San Francisco seeks yearlong shutdown of Tenderloin corner store over drugs

City attorneys are asking a judge to shut Corner Store at 401 Eddy Street for a year, saying the Tenderloin storefront helped anchor a stretch of Eddy and Leavenworth where thefts, vandalism and physical altercations piled up for nearly three years.

The complaint names Discount Markeet 2 Inc. doing business as Corner Store, Abdulrahman Almehdhar, Mustafa Mehdar Almehdhar, The Allen Hotel LLC and Karen Trinh. It says Corner Store has operated since at least February 2023, while TEL, LLC and Karen Trinh have owned the property since at least 2005 and leased it to the store operators around April 2023.

Investigators say an undercover Department of Public Health inspector first uncovered illegal tobacco sales, which led police and prosecutors deeper into the site. The city says the follow-up turned up methamphetamine, cannabis, illegal tobacco products, drug paraphernalia and a ghost gun. In the city’s telling, the store was not just selling prohibited goods; it was helping draw drug dealers and users to the block and adding to street disorder in the heart of the Tenderloin.

The case lands in the middle of a broader enforcement campaign that has put corner stores and nuisance businesses under sharper scrutiny. In January, the city said it was cracking down on nine Tenderloin gambling and drug dens that fronted as convenience stores. In October 2024, it filed separate lawsuits against SF Discount Market and Tenderloin Market and Deli over alleged gambling, fencing and drug activity. City Hall has also leaned on a nighttime safety ordinance passed in July 2024 as a two-year pilot, which bars certain retail shops in parts of the Tenderloin from operating from midnight to 5 a.m. and carries fines of up to $1,000.

That ordinance came with backing from Tenderloin residents and service workers, including a petition with 521 signatures and support letters from more than a dozen community-serving organizations. The latest lawsuit suggests the city is still testing how far civil enforcement can go. For neighbors, workers and service providers around Eddy and Leavenworth, the real measure will be whether a shutdown changes what happens on the sidewalk, or only sends the activity around the corner.