Terminal project ousts tenants
By: John Upton
February 13, 2009
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| Cindy Chew Forced out: Salvador Reynoso, who owns the flower stand in front of the Transbay Transit Terminal, says his uncle opened the shop at First and Mission streets 20 years ago. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Rose-sharing romantics, art aficionados and late-night loungers will see cherished boutique businesses disappear from their SoMa locations under government plans to raze land for a new transit terminal.
Three chic hotspots on Natoma Street are among the dozens of businesses that will be evicted this year by the $1.2 billion project to rebuild the Transbay Transit Terminal at First and Mission streets — and surround it with homes, stores and office towers.
Zebulon restaurant and bar, John Colins Lounge and Varnish Fine Art gallery, bar and event space are among 33 SoMa businesses and nonprofits that the Transbay Joint Powers Authority will evict from properties it purchased for the terminal project, documents show.
“They’re taking a space away from us that is irreplaceable,” said John Colins co-owner John Giuffre. The bar will move this spring from its elegant home of nearly four years — a freestanding, two-story red-brick, sky-lighted building — into the ground floor of a 10-story building on Minna Street, Giuffre said.
Others to be evicted include leasees of office space, parking lot operators, an additional restaurant/bar and a flower shop housed in a ramshackle wooden shed in front of the existing terminal.
Flower vendor Salvador Reynoso said he has been told he probably has until October to shut down shop or find a new location for his business, which was founded by his uncle 20 years ago.
Businesses on Natoma Street, east of Second Street, will likely be cleared out in the second half of this year, according to Transbay Joint Powers Authority project manager Robert Beck.
The one-way lane will instead be used as a car-free retail strip to serve inhabitants of the 39 new residential buildings planned around the terminal, according to Beck.
The project is expected to be completed by 2014.
As required by state and federal laws, all displaced businesses will receive financial assistance — expected to total $1.8 million — according to Beck. That averages out to about $54,000 per business.
Still, not all businesses are going quietly.
Varnish hosted a petition-signing event Thursday to fight its pending displacement.
“Our goal has been to remain open at our current location as long as we possibly can, and then open within a couple of weeks at a new location,” co-owner Jen Rogers said. “We want desperately to stay where we are.”
Rogers said she opened Varnish in April 2003 with her business partner, Kerri Stephens, after seismically retrofitting and refurbishing the two-story building, and found out one month later that their future at the location was doomed.
On the way out
12 Businesses expected to be displaced this year by Transbay project
21 Businesses expected to be displaced in 2010 or later
Businesses that will be displaced
19 Businesses and nonprofits from leased office space
9 Parking-lot operators
3 Restaurants and bars
1 Flower-shop vendor
1 Art exhibition and event space and bar
Source: Transbay Joint Powers Authority
jupton@sfexaminer.com
