this project warms my heart … it is paramount. We should’ve had this long before today,” Planning Commission President Lydia So, said at a hearing on Thursday.

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