SAN FRANCISCO, March 12, 2024 — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank and financial services provider to some of the world's most innovative companies and investors, today announced the opening of its new office in downtown San Francisco. Located at 222 2nd Street, the updated space features modern workspaces as well as an event room and outdoor terrace for meetings with clients and innovation economy partners.

“SVB has enjoyed being part of the innovation community for 40 years and we are excited to continue serving Bay Area founders and investors from our vibrant new location in the city,” said Marshall Hawks, SVB senior market manager in San Francisco. “Our customers value our ability to bring our ecosystem partners together, and our new office event space enables even more of that connection.”

This investment from SVB and parent company First Citizens in San Francisco supports the bank's growth objectives and continued commitment to serving the innovation economy. SVB has been actively serving the innovation economy since it was taken over by First Citizens in March 2023. With 40 years of experience, SVB has more experience serving innovation clients than any other financial services provider. The entire business is designed specifically for high-growth companies and investors and delivered at the speed they need. SVB remains committed to the success of the investors and innovators who are inventing the future and now has the full support of the 125-year-old First Citizens Bank to continue pursuing this mission.

SVB will occupy several floors of the building and will move from its office at 505 Howard Street just a block away. SVB has a flexible hybrid work policy, so the space is equipped with numerous collaboration areas as well as private video conferencing areas for hybrid working.

The new office also includes more than 6,000 square feet of entertainment space for events. SVB is known for hosting events that bring the innovation economy together. In the last three quarters of 2023, SVB held or sponsored more than 400 events nationwide. The SVB Experience Center at 532 Market Street will continue to be used for customer events.

SVB has had a presence in San Francisco for 25 years since opening its first office at 185 Berry Street in China Basin in 1999. In addition to the San Francisco office, SVB has Bay Area offices in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

About Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, banks some of the world's most innovative companies and investors. SVB provides commercial and private banking to individuals and companies in the technology, life sciences and healthcare, private equity, venture capital and premium wine sectors. Operating in innovation centers across the United States, SVB serves the unique needs of its dynamic clients with deep industry knowledge, insights and connections. SVB's parent company, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNCCA), is one of the 20 largest U.S. financial institutions with more than $200 billion in assets. First Citizens Bank, member FDIC. Find out more at svb.com.

Media contact 

Katie Ellis Fredlund

kellis@svb.com

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If you're unfamiliar with Squaw Valley's infamous terrain, the Palisades, check out this video. It's a quick look at a special session that several skiers were lucky enough to participate in at the Squaw Palisades' most famous area, “The Chimney.” Not only that, but it's not a particularly snowy year and those lines aren't particularly filled in. For reference, sometimes the line on the right left by most skiers in the video is called “the chimney sweep.” combines completely or is a much smaller air. Not in this session. Check out where they start and where their tracks end! Big shout out to the one-taker on “Center Line” at the end of the video – looks like he nailed it really well too!

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The office has event rooms for customers from the innovation economy

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank and a financial services provider to some of the world's most innovative companies and investors, today announced the opening of its new downtown office San Francisco. Located at 222 2nd Street, the updated space features modern workspaces as well as an event room and outdoor terrace for meetings with clients and innovation economy partners.

Silicon Valley Bank today announced the opening of its new office in downtown San Francisco. Located at 222 2nd Street, the updated space features modern workspaces as well as an event room and outdoor terrace for meetings with clients and innovation economy partners.

“SVB has enjoyed being part of the innovation community for 40 years and we are excited to continue serving Bay Area founders and investors from our vibrant new location in the city,” he said Marshall HawksSVB Senior Market Manager San Francisco. “Our customers value our ability to bring our ecosystem partners together, and our new office event space enables even more of that connection.”

The San Francisco The investment by SVB and parent company First Citizens supports the bank's growth objectives and its ongoing commitment to serving the innovation economy. SVB has been actively committed to the innovation economy since it was taken over by First Citizens in 2011 March 2023. With 40 years of experience, SVB has more experience serving innovation clients than any other financial services provider. The entire business is designed specifically for high-growth companies and investors and delivered at the speed they need. SVB remains committed to the success of the investors and innovators who are inventing the future and now has the full support of the 125-year-old First Citizens Bank to continue pursuing this mission.

SVB will occupy several floors of the building and will move from its office at 505 Howard Street just a block away. SVB has a flexible hybrid working policy, so the space is equipped with numerous collaboration areas as well as private video conferencing areas for hybrid working.

The new office also includes more than 6,000 square feet of entertainment space for events. SVB is known for hosting events that bring the innovation economy together. In the last three quarters of 2023, SVB held or sponsored more than 400 events nationwide. The SVB Experience Center at 532 Market Street will continue to be used for customer events.

SVB was represented in San Francisco for 25 years, since opening its first office at 185 Berry Street in China Basin in 1999. In addition to the San Francisco Office, SVB has offices in the Bay Area Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

About Silicon Valley Bank
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, banks some of the world's most innovative companies and investors. SVB provides commercial and private banking to individuals and companies in the technology, life sciences and healthcare, private equity, venture capital and premium wine sectors. SVB is continuously active in innovation centers The United StatesWe serve the unique needs of its dynamic customers with deep industry expertise, insights and connections. SVB's parent company, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCNCA), is among the 20 largest U.S. financial institutions with more than 200 billion dollars in assets. First Citizens Bank, Member FDIC. Find out more at svb.com.

