SF: Don't Call It A Comeback: City's Vacant To Vibrant Program Illuminates Downtown

Bay City News

Last month, the last pop-up of Vacant to Vibrant's second season opened. Created to bring business to downtown San Francisco, the collaboration between a local nonprofit and the city unveiled its final component to this summer's cohort: Saintflora, a floral designer with a vivacious aesthetic.

The second iteration of the program marks SF New Deal's latest experiment in offering three months' free rent to local businesses as they try a downtown location in a formerly vacant spot.

The nonprofit partners with city and property owners with empty storefronts to support chosen small businesses in the logistics and financing of their temporary shops. This cohort expands from San Francisco's downtown to include the nearby Yerba Buena and East Cut neighborhoods.

An additional eight sets of doors have opened, with seven holdovers from last year, according to organizers.

The program paints a more positive picture of downtown than media and official reports often convey.

The San Francisco offices of the Controller and Economic Analysis rank the city's return-to-office rate post-COVID-19 as the lowest compared to that of Austin (the highest), New York City, Los Angeles, and San Jose (the most similar to San Francisco). Less than 40% as many people exit downtown BART stations as did before the pandemic.

The commercial real estate company NAI NorCal analyzed vacant Bay Area storefronts and referenced the so-called "doom loop" explanation - a flight of tech workers, caused by closures and work-from-home cultural shifts, leads to less foot traffic, which causes even less foot traffic because of the perception of danger and a dead downtown, which causes danger on the street and a dead downtown, and so on.

"Everyone told us not to open downtown, 'It's dead.' It's not," said Hilary Passman, owner of Devil's Teeth Baking Company, part of Vacant to Vibrant. She said she always wanted to open a location downtown, but "couldn't get a toe in" the door with property owners before. Her third location was part of Vacant to Vibrant's first cohort. She just signed a five-year lease in Embarcadero Center.

Passman remembers scouting her future bakery location for the first time and looking around, surprised at the many pedestrians. After hearing about the "doom loop," she saw tourists exiting the Hyatt and people exiting the gym. Her thoughts turned to where those potential customers could find lunch for less than $30.

She explained that downtown has a longstanding gap in its offerings to residents, tourists and workers.

It's "not about making a change, small businesses are filling a gap," Passman said.

She added that business has been consistently good since she opened in September. Her employee behind the counter agreed.

The majority of her Vacant to Vibrant cohort from last year also found success. Seven out of nine signed long-term leases after their initial rent-free season. It didn't hurt that property owners struck favorable deals with them.

"Property owners offered rents that made sense," said Simon Bertrang, the executive director of SF New Deal.

"They have seen the value in coming with an affordable rent for the small business owner," Bertrang said, adding that property owners have recognized what entrepreneurs and artists do for the area.

Bertrang also explained that their most successful pop-up partners serve food and beverages, hence their predominance on this year's map after a more eclectic blend last autumn. He said they also learned that artists and restaurants made strong combinations. For example, Devil's Teeth shares its space with Green Apple Books.

Small business Saintflora straddles the artistic and commercial line. They offer candles from collaborating creators and an aesthetic the owners honed at their original Oakland location.

"We always knew the small business owners had to try out ideas," Bertrang said. "We didn't realize how important it was for property owners to test."

On Koolfi Creamery's opening day, the first customers gave Priti Narayanan and Madhuri Anji, romantic and business partners, signs of hope.

One patron lived near the Vacant to Vibrant participant, another worked in the area. Both had already heard of their ice cream made using traditional Indian flavors. Narayanan used to be a traffic engineer before following her dessert-related passion.

Hanging her sign, Narayanan eyed the empty shopping center with concern. Their shop sits tucked off Fremont Street, between vacant windows invisible from the sidewalk.

"We understand that the market is soft, but it's hopeful that all these businesses are coming in," she said. "There is definitely power in so many of us being in such close quarters."

Like Passman, Narayanan was attracted to both the real estate and the offer of help with city bureaucracy. She said she was wary of opening in San Francisco after reading "horror stories about permitting." Koolfi Creamery's paperwork had just come through.

Narayanan and her wife first opened an ice cream cart, serving weddings and offices before opening a brick-and-mortar parlor in San Leandro. They scoop flavors like Holi Basil, Mysore Pak and South Indian Filter Coffee in their second location in the Salesforce West complex. Nearby, an outdoor fire pit burns although almost no one sits in the public plaza.

In front of a bright orange wall, she said she felt like the business momentum was shifting.

"That is kind of interesting in San Francisco because so much was tech and it's gonna be wonderful to see all these other businesses that's not tech, that's unique."

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