A squatter-occupied 1908 three-unit building in Eureka Valley — no plumbing, no electricity, plywood for doors — is under negotiation at its full $1.3 million ask. The price isn't for the building. It's for the approved entitlements nobody could afford to build.

The five years of squatter occupation at 121 Yukon St. in Eureka Valley — the foil strips for drug pipes, the plywood doors, the poop basket still sitting on the top-floor deck — didn't kill the listing price. The three-unit 1908 building, which has had no working plumbing or electricity, is currently under negotiation at its full $1.3 million ask, with a developer on the other side of the table, the SF Standard reported Sunday.

The listing itself explains how this is possible. Buried in the squalor is a set of approved entitlements to demolish the structure and build three new 1,200-square-foot apartments on a lot next to Kite Hill with panoramic views. Those entitlements — and the location — are what's being priced, not the burnt-orange carpet or the complaints that have piled up with the city over the years.

But the entitlements also explain why the property sat. The project ran into a collision of state housing law and city planning constraints that architect Jim Zack, who designed the replacement building, described to the Standard as economically unworkable for any developer. A former tenant — who died years ago — had a rent-controlled unit, meaning any new construction must include a rent-controlled replacement, a state law that applies even to vacant, blighted properties. Combined with rear-yard variance requirements for a narrow, single-family-zoned lot and restrictions on condo conversion, the project economics eventually stalled. The previous owners halted the building permit process and opted to sell instead.

The property last changed hands in 2021 for $1.15 million — $150,000 below the current ask — already in deteriorated condition, before squatters took up long-term residence. Listing agents Zara and James Rowbotham, co-listing with Vanguard's Mandy Lee, priced the $150,000 premium to the approved entitlements. "If this were a single-family," Zara Rowbotham told the Standard, "it would have gone in a minute" — potentially reaching something near $2 million.

SF Planning Chief of Staff Dan Sider, speaking to the Standard, acknowledged that state law governing the loss of affordable units is "perhaps by necessity, somewhat blunt." The approved project, he noted, could still move forward under new ownership.

In Castro/Upper Market — the DataSF neighborhood that includes Yukon Street — 804 311 service requests came in during the last week alone, and seven eviction notices were filed in the last 90 days. The neighbor who has lived next door for 15 years told the Standard simply that it needs to change.

What a developer does with the approved plans, and the legal restrictions threaded through them, is now the question on the block. The poop basket is still on the deck.