SOURCE Silicon Valley Bank

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Chimney laps in mid-May?

Skiing KT-22 through Memorial Day (end of May)?

Father’s Day (mid-June) shred weekend?

Open until July 15th???

SAY WHAT?

THIS SHOULD BE ARCHIVED!!!

MAY 10TH, 2017

After watching the Squaw boys throwing down laps on The Chimney in the Palisades via social media on the days of May 8th and 9th, I knew I had to get up there before the steep lines melted away. Therefore, I decided to day trip from San Francisco and arrived after an easy 2 hr 35 min summer-like drive. With nervous anticipation, I found myself entering the 2nd Funitel of the day en route to The Chimney…using a flannel as a ski coat.

The day was warm…ridiculously warm. How long will the Chimney remain open? Will the snow be sticky? Will the run-out be smooth? After one lap, the answer was clear. Conditions were perfect.

I was greeted by the usual Snowbrains crew of Miles Clark, Andy Hayes, Bevan Waite, Aaron Fox, Alex Knuuttunen, Josh Anderson, Ethan Kizzia, and Nate Kushlan. Every line was tagged from The Chimney Sweep on far skier’s left to Schmidiots on the far skier’s right. Hell, even party train laps were performed as we went one after each other. Its been a long while since I’ve had so much fun skiing on May 10th.

On my 6th lap, I was met by patrol who said that would be my final Chimney line for the day. Naturally, I had to do Schmidiots. Both Alex and Nate both made it down earlier in one piece, so I had the proper beta to do the same. After a speed check turn off the top, I was able to hold it together and ollie the exit with ease…stoked!

The rest of the day was spent lapping KT-22 until 2:15pm. From West Face to Chute 75 to the Nose to the Alternates to under Olympic Lady…the corn snow was smooth and fast. Once my legs gave out, I knew it was time to jump back in the car and head home….grinning from ear to ear.

I spy KT-22 looking rather white for May…

KT-22 – May 10th, 2017

This will be our first turn of the day…

Chimney Sweep – Palisades, Squaw Valley

It was party for steep skiing nerds…

Chimney Train Sessions

The Sweep skied like a dream…

Squaw Valley, California

Hard to believe its almost the middle of May…

Casey sending it – photo: Jay Tierney

Bevan does what he does best…

No tele-turn here…

Alex follows the protocol for speed…

Alex K dropping in…

Josh gets funky off the mighty large cornice…

Josh A is a certified skier…

Lap after lap, the boys continued as long as patrol kept it open…

California ski lemmings…

Alex K shows us why the Chimney Sweep is so fun…

Alex K dropping in…

Party in the Palisades…

Extreme skiers getting extreme…

Well, it was my turn to finally descend Schmidiots…

Skier above Schmidiots..

So the plan was to stay to the left and go fast…

Oh boy!

Time to scrub some speed in order to stay in control…

Hey Mom, watch this!

The crucial turn and thankfully it was perfect corn snow…

Just one turn here…

Ok, its now time to let them run…

Skier gets aggressive in the Palisades…

Time to ollie that bergschrund…

Isn’t skiing fun?

Nate and I celebrated our Schmidiots laps with a Red Bull and a Gatorade…BALLER!

You guys just ski Schmidiots?

With the stress laps over, we finally made some turns…

Nate laying down some late Spring carves…

Over at KT-22 you got an incredible view of the amount of snow on the upper mountain…

May 10th, 2017 – Squaw Valley USA

Time for some Chute-75…

Chute 75 – Squaw Valley – May 10th, 2017

Mandatory stop to the Eagle…

Eagle’s Nest/McConkey’s – Squaw

Oh, hey there Alpine Meadows. You sure have a lot of snow!

Alpine Meadows – May 10th, 2017

Olympic Lady was skiing quite nicely in the afternoon…

Oly Lady chutes…

But then again, the corn snow in The Alternates was silky smooth…

The Alternates – Squaw Valley

KT-22 was ultimately skiing quite well on May 10th…but my legs told me to stop…and I always listen to my legs.

KT-22 – May 10th, 2017

But on May 24th, 2017, Ethan Kizzia decided to lay down the last Chimney Sweep tracks of the season…

Getting a bit thin in there mate!

Chimney Sweep – May 24th, 2017

And he goes for it…

Ethan Kizzia dropping in…photo: Aaron Fox

There’s enough snow right?

Threading the needle – Squaw Valley

By golly, I think he’s slaying it!

May 24th, 2017 – Chimney Sweep – photo: Aaron Fox

SUCCESS!

Aggressive alpine skiing – photo: Aaron Fox

MAY 27TH, 2017!

After ‘closing’ the infamous KT-22 chairlift (The Mothership) on Saturday May 20th, ski patrol decided there was enough snow to keep it open a bit longer. Well, the chair finally shutdown for the season on May 28th at 7pm but not before I could sneak a few laps into some of my favorite zones.

