San Francisco has never been able to do big-scale economic redevelopment without displacement of existing residents and businesses, and the "revitalization" of mid-Market is turning out to be another case in point. Rents are going up all over the neighborhood [1] (as well as other parts of Market Street) as the second tech boom roars into San Francisco. And now it's having an impact on a community-based theater-development plan -- and potentially on even the more established theaters in the area.
According to J.K. Dineen (the best real-estate reporter in town) at the Business Times, a proposal by the North of Market Neighborhood Improvement Corp. and American Conservatory Theater to turn a stretch of boarded-up storefronts into an arts and performance center with housing and retail is falling apart -- because one of the property owners has decided that the parcel is too valuable now.
You can't get the whole article without subscribing (which I do, mostly to read Dineen's stuff), but the summary is here. [2]
Basically, a Texas landlord was willing to sell the property a year ago at a price the folks at ACT could afford -- but now that the Twitter tax break has driven up real-estate values, the Lone Star Fund is having second thoughts and has dropped out of negotiations. So a plan that Mayor Ed Lee and Sup. Jane Kim were supporting that had the potential to do something good that wasn't just tech jobs in Mid-Market isn't going to happen.
The director of ACT is nervous:
In a letter to Mayor Lee, A.C.T. Executive Director Ellen Richard said she is worried that as companies such as Twitter, Square and Dolby relocate to Mid-Market, the arts groups that have long been housed in the neighborhood will be priced out. “If a sizable organization like the A.C.T. can’t afford these new market rents, then what chances do smaller organizations have?”
Not much.
Links:
[1] http://www.sfbg.com/2012/11/06/out-business
[2] http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2012/11/09/mid-market-arts-district-curtains.html