A new program by the City of San Francisco to revitalize the empty downtown area to provide free rents and grant money for pop-up shops was launched Monday. Applications are now available.
Since 2020, around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco has seen a major loss of storefronts and retail locations in the city. High crime rates, overt drug use, and record numbers of homeless vagrants in neighborhoods are all major contributors to this loss. Additionally, high rents, a huge drop in foot traffic caused by businesses migrating from the city center, and many businesses relocating out of town to be closer to where owners and employees live have contributed . As a result, both chain stores and independent companies have left San Francisco, leaving a large number of vacancies.
With nearly a third of all downtown office and retail space now vacant, and similar rates elsewhere in the city, San Francisco has tried numerous schemes in recent years without success. In her State of the City in February, Mayor London Breed highlighted many areas to focus on to bring businesses back to the city centre, including improving safety and cleanliness, attracting and retaining a wide range of industries and employers, finding new uses and flexibility in vacant buildings, making it easier to start a business, increasing the workforce, making downtown a cultural and entertainment center, improving public spaces, improving transportation and focusing on the positives of the city to attract new residents and businesses.
Specifically, as part of this plan, the mayor is calling for lowering permitting costs, suspending tax hikes for businesses remaining in the city, and offering three-year tax breaks to new businesses. For the development of downtown into an entertainment hub, Mayor Breed even proposed passing legislation allowing outdoor drinking.
However, the situation has not improved. While the summer tourist season may bring more potential customers to these stores, many are still staying away due to the whole array of issues mentioned earlier. Needing more ways to attract businesses, San Francisco decided to focus on pop-up stores or short-term retail and arts locations that typically last less than a few months by launching a new program Monday.
Accepted pop-up stores, known as Vacant to Vibrant, will receive three months of free rent plus an additional subsidy of $3,000 to $8,000 to help cover relocation costs. Interested companies must first fill out an application. Once accepted, a committee will rank each one, with the highest-ranking interested property owners being cheered. Owners must apply themselves to be considered to host such a business, with areas under 5,000 square feet being preferred first. The must-haves for interested landlords include available WiFi, at least one bathroom and a ground floor apartment.
The city will foot the bill itself, with $710,000 provided by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and nonprofit group SF New Deal.
“Vacant to Vibrant is a city-funded program aimed at revitalizing the economic heart of San Francisco (aka “Downtown”) by helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural organizations activate vacant storefronts, to revitalize the area and promote economic recovery,” the Vacant says on Vibrant’s website. “As part of the larger vision of Mayor Breed’s Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco, Vacant to Vibrant will provide a glimpse of what the future of downtown with public participation can look like – innovative, creative, vibrant and diverse.”
While the program has been praised by some in the city, many others have serious doubts as to whether the pop-up locations will have any success.
“It’s not going to be successful,” Michelle Duggan, a building occupancy researcher, told the Globe on Monday. “Cities in the Bay Area have literally been trying to launch pop-up stores for years, but to no avail. The city lures them in, they stay there for 3-4 months, then they leave. Not many business cycles go through and few people benefit. Some of the better known ones, like San FranDisco, had a good couple of early days but quickly fell by the wayside as the city’s troubles crept in.”
“It’s good that the city is still trying, but it’s ignoring the incentives that are proven to work, like tax breaks and city programs to reduce crime and other related issues, to make them stay.” We know how to get business back, but San Francisco seems to be trying everything except the obvious solutions for long-term retail and other leases.”
Applications for the Vacant to Vibrant program are open until June 1st.