Areas of Olympic Lady, The Nose, Chute 75, West Face to The Alternates were skiing fantastically smooth in the warm Spring temperatures. Basically, if you decided to ski anything lookers left or under the chair-line, you’d end up walking down a bit of dry mother earth. Otherwise, from Chute 75 to the Saddle, an easy transition to the Mountain Run gave you access all the way to the base of KT. Ultimately, given the date, I was beyond stoked that Squaw kept the legendary chair open for my visit.

Started the day in South Lake Tahoe with a nice view of Mt. Tallac…

Mt. Tallac – May 27th, 2017

Emerald Bay looking as still as ever…shot from a moving vehicle…

Emerald Bay, Tahoe South

And then straight up to Siberia to get a solid look of the open terrain…

Squaw Valley – May 27th, 2017

Siberia was LOADED so we ended up doing some high speed laps…

Siberia Express – May 27th, 2017

The Chimney still showing some life…as well as Ethan’s Chimney Sweep tracks from a few days earlier…

Chimney, Palisades – Squaw Valley

Today was a day with the groms…and naturally, lots of candy!

Headed to Gold Coast on skis…

Of course, we had to check out the ‘Shirley Wiggle’…

Shirley Lake – May 27th, 2017

And then it was time for some pre-lunch KT-22 laps…

Bit thin at the bottom – KT-22 – May 27th, 2017

However, as you gained altitude, things looked much better…

Olympic Lady and Lake Tahoe…

Chute 75 was still holding the mega slush bumps…

Slush bumps with the groms – Chute 75

Reese met up with us to ski some of the steeper open terrain…

Reese laying one down – Chute 75

I always enjoy the middle knuckle off the top…

Chute 75 – May 27th, 2017

Perfect weather and soft moguls…HELLO!!!

Fun is happening – Squaw Valley

When your 8 year old attempts to race you…

Skiing to the base on May 27th, 2017

Upper KT-22 still looking quite buried for the end of May…

KT-22 – May 27th, 2017

High speed straight-lining under Olympic Lady helped with the seasonal depression…

Time to let them run…

The Mountain Run will not last long but really, should it? It’s almost June!

Mountain Run – May 27th, 2017

KT-22 will close tomorrow and this time FOR GOOD!

One more day of KT-22

Time for one last run down the Alternates…

Alternates – Squaw Valley – May 27th, 2017

Can’t think of a more appropriate beverage…

Why not drink the beer that matches my skis???

JUNE 17-18TH, 2017!

The monstrous 2017 snowpack of California continues to deliver snow sliding fun to winter enthusiasts. On Father’s Day weekend, I enjoyed utter fabulous days in the sun skiing Siberia, Gold Coast and Shirley Lake with the wife and kids. Saturday ended up being a cruiser day to get tan, take some laps, and enjoy lunch at High Camp before hitting the pool back at the hotel.

Sunday began with some high speed piste laps down Siberia Run with traversing out to Hogsback under the Headwall chair to gain some steeper aspects down to the bottom of the chair. After Siberia, we ventured over to Shirley Lake to check out The Wiggle, rail some north-facing groomers, and tag some off piste just beyond the Shirley Chutes. Off-trail terrain was still pretty smooth with minimal suncups which made higher speed turns quite enjoyable.

Pretty sure Red Dog is done for the season…

Summer morning at Squaw Valley

Yup, my 6 year old daughter is ready to slay some slush…

Young grom eye’s her line…

The family that skis together…skis on Father’s Day down Siberia!

Siberia Express – June 17th, 2017

The snow was a bit faster and more consistent on Shirley Lake…

Parker performs a mid-June carve…

I guess the kids are fans of The Warriors…

Summer Shirley carves…

A rare sighting of the Mrs making turns for the camera…

Shirley Lake – June 17th, 2017

A couple more laps and it was time to hit High Camp…

Grom on Shirley Lake – June 17th, 2017

No complaints here…

High Camp in blue skies and snow covered slopes…

Post skiing lounging with the addition of the third kid…

Hammocks are stressful…trust me!

Lakeside dining on the West Shore for the win…

Boating season – Lake Tahoe…

Made a visit to the bros at The Slot Bar…

Slot Bar ceiling ski mag porn…

The third kid maybe young, but he still mandated a visit to The Mothership…

First visit to KT-22…

On the next day, my oldest son and I got into the Funitel line early and headed straight to Siberia…

Siberia Express – June 18th, 2017

We found traversing to Hogsback provided some quality corn with a steeper aspect…

Hogsback – June 18th, 2017

Young Steph Curry makes a turn under the Palisades…

After some time on Siberia, we migrated over to Shirley Lake to explore as much as possible…

Traversing to Shirley Chutes…

The Shirley Wiggle has been increasing in depth on a weekly basis…

Dave Metres shows us how its done – June 18th, 2017

POV from INSIDE THE WIGGLE!!!!

Welcome to technology of 2017…

Palisades (especially National Chute) still holding snow but my son didn’t want to hike…I guess I was nice on Father’s Day

Palisades – Squaw Valley – June 18th, 2017

And with one last look at Chute 75, our last trip to Squaw for the ‘ski season’ was complete…

Last Funitel ride of the season…

And then as my family’s summer travels led us to Telluride until Mid-July, Squaw stayed open until Saturday, July 15th, 2017…not too shabby Tahoe, not too shabby.

