San Francisco's Retail Scene

[San Frangelino]

i can try to take some pics today, i'll be around that area in a bit.

Thanks blueberry I use to work at Henry Cotton's which vacated the space Juicy Couture is taking up now. It's a pretty massive 10,000 square foot store with three levels above and one below. Lots of room to stock bootylicious sweat suits...jk. Pretty building, I use to love the busts that lined the top.

Whats going on with the huge building across maiden lane from Hermes where Brooks Brothers use to be? When I worked there, I remember the talk being Helmut Lang, Fendi, and Church's shoes were going to take it up. Of course that got dropped being that they belonged to the Prada Group. Then I read last year in the business times that Prada was going to use half the space for an expanded store. Of course that hasn't seemed to happen either. In that same article I believe they said the office part of the building was completly leased. Be interesting to see if it gets filled with the retail boom. I always dreamed Wilkes Bashford would buy the building and expand.

Also like to see if any interesting leases come into Yerba Buena Lane or the Crocker Galleria( which looked a little depressing last time I was in the city).

[dimondpark]

Sixth Street revival
S.F. small businesses see opportunity on skid row
San Francisco Business Times - June 30, 2006by Sarah Duxbury

Keeping up with the Joneses is sparking a renaissance on Sixth Street.

The Six on Sixth project began in 2003 with the goal of bringing six new businesses to the blighted street. Since then, 14 new businesses have opened, and stayed open, on or just off Sixth Street between Market and Harrison streets; three more will open soon. Thirty-five façade and tenant improvement projects are complete with 50 more under way.

It's a positive domino effect, where once one property owner upgrades his building, slapping on a $35,000 coat of paint or replacing broken windows, others want to, too. With money from the Redevelopment Agency, the nonprofit Urban Solutions is helping them do just that.

Four new retail leases were signed in the past two months -- two for spaces that have been vacant at least five years and one in a space that has been empty four decades. Urban Solutions is in final negotiations on several more leases, including with an Internet café and a credit union.

"When you start to invest and beautify, people pay attention," said Jenny McNulty, executive director of Urban Solutions. "People are starting to take pride where in the past there were just neglected properties."

The Redevelopment Agency has provided Urban Solutions $1.1 million since 2003 for its economic revitalization program. The agency is expected to approve an additional $750,000 for capital improvements on and around the street.

Fixing Sixth Street is an uphill battle, one the Redevelopment Agency has fought for 15 years. Though over $100 million has been spent to revitalize the area stretching from Fifth to Seventh streets between Market and Harrison streets, Sixth Street remains a neighborhood with high levels of street crime, poor people, boarded up buildings and predatory businesses like pawn shops.

Urban Solutions and the Redevelopment Agency hope that enough momentum is now building to change the character of the street and quiet critics.

Retail to the rescue
On Sixth Street, Urban Solutions has helped landlords secure matching grants for building improvements and has helped business owners and entrepreneurs negotiate leases, secure loans and write business plans.

"Our focus is on retail because retail is what will build community and improve the quality of life here," McNulty said.

Though retail rents on Sixth Street average an affordable $1 per square foot, many of the businesses the area attracts are undercapitalized or brand new, or both. They are on Sixth Street because they can afford it, but increasingly because they also see a neighborhood that's improving, one shopfront at a time.

"Sixth Street has a real concentration of liquor shops, pawn shops and porn shops," McNulty said. Urban Solutions is working to replace those with dry cleaners, pizza joints and barbers -- the sort of retail operations healthy neighborhoods need.

Amin Jamally will open a café and deli in a space that has been boarded up for 40 years. He will invest $30,000 to get the site customer-ready, and up to $70,000 more should he fulfill his dream to equip it with a grill.

Jamally's cousin owns Chico's Pizza up the street, and his success -- the place was hopping with a Monday lunch crowd last week -- inspired Jamally to come to Sixth Street. Mythic Pizza will soon open across the street.

Mission Cleaners, a laundry, dry cleaner and sewing shop opened last week, after its former home near the under-construction Federal Building was razed. Wing Leung decided to move one block east to take advantage of what he sees as a growing neighborhood close to his existing customer base.

