OBSERVESF.com The proposed Central Market Art Space Zoning
 

The potential of San Francisco’s Central Market district includes:


    • Unique space for creative workers in a transit-rich neighborhood

  1. • A  permanent place for new arts to take hold

  2. • A safe “24 hour downtown,” convenient to all of The City and the entire Bay Area


The additional people that these presences will bring to the street --- throughout the entire day --- will tip the balance of street activity to safety.


There is just one ingredient missing --- Find out here!


Proposed boundaries


Any property with frontage on Market Street between Fifth and Van Ness Streets.


The benefits of what is there now


Central Market Street is a commercial street serving the transit needs of the center of The City. It runs past SOMA and Tenderloin, but is distinct and separate.


“Market Street itself is arguably the most transit-intensive street on the West Coast,” points out the Central Market Community Benefit District. “Central Market is connected to the rest of the region by two BART stations and to the rest of the city by the MUNI Metro system, both at Civic Center and Powell stations, also at least 20 bus lines.” 


The commercial buildings range from pre-earthquake to mid-century modern, from two story to high rise. The remains of the pre-TV days survive in the form of three theaters operating successfully for live entertainment and two partially demolished ones serving as porno places. There are also two unused theaters.


The loft buildings on Market and Mission Streets with their high ceilings and irreplaceable design are intensely valuable for performing artists and are incredibly attractive to tech companies.


What the city decided


• The creation of a sanctuary for "gentlemen of leisure" (troubled homeless men) north of Central Market and on Sixth St has made the street unattractive for women shoppers and workers --- and scary for tourists.


• Preventing drivers from using Central Market Street to access parking garages has further tightened the screws against Central Market businesses and owners.


Who needs it?


There are some 85 technology firms currently looking for about 2.7 million square feet of office space, according to analysis from Jones Lang LaSalle, real estate brokerage  Firms actively looking include Yelp, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, Dolby Laboratories, Instagram, and Advent Software.


“The creative and highly trained engineers they want to employ want to live in the city - or at least be able to commute to their jobs easily from surrounding areas.”


Including other types of office space users, there is an estimated demand for seven million square feet of space. Most of this is in the form of lease renewals. Most of the new space need of 3 million sq ft is from tech companies.


Since January 2011, the city added 14,000 jobs. San Francisco’s unemployment level fell from 9.5 percent to 8.1 percent.


How can Central Market attract tech?  The idea behind this report is that a simple zoning incentive can redefine Central Market.















Now the good part


San Francisco is a fantastic lure for the imaginative.


The entry of Twitter and followers opens up the potential to capture the The City’s fastest growing employers if a unique 24 hour district can be devised.


The Central Market regional transportation system makes possible a true "24 hour downtown,” because it can bring in Arts and entertainment patrons from the entire Bay Area.


Nightlife ventures and restaurants in and around The City are in need of accessible venues in a suitable location.    

   

The benefits of 24 hour downtowns


24 hour districts define the nature of a city, bringing customers from the entire region. And in San Francisco's convention and tourist City, they are vital.


•  Previously, South of Market provided a unique District which co-existed with small manufacturing, service and wholesale uses. Now this area is being stressed by the invasion of residential uses. We are finding that apartment dwellers don't want a “24 hour neighborhood.” They don't want crowds outside theaters, bars, restaurants. They don't want sounds on a "24 hour" schedule.


Nightlife attractions need a district free of residents and close to transportation. 


Only the properties with frontage on Market Street are involved in the Central Market Arts Zoning.


Residents will remain in South of Market, protected from 24 hour activity, yet enjoying it when they wish.


Tenderloin residents will not be affected by zoning or use changes. They will not be driven out due to San Francisco’s “many anti-displacement laws,” says Randy Shaw of Tenderloin Housing Clinic, the large activator of Tenderloin’s low cost housing.


Performing Arts are essential


The patrons of performing arts --- theater-goers --- make up the group which is necessary for a 24 hour Downtown. 


  1.   Here's how it works:


In a successful 24 hour downtown, the most important attraction is a variety of special restaurants. While it was previously believed that residents of adjoining residential buildings were the key to restaurant success, we now know that office workers, shoppers, theater-goers and Nightlifers are actually more important. And it is necessary, in a successful 24 hour downtown, for each use throughout the day to have at least TWO groups of users to succeed.


For a restaurant, dinner is the most vital key to success. Restaurants can't thrive in single-use areas.  


Theater-goers attract the most essential customers for restaurants by providing the missing link between Office workers, Shoppers and Nightlifers.



The Solution:

Central Market Art Space Zoning


Because Performing Arts are fragile, the inclusion of a Central Market zoning requirement that new and remodeled Buildings provide and preserve "Black Box" Arts spaces is the unique feature which would best serve and enhance San Francisco.


A "black box" theater is a low-tech performance space that can also be used for rehearsing artistic projects. Black boxes are rooms with sound-proof walls and ceiling and a flat, sprung floor for dance companies. A sufficient electrical source is necessary. Appropriate ceiling heights provide space for lighting grids, rigging, and folding chairs on risers (something like bleachers, but moveable and foldable for storing). A utility sink is provided and dressing room facilities and bathrooms can be shared with other "black boxes" on the floor. The seating is usually modular, with chairs and risers that can be moved, allowing the entire space to be adapted for the artistic elements of a production.  Performers can rehearse in one of the “black boxes” for a performance in a larger theater.