To see what it looked like on the last day of the season (JULY 15th!!!!) click here:

Squaw Valley, CA Saturday July 15th Conditions Report: Last Day of the Epic 2016/17 Season?

WHAT WILL NEXT SEASON BRING?

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The post Recounting the Late Season Radness @ Squaw Valley, CA appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Take the world’s coolest nanny, add a string of memorable songs, throw in lots of British accents, and it should add up to an entertaining evening for theatergoers.

That’s the plan behind “Mary Poppins,” presented by Napa Valley College Theater Arts and Cafeteria Kids Theater, running Nov. 2-11 at the Napa Valley College Main Theater. The show is directed by Olivia Cowell and Aimée Guillot, adjunct faculty at Napa Valley College Theater Arts and also directors of Cafeteria Kids Theater.

“Mary Poppins” is a musical with multi-generational appeal, Guillot said. Adults remember the Julie Andrews version from their childhood, and the story instantly appeals to modern kids.

It also has personal significance for Guillot, who started her theatrical career at the age of 5 by singing “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” during a successful audition.

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“I was 5 years old and I was obsessed with Mary Poppins,” she said. “It’s always been a dream of mind to do the show at some point.”

The production features young cast members from around the Napa Valley, including Josie Goldfarb as one of two actresses playing Mary. A few of the Upvalley players chatted about the show during a recent rehearsal.

Michael Banks, one of Mary’s two young charges, is played by Connor Cleland, a fifth grader. Like Mary, the role of Michael is double-cast, with Cleland performing with Cast B.

“It’s my first big role, and it’s really exciting,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure, but at the end it’s really going to pay off.”

Cleland has to remember a lot of lines, and he found that writing some of them down helped him memorize them. His favorite parts of the role are speaking in a British accent and flying around with the help of a wire harness.

Cleland is already a seasoned actor, having previously appeared in the Cafeteria Kids productions of “Shrek The Musical,” “Willie Wonka” and “Peter Pan.” He said he loves the theater and adds, “I’m going to keep doing it forever, hopefully.”

Eighth grader James Gott of St. Helena landed the crowd-pleasing role of Willoughby, a dog belonging to the elderly Miss Lark. The “dog” is a mechanical contraption covered in felt and cardboard, but the performance is all Gott’s.

“First I had to learn how to bark – a sad bark, a mean bark – and then I had to go into a room with a bunch of mirrors and practice with the dog for like a day straight,” Gott said. “How to walk and make him sit. I’m still working on it.”

Gabe DuBois, 14, of Angwin plays a few supporting roles and sings some songs. It took him two hours to learn about 30 seconds worth of complicated hand gestures during “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

“The hardest part was learning to spell it,” he said.

Dayton Ochoa, who graduated from St. Helena High School in 2016, plays the bank chairman and a chimney sweep.

“He’s very set in his ways, he’s ancient, and he’s the ruler of his kingdom,” Ochoa said of the bank chairman, who’s a good 80 years older than Ochoa himself.

Ochoa’s favorite part of the show is working with the younger kids, and the most challenging part has been mastering a snooty British accent while also speaking loudly and deeply enough for his voice to project to the audience.

Nora Hearn, a fifth grader at St. Helena Elementary School, plays a penguin, a chimney sweep and a bank customer. Obviously, the penguin is her favorite.

“During ‘Jolly Holiday,’ six or eight of us waddle out, sing our little penguin songs and do our little penguin dance,” Hearn said.

And with that, she splayed out her feet, put her arms to her sides with her palms down, and demonstrated a penguin waddle that could only be described as supercalifragi –

For tickets go to napavalleytheater.org.

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(Bloomberg) — San Francisco’s Westfield mall was for decades the city’s premier shopping destination, a nine-story complex in the heart of downtown known for its iconic glass dome and spiral escalators.

These days, the property is struggling with empty storefronts and falling foot traffic — so much so that owners Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Corp. are giving the mall up to lenders, underscoring the wider challenges for brick-and mortar retail. Last weekend brought a particularly deep blow: the anchor Nordstrom Inc. store closed after 35 years.

Just an hour’s drive south, Westfield has another shopping center in San Jose that’s booming. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s added new stores, including a three-story Eataly eatery and a luxury wing with brands like Tiffany & Co. and Versace. The mall’s sales have increased by 66% since 2019.

The contrast highlights the changing fortunes of the world’s tech epicenter at a time of industry upheaval and a post-pandemic recovery that has seen dense US downtowns struggle. 

San Francisco, a major beneficiary of the last decade’s boom as young workers flocked to a lively urban center, is floundering due to an exodus of people and empty office buildings. The suburban region of Silicon Valley, meanwhile, has seen its economy hold up relatively well from remote work and the fortunes of the likes of Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc.

“Silicon Valley is a net winner from the pandemic,” said Nick Bloom, an economist at Stanford University who coined the term “donut effect” to describe how urban centers are losing their appeal while suburbs are flourishing. 

Read More: Tech’s Bust Delivers Bruising Blow to Hollowed-Out San Francisco

San Francisco’s downtown is lagging behind every other major US city in its post-pandemic recovery. Its office vacancy rate has surged to 30% as tech companies opt for remote work, downsize or move away. The city shed 40,000 residents during the pandemic and its population is projected to remain 3% smaller by 2060.