Several businesses Urban Solutions has attracted to Sixth Street have failed. But as more come in, landlords can be more choosy, selecting more viable businesses, McNulty said.

Others doubt that strategy, considering the extreme poverty of the 3,000 to 8,000 people living in apartments and SRO hotels on the surrounding blocks.

"Almost every building is very low income, not mixed, so I don't know where the consumer dollar is to suport those businesses," said Randy Shaw, executive director of Tenderloin Housing Clinic and a critic of the Redevelopment Agency's efforts on Sixth Street. "A lot of businesses have opened up to great fanfare, but close because they can't make their rent given the lack of consumer dollars."

Streetscape improvements
Shaw said that the extreme poverty of Sixth Street's residents will prevent cosmetic improvements from having a more salutary effect on the neighborhood.

"Sure, the Plaza Hotel is nice, the Alder is aesthetically a lot nicer," Shaw said. "But the problems on the street are still there $125 million later."

Urban Solutions and the Redevelopment Agency say their work is finally taking hold, building upon the agency's streetscape upgrades -- widened sidewalks and new trees.

"Initially, some property owners had trouble believing things could get better," said Mike Grisso, the Redevelopment Agency's project manager for the area. "Once a few projects were completed ... and they saw what was happening, we had a rush. We're starting to get to that critical mass where people believe."

The intent of the redevelopment area was to revitalize the neighborhood and spark economic development there, but not gentrification.

Building a strong retail presence will also help reduce crime. "We know from practice that (crime) is more likely to happen in front of a boarded up building than in front of a store with a responsible owner and people going in and out," Grisso said.

Upgrading Sixth Street remains a work in progress. Pawn shops still outnumber banks or credit unions or pizza joints and about 20 retail spaces remain vacant, with gritty metal gates pulled down tight. Half of those spaces are ready to lease; the rest require landlord improvements to make them habitable.

Sarah Duxbury covers nonprofits for the San Francisco Business Times.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Sixth Street revival
S.F. small businesses see opportunity on skid row
San Francisco Business Times - June 30, 2006by Sarah Duxbury

Keeping up with the Joneses is sparking a renaissance on Sixth Street.

The Six on Sixth project began in 2003 with the goal of bringing six new businesses to the blighted street. Since then, 14 new businesses have opened, and stayed open, on or just off Sixth Street between Market and Harrison streets; three more will open soon. Thirty-five façade and tenant improvement projects are complete with 50 more under way.

I read this article on Friday and, I believe, posted it somewhere here. Anyway, today I decided to take a walk and see for myself.

So I hiked over to the Federal Building and took a look at that. They seem to be finally cleaning up the site in preparation for some landscaping and general finishing up. They have roofed over the main entrance which looks like it will be, essentially, a large porte cochere (but pedestrian only), and they seem to be finishing up the facade.

The SOMA Grande next door is now up to the 5th floor which means they finished the 4-story pediment for the tower and are about to start raising the tower itself. I was also happy to see the rendering posted at the site shows the Federal Building next door and seems to show the Grande tower rising significantly higher, thus avoiding the deadly SF "table-top effect".

Also, across Mission St. there is now demolition being done by Granite and the street use permit was for 6 months. Since it looks like the demolition will be done in a week or two, I assume they will be building something but I don't know what. My guess is a loft-like residential building (since I saw no evidence of a major construction firm like WebCor on any of the permitting) but I'd welcome info from anybody who may know.

I then hopped on Muni down to 6th and walked down 6th a ways. It really is vastly improved. A number of the larger SRO buildings have been very nicely rehabbed. Lots of new street trees planted, some of them fan palms giving the place a feel similar to Mission St. in the Mission District. Even a good portion of the sidewalk itself seems to have been redone. But best of all, I saw a number of businesses from pizza places and laudromats to a produce market that all looked interesting and inviting--not at all grimy like a few years ago. And I saw at least one storefront in process of being rehabbed. I'm beginning to think this really could be a SOMA retail district.

From there I walked to 5th and Howard and was shocked at the progress that has been made on the Intercontinental Hotel. It seems like only about 2 weeks ago this was just a big hole in the ground, but now there's concrete to street level and the service core seems up to about the 5th floor. I also noted that nearby Howard St. (between 5th and 6th) is showing some signs of revival with long-time light industrial uses moving out and the prospect of rehab followed by retail/restaurant uses of the storefronts. There's already an interesting looking irish pub, The Chieftain, on the corner and a Hunan restaurant mid-block.

