Luckily, this seems to be an issue we’ve won after 18 months of fight. The City planning commission and supervisors eventually gave the go-ahead to Another Planet Entertainment to renovate and revive the Castro Theater and give the theater and the neighborhood the vibrancy it deserves.

Here is the text of SFSVA founder/president Sam Pederson’s statement to the planning commission in June of 2023:

I’m Sam Pederson and I live near the Castro neighborhood in Twin Peaks. I’ve lived in San Francisco for almost 25 years. I would first like to state that I am firmly in support of Another Planet’s plan to renovate and revitalize the Castro Theater. The city and the neighborhood need it. Another Planet is a proven, quality operator that has successfully redone multiple high-profile venues that have been tasteful and fit into their environments, and also have spurred investment in their communities. APE is also a local, small business with a diverse set of 40 full time employees.

A refurbished Castro Theater serving up a variety of programming, with a big LGBTQ focus for the neighborhood, will be a Mecca for entertainment bringing thousands of visitors to the neighborhood on a weekly basis. In a neighborhood hovering around a 30% vacancy rate, with tremendous neighborhood support for the project, I believe this is a very obvious choice for the city. Let’s create something amazing for the next 100 years.

Thank you to Supervisors Rafael Mandelman, Ahsha Safai, Catherine Stefani, Joel Engardio, Matt Dorsey and Myrna Melgar for supporting this very important initiative and doing the right thing for San Francisco.