Silicon Valley has seen an even slower return of workers to its offices, according to security company Kastle Systems. But the area’s sprawling landscape made up of tech campuses and shopping plazas makes it less dependent on people filling downtown office towers. Property values are rising, three of its companies — Apple, Alphabet Inc. and Nvidia — have more than $1 trillion in market value each, and its population is set to grow over the longer run.

While Silicon Valley’s unofficial capital of San Jose — the Bay Area’s biggest city, with roughly 1 million residents — has long been overshadowed by its flashier neighbor, Mayor Matt Mahan envisions that it that can benefit as San Francisco’s economy reels.

The Bay Area’s center of gravity is shifting to areas that are more “business friendly, larger, and have a greater talent pool,” Mahan said in an interview. “I predict one day it will be the San Jose-Bay Area.”

Cities across the Bay Area are struggling with high housing costs — with the median home price in the region topping $1 million — along with a homelessness crisis and the departure of residents to cheaper areas. In a sign of frustration over mounting challenges as well as the tech industry’s deep roots in the region, a group of prominent investors are backing the purchase of thousands of acres of farmland to build a new urban oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.

Read More: Secret California City by Ex-Goldman Trader Faces Scrutiny

San Francisco, though, faces it’s own unique set of challenges as perceptions of rising crime and street squalor contribute to people staying away. Mayor London Breed says she’s working hard to revitalize the downtown, and she wants to reform business taxes and attract new companies to vacant office buildings. She has even proposed the idea of razing San Francisco’s Westfield mall and building a soccer stadium in its place. 

“This is not the first time we’ve gone through a financial downturn,” Breed said in an interview last month at City Hall. “We’ve rebounded and diversified and we have sought different industries. And that’s why people keep betting on San Francisco.” 

The shift of people in Bay Area is having an influence on the real estate market, which remains the most expensive in the country. The median sale price of a home in the Silicon Valley town of Santa Clara was $1.5 million in July, up 8% from a year ago, according to Redfin. In San Francisco, the price has dropped by 8% to $1.3 million as the city saw more listings and less demand.

The region’s public services are also feeling the strain. While Silicon Valley’s bus and train operator expects a 10-year surplus thanks to higher sales-tax revenue from local and online shopping, transit agencies serving downtown San Francisco have scrambled for funding to avoid service cuts. 

The transit crisis is just a symptom of the city’s larger fiscal woes. Overall, San Francisco is facing a $780 million budget shortfall and Moody’s in July lowered its credit rating outlook to negative.

Silicon Valley, encompassing more than a dozen cities, is the cradle of some of the world’s tech behemoths. Companies including Apple and Intel Corp. were born there, often starting in garages before expanding into sprawling campuses. Alphabet resides in Mountain View and Meta Platforms Inc. calls Menlo Park home. Cupertino is known for Apple’s Infinite Loop campus.

“You couldn’t have a least glamorous place on Earth,” said Mark Ritchie, a commercial real estate broker with offices in both areas. “But it is so productive it’s unbelievable.” 

Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor acknowledges that her city of about 130,000 residents may not offer the fine dining and nightlife found in San Francisco. But with plans to host the 2026 Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, the city is working to enhance its appeal. “Let’s be frank, San Francisco has fun,” she said. “That’s what we’re missing here.”

Her city represents the area’s boom-and-bust tendencies — home to both Nvidia and Silicon Valley Bank, the tech-favored lender that collapsed this year.

The bank’s failure rippled throughout the region and shows that Silicon Valley faces many of the same challenges as San Francisco, including a wave of layoffs and a pullback in venture-capital funding. Notable companies including Oracle Corp. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. have moved their headquarters to Texas, and Google has paused a planned San Jose mega-campus. 

Silicon Valley’s office-vacancy rate has surpassed 18% — almost tripling from 2019 — but it’s still far less than San Francisco’s. 

As the tech industry recovers from the slump of 2022, San Francisco is looking to bounce back. Last week, the city’s first Ikea store opened less than a block away from the Westfield mall. Office attendance in San Francisco increased 38% in July from a year earlier, the biggest gain of any US city, according Breed’s office. And tenant demand for space jumped 16% in the second quarter, according to real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, buoyed by the booming artificial-intelligence industry.

“We get back on our feet and keep moving forward,” Breed said. “AI is starting to take flight in a whole other way.” 

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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After months of high-level meetings and discussions, government officials and Big Tech leaders have agreed on one thing about artificial intelligence: The potentially world-changing technology needs some ground rules. But many in Silicon Valley are skeptical. WashingtonPost: A growing group of tech heavyweights — including influential venture capitalists, the CEOs of midsize software companies and proponents of open-source technology — are pushing back, claiming that laws for AI could snuff out competition in a vital new field. To these dissenters, the willingness of the biggest players in AI, such as Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI to embrace regulation is simply a cynical ploy by those firms to lock in their advantages as the current leaders, essentially pulling up the ladder behind them. These tech leaders’ concerns ballooned last week, when President Biden signed an executive order laying out a plan to have the government develop testing and approval guidelines for AI models — the underlying algorithms that drive “generative” AI tools such as chatbots and image-makers.

