Status: The Jazz Heritage Center’s museum and gallery space at 1320 Fillmore, inside the Fillmore Heritage Center, closed after Yoshi’s shut down in 2014. The City of San Francisco reopened the building temporarily in 2026 for community events, with a decision on its long-term future expected by the end of the year.
The Jazz Heritage Center was a nonprofit museum, cultural center and gallery dedicated to the history of jazz in San Francisco and the Fillmore District. It occupied part of the Fillmore Heritage Center, at Fillmore and Eddy, in the heart of the historic Fillmore Jazz Preservation District, and it is still remembered as the only permanent home for that story.
What it was
The center’s space included the Lush Life Gallery, the Koret Heritage Lobby, and a media center and screening room built around a 39-seat theater. Its exhibitions, from 2008 to 2011, included “Harlem of the West… Revisited,” which opened in December 2008; a show of Herman Leonard’s jazz photography; paintings by Bernard Zakheim; and an exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of Impulse! Records. An independent history site collects press coverage of those shows, listed at the end of this page.
The building
The Fillmore Heritage Center opened in 2007 as a public-private project meant to bring cultural and economic renewal to the Fillmore. It cost more than $80 million, with Yoshi’s San Francisco as its anchor tenant and the Jazz Heritage Center, condominiums and a garage sharing the complex. Yoshi’s filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 2012 and closed in 2014. A successor club, The Addition, closed within months. The developer defaulted on a $5.5 million city loan, and the City took over the commercial spaces in 2015.
Closed years
The building reopened briefly for events in late 2018 and was closed again in 2019. A 2024 proposal to lease the building for a food hall did not go ahead, and the 50,000-square-foot complex sat largely empty.
Reopened in 2026
On May 28, 2026, Mayor Daniel Lurie and community leaders announced that the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development would reopen the Fillmore Heritage Center through December for community-led events, performances, pop-ups and public programming. Spaces are not available for private events, and programming is limited to the lobby, screening room and gallery while the City assesses the building. The July 4 weekend was the first full weekend of programming, organized by Linda Parker Pennington, an early Yoshi’s investor and former board chair of the Jazz Heritage Center.
What comes next
By the end of 2026, City staff are expected to propose options for the building’s long-term future, including whether the original entertainment and dining model still works. Community groups, including the collective Fillmore Rising, have proposed a gallery, a restaurant, youth programming and affordable event space. Selling the property has been reported as a possibility.
Read more
- KQED: San Francisco’s Fillmore District looks toward its next heyday (July 2026)
- SFist: Fillmore Heritage Center to reopen for community events through December (May 2026)
- The Post: After a 10-year wait, Fillmore Heritage Center reopens (June 2026)
- KQED: The developer’s $100,000 settlement with the City (March 2025)
- SFist: The former Yoshi’s could be reborn as a food hall (February 2024)
- SFMTA: A view of jazz history (2015, the center while it was open)
- An independent reference on San Francisco jazz history, with the center’s exhibitions from 2008 to 2011 (this site is not run by the nonprofit)