[EastBayHardCore]

The Cheiftain I think we're all too familiar with that one.

Also, iirc Soma Grand will be roughly the same height as the new Fed.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by EastBayHardCore

Also, iirc Soma Grand will be roughly the same height as the new Fed.

Well, that's what I had thought, but the rendering posted on-site doesn't look like it.



The Fed is on the right edge of the rendering. Sure looks shorter to me.

[blueberry]

here are a few more Union Square + environs pics, taken earlier today on my way to the bank:

the new Ritz-Carlton, a big ugly construction site right now but hopefully a much more appealing streetfront soon:


sexy lingerie at one of the city's newest boutiques:


a few feet down the street on Geary - latest retail additions:


home to the future Barney's NY - to be designed by Gensler:


i missed taking a photo of this last time, but thought i should include it here - one of union square's many flagships:


last but not least, this is one store that SF has that does not exist anywhere in LA... french luxury chocolatier, Richart (based in Lyon, France) on sutter street. the ultimate in fine chocolate goods:

[BTinSF]

You do know that this is soon going to be Barney's, right? FAO's "flagship" is dead.

[BTinSF]

Oops. Read the labels wrong--you clearly DO know the FAO spot is going to be Barney's. Apologies for doubting you.

[sf_eddo]

Originally Posted by EastBayHardCore

The Cheiftain I think we're all too familiar with that one.

The bartender there loves me.

[EastBayHardCore]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

Well, that's what I had thought, but the rendering posted on-site doesn't look like it.



The Fed is on the right edge of the rendering. Sure looks shorter to me.

Well Soma Grand is right on Mission, where as the Fed tower is set quite far back. The perspective is undoubtedly making it look taller than it really is. Also I looked at the heights in the SF Construction rundown thread just now and they are within a foot of each other.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by sf_eddo

The bartender there loves me.

Care to let the rest of us in on the humor? I'm guessing you all had some sort of meet there or something?

[vanhattan]

Excellent thread. I love your city! I would say that Chicago still will give SF a run for the money in the shopping department, but not by much and SF is just different and very unique. I hope to be back shopping in the square in the next couple of months. Keep the updates going! Thanks to all.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by EastBayHardCore

Well Soma Grand is right on Mission, where as the Fed tower is set quite far back. The perspective is undoubtedly making it look taller than it really is. Also I looked at the heights in the SF Construction rundown thread just now and they are within a foot of each other.

Well, to my eye the perspective issue doesn't entirely account for it (compare the rear side of the Grand which is equally far from Mission St.--and especially look at the "spire" on the grand). On the other hand, I realize both that renderings aren't always accurate and also that, as we've all recently noticed, heights as published by SF planners and even the developers themselves can sometimes be fudged on the downside (to avoid Nimby conflicts?) a bit. So I guess we'll have to wait and see how it turns out, but I'm hoping it is a bit taller because I don't like the "look" where radically different buildings near each other are all the same height.

[fflint]

Soma Grand: 233'
New Fed: 234'

[sf_eddo]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

Care to let the rest of us in on the humor? I'm guessing you all had some sort of meet there or something?

Yeah, we've had a meat and we've ended up there. The last time we were there, I recognized the bartender from my college days - she actually got me drunk for my 21st birthday at a trashy college bar in Berkeley.

We hugged.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by fflint

Soma Grand: 233'
New Fed: 234'

See above. We'll have to see how accurate that turns out to be. Also, the building appears to have a sort of spire on it which I don't think that height figure includes. And I'm sure you recall the discussion we had about the accuracy of the published height of several other buildings. I don't think we'll know for sure until the two are built and sitting side by side. But the rendering gives me hope. Everybody can look at it for themselves

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by sf_eddo

Yeah, we've had a meat

Is that a Freudian slip??

[fflint]

Nope, that's what we've called our gatherings for several years.

[DubbaG]

Can we please stop discussing meats? The only time we need to relive such nights are when we hold them again.

mmmmeat

[DubbaG]

Lifestyle Condoms?