“We are still in the very early days of generative AI, and it’s imperative that governments don’t preemptively anoint winners and shut down competition through the adoption of onerous regulations only the largest firms can satisfy,” said Garry Tan, the head of Y Combinator, a San Francisco-based start-up incubator that helped nurture companies including Airbnb and DoorDash when they were just starting. The current discussion hasn’t incorporated the voices of smaller companies enough, Tan said, which he believes is key to fostering competition and engineering the safest ways to harness AI. Companies like influential AI start-up Anthropic and OpenAI are closely tied to Big Tech, having taken huge amounts of investment from them.

“They do not speak for the vast majority of people who have contributed to this industry,” said Martin Casado, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which made early investments in Facebook, Slack and Lyft. Most AI engineers and entrepreneurs have been watching the regulatory discussions from afar, focusing on their companies instead of trying to lobby politicians, he said. “Many people want to build, they’re innovators, they’re the silent majority,” Casado said. The executive order showed those people that regulation could come sooner than expected, he said. Casado’s venture capital firm sent a letter to Biden laying out its concerns. It was signed by prominent AI start-up leaders including Replit CEO Amjad Masad and Mistral’s Arthur Mensch, as well as more established tech leaders such as e-commerce company Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lutke, who had tweeted “AI regulation is a terrible idea” after the executive order was announced.

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Coastal Skin and Eye Institute is looking to expand its reach in serving the dermatological, ophthalmological and other needs of the community in and around Carmel Valley and Encinitas. They have been a leading dermatology and ophthalmology practice in north San Diego County with locations in both Carmel Valley and Encinitas.

“We provide medical, surgical, and cosmetic care for a variety of skin and eye conditions,” said April Lynne Dionela, practice manager at Coastal Skin and Eye Institute.

Christopher Crosby MD, PhD

(Courtesy of Coastal Skin and Eye Institute)

Specializing in skin care, Christopher Crosby MD, PhD, is a board-certified dermatologist whose career path began at Duke University. At Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, he earned both MD and PhD distinctions. Internship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center followed. Then, during residency in dermatology at Emory University, Dr. Crosby served as Chief Resident. With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, he completed a rigorous Fellowship (accredited by ACGME) at University of California San Francisco, in Mohs micrographic surgery and procedural dermatology.

Dr. Crosby is one of just a few Fellowship-trained Mohs surgeons in the San Diego area. He takes a special interest in Mohs surgery and reconstructive dermatologic surgery for skin cancers. He understands that a skin cancer diagnosis can be devastating to a patient’s emotional wellbeing, and he sees the amazing impact of compassionate, effective treatment.

Neeta Varshney, MD

(Courtesy of Coastal Skin and Eye Institute)

Specializing in eye care, Coastal Skin and Eye has both an optometrist and an ophthalmologist on staff. Neeta Varshney, MD, is a board-certified comprehensive ophthalmologist trained in the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease. Dr. Varshney is an accomplished surgeon and enjoys using the latest technologies available to deliver the highest degree of care to her patients. Dr. Varshney is a native of Southern California who comes from a family of physicians. After completing high school as class valedictorian, she later graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where she double-majored in biology and psychology. She received her medical degree (MD) with honors in 2009 from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Varshney is well-versed in cataract and refractive surgery, glaucoma evaluation, and management (including laser treatments), macular degeneration, and diabetic eye disease, among other topics.

A client treatment at Coastal Skin and Eye Institute.

(Courtesy of Coastal Skin and Eye Institute)

Dr. Connor Caldwell is a board-certified optometrist who became interested in health care at a very young age. He began his journey in high school where he was nominated to attend an elite summer course for young professionals and aspiring doctors, the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine hosted at UC Berkeley. This is where he discovered his passion for the ocular healthcare field and continued his medical journey by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado. Dr. Caldwell was one of 50 students accepted into the Arizona College of Optometry. He trained with leading optometrists from around the world in many fields, including ocular prosthetics, low vision services, electrodiagnostics and specialty contact lens fitting.

In San Diego, with more than 200 sunny days every year, regular checks for skin cancer at the Coastal Skin and Eye Institute can catch the disease when simpler, less invasive treatments are still possible. Making note of any abnormalities during self-checks at home is also an important part of the process.

The Coastal Skin and Eye Institute also treats patients for conditions such as acne, moles, skin growths, and much more. On the cosmetics side, they provide treatments such as botox, lasers, microneedling, and more. The practice also provides eye examinations, including testing for issues such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. In addition to these tests, they can do vision checks and assist with the selection of glasses and contact lenses. Overall, patient testimonials have praised the Coastal Skin and Eye Institute for having a “super friendly” staff, having “a wide spectrum of services ranging from general skin care to cosmetic procedures,” having “the best service in my 20 year history of buying eyewear,” and for having a staff that makes you “really feel that you are in good and safe hands.”

Coastal Skin and Eye Institute has locations at 5500 Carmel Mountain Rd., Suite 206, in Carmel Valley and 477 N. El Camino Real, Suite C300, in Encinitas. Hours at the Carmel Valley office are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and hours at the Encinitas office are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Coastal Skin and Eye Institute also accepts Medicare and most PPO and vision insurance. Coastal Skin and Eye Institute’s Carmel Valley office offers dermatology, optometry, and ophthalmology services, and the Encinitas office currently offers ophthalmology.

