Yoga studio to building’s new owners: Let us namaSTAY

Recent news in the neighborhood has hot yoga fans sweating outside the studio.

Two weeks ago, Mission Yoga’s building at 2390 Mission Street sold, leaving students of the popular Bikram studio worried about its future.

Juicy Sanchez, who owns the studio with husband Steve23, said she’s staying positive and that there’s been no indication they won’t be able to work the building’s new owners. Mission Yoga’s lease expires in December of next year.

“As far as I know, everything I’ve heard about them, is they’re decent people,” Sanchez said. “My hope is they will take a long view and will be willing to give us a long-term lease without jacking up the rent.”

Four stories, with a brick facade at the corner of 20th and Mission streets, 2390 Mission was sold for $5.5 million to Cirios Real Estate, which closed on the deal Nov. 3. The building was once home to a jewelry retail outlet and manufacturing workshop, though its tenants now run the gamut, from Radio Valencia to a check cashing place, travel agent, accountant and a business that rents tables and chairs. Mission Yoga, however, occupies most of the building.

Andrew Jeffery, director of acquisitions for Cirios, said the company has no firm plans for the building and is taking the next couple months to suss things out, deal with some fire safety issues that had been neglected and talk with tenants.

Jeffery said he thinks Mission Yoga is a “good business.

“Our attitude is we want to work with them to work something out,” he said. “Whether that will happen or not, who knows.”

Based in Potrero Hill, Cirios was started in 2008 by Jeffery and three other friends who grew up on the Peninsula. The company owns 14 buildings in the city, mostly apartments and some mixed-use buildings. Eight or 9 of them are in the Mission.

Despite the red hot rental market, Jeffery said he and his partners have never evicted any of their residential tenants under the Ellis Act, and do their best to treat tenants how they’d want to be treated.

“We’re not a big investment company who just looks at a tenant like a name on a lease,” he said.

Jeffery said he understands the struggles small businesses face, being part of one himself, but there are also economic realities to consider.

“We are running a for-profit business,” he said. “The rents over there are quite low.”

Mission Yoga, which first opened under different ownership in 2001, sees anywhere from 100 to 200 students on a given day and has more than 11,000 on its mailing list. Despite its robust following, Sanchez said it would be difficult – not to mention expensive – to pick up and move elsewhere.

“I am not the kind of person who does well with a lack of certainty,” she added. “I would like to have a lease under my belt.”

In the meantime, Sanchez said she’ll continue to keep students posted and remains in a “hopeful kind of place.

“We really care about the people in the community and want to stay,” she said.