“Black boxes” serve all of the arts, being multi-use spaces accommodating community meetings, gallery showings and fundraising events. Capacity can range from 49 to 199, among other possibilities.


Basically a “black box” is a large, undecorated room with a high ceiling --- the walls may be painted black. 

  1. • Cheap to build in a new project. 

•  Cheap to insert into the existing high-ceiling Central Market loft buildings.


"Black boxes" --- unlike retail and office space --- can be located in the basement or anywhere on upper floors.


Inspiration, artists, and performers come and go. Creative lives could be immensely enhanced by not having to struggle the real estate part of an artist’s brief flight into eternity.


San Francisco can become a national lure for the creative by having a unique district studded with permanent, flexible, well located venues, spaces, "black boxes" --- surrounded by restaurants, bars, hip retail and transit.


The Central Market Arts Zoning would require the provision of a certain square footage for "black box" use in relation to the square footage of renovation and new construction. Incentives would be specified as of right.


In the plan, owners, renovators and builders would earn zoning incentives providing "black boxes" --- such as an increase in rentable area in new construction or tax credits for renovation. Traditionally less rentable space such as basements will provide revenue and be a draw for shops and restaurants.


The City and philanthropic organizations could make grants towards the cost of creating "black boxes" and for the contents:  lighting, risers, etc.


The modest cost to building owners and tenants is more than balanced by the fact that  the real "24 hour downtown" made possible by "black boxes" will make retail space much more valuable for quality restaurants, bars, imaginative retailers --- and in turn make the office space more desirable for tech businesses.


The goal is to provide permanent, flexible spaces for the more cutting edge performing and visual artists, a nursery space for emerging talents who will move up to retail spaces, and the skills to operate in constant ferment. 


The result is to balance street life in Central Market so that workers, residents, shoppers, Nightlifers, tourists and "gentlepeople of leisure" exist in proportions comfortable to all.


An analysis of the numbers appears HERE.















How the Art Space Zoning will work


You guessed it. Struggling artists are being used to lure tech workers to fill half a dozen or so tall, empty buildings.


But it's not what you think (gentrification).


The artists will have their expensive and exasperating real estate problem eased. They will be located in a welcoming environment with a crucial mass large enough to protect their interests. The facilities built for their exclusive uses will exist as long as the renovated or new building does. Arts Space Zoning in Central Market will prevent artists from being squeezed out. New construction or renovations will continue to produce more “black boxes.”


The tech workers will have a unique district, a true "24 hour city center," with a varied stock of working spaces, located along the one street served by the best transit in Northern California. A San Francisco only place where restaurants, shops and services are close-by.


The "people of leisure" to the north and south of Central Market are protected from loosing their homes by existing zoning, city payments to SRO landlords, and by the charitable organization ownership of the "luxury look" buildings. Central Market Arts zoning would not change or apply to any of these buildings.


Making it happen now


This report suggests a zoning solution rather than the Tax Abatement approach put in place for the Tech industry. Special treatment for Central Market Street has been established for one of the new businesses desired. The next step is for the other one --- the Arts.


Speed is vital --- to demonstrate to tech visionaries that creation of a unique Central Market is underway. Tech is the only employment category that's growing fast today. And if the Jones Lang LaSalle estimate of demand for r 2.7 million square feet for technology firms is correct, there are actual companies looking for space which would have the critical mass which Central Market needs.


That means that there are tenants now available to move in --- if there is a new and unmatched lure to grab them. 


Arts Space Zoning for a “24 hour downtown” springing from "black boxes" is that lure.


It will bring a balance to Market St sidewalks of workers, residents, shoppers, Nightlifers, tourists and "people of leisure" in a unique district serving the entire Bay Area.


An analysis of the numbers appears HERE.


The existing Mid Market Project Area Committee of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and The Central Market Partnership of SF OEWD must continue as guiders of Central Market --- being the meeting place for the community, grant makers, and non-profit organizations vital to making it happen.


This plan provides a clear and simple new vision for a compact area vital to the entire City on a feasible timetable, economically achievable.


You can make it happen at Central Market!


Your comments, updates, proposals

are welcome Here

observesf@me.com


The author is in debt to the insights and experiences of Joe Landini of SAFEhouse for the Arts, Mary Alice Fry of Footloose Presents, David Addington of Fair Market Properties, George Williams of the Mid-Market PAC. (Although I suspect they disagree with every conclusion in the report and all of the dashes and comas.)


About the author of The Plan

Anthony King is a city planner and designer experienced in San Francisco, New York, Boston.


In New York City, he created the plans for the Lincoln Center Neighborhood and for Murray Hill South.


  1.   These were old, declining neighborhoods bisected by a wide street which was a center of petty crime and ominous activity.  Retail and restaurants had declined. The three large theaters on Lincoln Center Plaza faced complaints about the area. New residential projects in Murray Hill South were suffering.


  3. In both neighborhoods, by special zoning to add diverse entertainment, an all-day influx of visitors tipped the balance of street activity to safety.