Coastal Skin and Eye Institute will also be debuting a more patient-focused website. Patients can use the website for booking appointment requests, to learn more about the physicians and other information related to their skin and eye care needs. For more information, visit www.coastalskineye.com. — Coastal Skin and Eye Institute report

— Business Spotlight features enterprises that support this publication.

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Ellen Mattesi with her 3-D creation, “Evil Clown,” on Montford Avenue. (Photo by Mary Ann Hogan)

The Urban Dictionary defines Mill Valley as “a city in Marin County, California that was the basis for the South Park episode ‘SmugAlert!’ The people … are generally smug entitled hermits who live in tiny 837 sq ft shacks that they paid $1.2 million for.”

The “generally smug” people tend to make everyone else grumpy. Or so the story goes. If only life here were that simple. As a dinner host said recently: “I get grumpy about people who get grumpy over what’s happened to Mill Valley.”

Just look around and you may find an old-fashioned village with a small-town ethos and a big-hearted soul. Here’s a potpourri of Real Mill Valley:

Frightfully good

At the bend in the road where Molino Avenue T-bones with Montford, you’ll find artist and designer Ellen Mattesi’s Halloween Valentine to the world. For the past eight years, Mattesi, a “fantasy environment creator,” has adorned her front yard with elaborate 3-D bodies, torso-less arms and hands, skulls, teeth, skeletons, odd bones and a bunch of clowns, including the massive Evil Clown with footlong teeth. Says Mattesi: “All the other clowns have to keep feeding him body parts.”

Every year, people honk and wave, flash a thumbs up, or scream like banshees as they come off Molino, a funnel for hordes from Mount Tam and the beaches, as well as neighbors who live up the hill.

A few years back, Mattesi injured her knee and couldn’t create her display. She apologized on social media. Neighbors didn’t waste a second: “Would you like help putting them up?” “I’d help too. Have appreciated our Halloween fun since we’ve lived here … ” Her teenage daughter jumped in and saved the holiday.

That year, the mayor of Mill Valley left a business card with a note in Mattesi’s mailbox: “Thank you for bringing Halloween back to Mill Valley.”

Yes, they can

One day last week, a wayward bird made its way into Scott Snyder’s Tam Valley stovepipe chimney. Snyder and his wife could hear the hapless flapping.

First, they called a chimney sweep. “They said they didn’t deal with critters,” says Snyder, a data engineer, voice actor and critter lover. Then Marin Humane, which sent out someone to look. “They thought it might be an owl.” The group transports creatures, but doesn’t dislodge them from stovepipes. So Snyder called WildCare. But they only receive and treat. They don’t dislodge or transport.

Snyder asked neighbors for suggestions. Several offered help. One suggested Southern Marin Fire District, which covers Tam Valley. “It had just rained the night before,” says Snyder, “so I didn’t feel so bad.”

Within a couple of hours, a team of three showed up. They climbed up the steep Snyder roof. Removed the top of the stovepipe. Lowered a rope down the chimney. The bird clawed up the rope, about half way. Then it took flight. It wasn’t an owl. “Probably a scrub jay.”

Neighbors cheered on social media. “What a happy ending! … Cats in trees, birds in chimneys, our Southern Marin Firefighters can do it all!”

Yes, they can.

And did.

Signs of optimism

Says the sign on wall of Two Neat, a long-time funky art-and-dog-centric gift shop downtown: “Unattended children will be given an espresso & a free puppy.”

One Friday afternoon, a posse of middle-school boys came in and told shop owner Bob Bijou: “We’re unattended 12-year-olds. Can we have our free puppy?” Bijou gave them each a free piece of 10-cent taffy instead. The kids gobbled it down. Before long, regular Mill Valley Fridays became Free-taffy Friday, for the original gang of “unattended” and their friends. Even when the taffy’s not free, says Bijou, it’s a bargain. “Where else in Mill Valley can you get something for 10 cents?”

Notable signs abound:

• At the organic produce stand, corner of Shoreline Highway and Tennessee Valley Road, a roadside sign: “Peace, Love, and Pickles.”

• On the chalkboard sign at the Book Depot & Café: “What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookshop. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not fooling a soul.” (From Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods.”)

Befriend the parks

At the Sweetwater Music Hall next Thursday night, Nov. 2, 6:30 to 11 p.m., there’s a fundraiser for Friends of Parks and Recreation. Tickets, at $100, include wine, beer, appetizers and rock music by Mustache Harbor. Sponsors include the Mill Valley Soccer Club and the Southern Marin Lacrosse Club.

Beneficiaries include the new city skate park-in-the-planning, an effort of, by, and for a savvy group of Mill Valley middle-schoolers.

So have a good-hearted Mill Valley day.

The post Smug and grumpy Mill Valley? Look once more – Marin Impartial Journal appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Availability rate in Q3 spiked to 36% in San Francisco. Sublease space nearly doubled YoY in Silicon Valley. Leasing activity collapsed. More landlords default.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The office nightmare brought on by working from home and Corporate America’s sudden epiphany that they will never need all this office space, keeps on giving: Despite all the hype and hoopla about AI, the office space on the market and available for lease in San Francisco in Q3 jumped to a stunning 36.3% of the total office space, another all-time record, up from 35.1% in Q2, according to Savills.

Including 9.4 million square feet (msf) of sublease space, 31.5 msf of office space is now on the market. Sublease space is where tenants have decided they don’t need this space and attempt to find a tenant for the space until the lease terminates.

Asking rents have remained stubbornly enormous at $69.15 per square foot per year in Q3, despite the massive availability, though they have come down some from the highs in 2019 of over $80 per square foot per year. But asking rents are just that. Reality when leases are finally signed looks very different as landlords are desperate to make deals and are offering “record high concessions,” according to Savills (chart via Savills, gray columns, left scale = rents; orange line = Class A availability, yellow line = total availability, right scale):

And if landlords cannot bring in or keep tenants at rents that are high enough to meet the loan costs and operating costs, they default on the loan. Defaults on office buildings is now a constant drumbeat. In August, another three were reported whose mortgages were sent to special servicing, according to the SF Chronicle, citing DBRS Morningstar. Assignment to a special servicer indicates that a default is either imminent or has already occurred:

The landlord of 222 Kearny Street (148,000 sf), GEM Realty Capital in Chicago, missed a payment on the $24 million loan in August. The building is 27% vacant. Part of the remainder is leased to WeWork, which is teetering on the edge of a bankruptcy filing.

The landlord of 995 Market Street (91,000 sf), Bridgeton Holdings in New York, defaulted on a $45 million loan. The building is now 92% vacant. WeWork, which had leased 75% of the building, opted to terminate the lease early in August 2021 and was outa there. “The borrower has stated they will not be making any more payments,” the special servicer said in a note in August, cited by Morningstar, according to The Real Deal.

The $12.5-million mortgage on 1045 Bryant Street (35,000 sf) – a “high-end brick and timber building,” as the 1916 building, renovated in 2014, is now being pitched – was sent to a to a special servicer, indicating default or imminent default by the landlord, PBV VI. The building is vacant.

CMBS, of course. The mortgages tied to these three buildings, like most of the mortgage defaults on office properties that have come across our desk, are not held by banks, but had been securitized into Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) and sold to investors. When these mortgages get into trouble, they’re sent to the special servicer that represents the CMBS holders.

Nationwide, defaults on office CMBS are now spiking at an astounding rate.

The market for sales of office building is beginning to unfreeze in San Francisco, but at discounts of 60% to 75% off from where they’d been valued a few years ago. We discussed the first two sales that took place in the new era here (75% off), and here (70% off), and there have been a few more sales since then in the 60% to 75% off range.

Office values massively repriced, office rents not yet. Part of the reason for rents remaining ridiculously high even for vacant space is that landlords must have a minimum amount of rent income or potential rent income to even have a chance to cover the interest expense and operating costs. They cannot cut their rents by a significant amount. Instead, they’ll default, take their loss on their equity, and let the lenders have the building and take the remaining losses.

The lender can then sell the building at a huge discount from its previous valuation, and at a huge loss on the loan, attract a new developer that, now with a lower cost basis, can fix up the building, and market the space at lower rents, which would push down overall rents and revitalize the totally overpriced market. Price can solve all kinds of problems.

That’s at least how it should happen – but that process is slow and hasn’t happened yet. And rents are still too damn high.

By sub-market, the availability rates ranged from 27.7% in the Union Square/Civic Center area to a catastrophic 57.9% in the Yerba Buena area, according to Savills. The Financial District North had an availability rate of 32.1%; the Financial District South 34.6%, both below the city average.

Leasing activity fell to just 0.8 msf in Q3, from 1.1 msf in Q2 and from the 2.5-msf range before the pandemic. Of the 10 largest leases signed:

• The top three were signed by, you guessed it, generative AI startups. But one of them, Hive AI, was just a relocation.
• Three were relocations: company vacates one office, moves to another office, not helping the overall office market; and if the move, as is now often the case, involves downsizing, it worsens the office market.
• One was a renewal.
• Six were new leases.

In Silicon Valley, the office availability rate remained that the record high seen since last year of 26.6%, with Class A availability rates over 30%, according to Savills.

Availability rates topped out at 35.9% in Downtown San Jose, 33.5% in Mountain View/Los Altos, 34.4% in Campbell/Los Gatos, and 29.7% in Santa Clara.

About 24 msf of office space was available for lease, including sublease space, which nearly doubled year-over-year to a record 7.6 msf.

Leasing activity plunged 60% year-over-year to just 652,000 sf, and was down from the 1.5 million to 2.8 million range in 2018 and 2019.

And yet despite the huge availability and the plunge in demand – oh, you knew this was coming – asking rents in Q3 rose 3.0% year-over-year to $5.22 per square foot per month ($62.64 psf per year), in part on a shift in mix, as “higher priced space is now available on the market both directly and for sublease,” according to Savills.

Of the top 10 leases signed:

• The top two were just renewals.
• One was a lease restructure.
• Seven were new locations

(Chart via Savills, gray columns, left scale = rents; orange line = Class A availability, yellow line = total availability, right scale):

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The post Regardless of the AI Hype, Workplace Markets in San Francisco & Silicon Valley Get Even Worse appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.