No. 45, April 2005

Glide pulls plug on Pavilion
{Futures Collaborative}

By Tom Carter

The Tenderloin Pavilion dream is dead. The cash cow for the community has gone belly up.

NOMPC began dreaming of the economic development project 10 years ago. The Lower Eddy/Leavenworth Task Force started planning for it six years ago. And the nonprofit Glide Economic Development Corp. formed five years ago to get it off the ground.

By 2003, GEDC had purchased four of 12 lots between Ellis and Eddy, Mason and Taylor. Planned for those sites were a 144,000-square-foot convention center, 10,000 square feet of retail space, 400 housing units, parking for 500 cars and 10,000 square feet of below-market rental space for nonprofits. Latest estimated project costs ran to $250 million.

At a March 9 Tenderloin Futures Collaborative meeting, Don Falk, TNDC’s director of housing development, told a stunned assemblage that the 12-lot Pavilion project appeared to be dead in the water and would be reconfigured as a four-lot housing development with, perhaps, some ground-floor retail space.

Falk had little more information to report about the demise of the project, whose partners included TNDC, Mayor’s Office of Housing, San Francisco Hilton, Glide Church, Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, and S.F. Convention Facilities Department and The City Parking Authority.

The Extra had heard rumors that “something” was up with the Pavilion seven weeks before Falk’s bombshell, but had been unable to reach any staff or board members for details.

“I’m in denial,” Debbie Larkin, public relation director for the Hilton and a GEDC board member, told The Extra when we reached her after Falk’s announcement. “It’s hard to say it’s really over. It came down to financing and obstacles we couldn’t overcome.” 

The original plan called for nearby hotels, like the Hilton, to help subsidize the project because having a small convention center within walking distance would benefit them.

On the plus side, Larkin said she feels the block that the Pavilion project would have encompassed is still key in providing economic benefits. “And of course the Hilton will stay involved with GEDC — we’re committed to improving the neighborhood and we won’t pull out.”

Thinking positively, too, is longtime Tenderloin housing advocate Brad Paul. He staffed the Lower Eddy/Leavenworth Task Force and now is a senior program officer at Haas Jr. Fund, which put $100,000 for predevelopment into the Pavilion project.

“This is still viable,” Paul said. “Just because it can’t be done as one project, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done as several, maybe even on the same block. There’s still a need for a convention center.”

He didn’t rule out Haas putting more predevelopment money into the scaled-down housing project.

Falk told The Extra that the next steps will involve TNDC and GEDC putting together a proposal for the Mayor’s Office of Housing to help fund what he estimates would be 150 housing units.

“There’s a strong push from the mayor for homeless housing, so the plan will probably reflect that, plus TNDC’s and GEDC’s priorities,” Falk said.

GEDC  still has made no official announcement about the plug being pulled from the Pavilion project. Asked at the TFC meeting if there was to be one, Falk said, “I guess this is it.”

The Extra’s repeated calls to GEDC President Mel Carriere and GEDC Project Manager Paula Collins were not returned.

Bulldog Baths may become housing

Other land use issues grabbed the TFC spotlight.

For starters, a Tenderloin eyesore — the old Bulldog Baths at 130 Turk — soon may be renovated into housing, announced project architect Suheil Shatara.

Shatara showed draft elevations of plans to create 21 residential units, seven per floor, each 300 square feet. He said he couldn’t share the name of the current owner because the sale was in escrow. “I was just hired to do these preliminary drawings,” he said, “and was asked to come here to make a presentation. ”

But he did explain that a transfer of ownership was imminent. “If the potential buyer gets what he needs, the project will go forward.”

That buyer was Turq Development Corp. Retirement Trust, he said, and yes, T-u-r-q. City Planning was scheduled to review the preliminary design in late March.

The Extra checked with the assessor’s office later and found that the owner of record for the past five years is RLM Development LLC, located at 870 Innes Ave., in Bayview-Hunters Point.

In the fast and loose 1980s, before the Public Health director shut down bathhouses, trying to stem the AIDS epidemic, the Bulldog was a wild place, complete with raunchy murals and an entire S & M sex cellblock on the top floor.

“The building’s been empty since the mid-1980s,” said Jim Thompson, longtime property manager at the Aspen Tenderloin Apartments across the street at 165 Turk. “Even vacant, it’s been a community problem.”

The Extra was unable to reach Shatara at the end of March to get an update on the project.

Land use panel lays its foundation

The Collaborative’s new land use subcommittee met for the first time in January, its goal to monitor and analyze central city parcels for demolitions, rehabs, new construction, use changes, license and permit applications, denials, and more. Members are Glenda Hope, executive director of S.F. Network Ministries; Mark Aaronson, director of Hastings Civil Justice Clinic; and Peter Cohen, Urban Solutions’ planning manager.

             “We’re still organizing,” Aaronson reported to TFC. “Urban Solutions will track uses, and two of my students will put together a manual for systematically reviewing developments as they come up.”  

Meetings are the first Friday of the month, 11 a.m., at Hastings Civil Justice Clinic, 100 McAllister, room 300, and are open to the public, especially to those with planning expertise. Call ahead so your name can be left with security: 557-7887.

TNDC sets priorities

Besides announcing the Pavilion shocker, TNDC’s Falk ran down the organization’s eight projects for the next couple of years. Two are under construction; the others range from the dreamin’ stage to the design phase. In three of the six, the homeless are the target population for all units.

TNDC’s newest projects made the cut based on what the organization thinks is most important, Falk said. The first criterion is that a project be located not in the heart of the Tenderloin but on its perimeter, “to discourage gentrification,” he said.

Falk later explained what he meant. “The real Tenderloin is shrinking,” he said. “The areas most vulnerable to being developed for higher rentals are on the edges of the Tenderloin. If we build equitable developments there, it should stop the shrinkage and make for a healthier neighborhood.”

TNDC also prefers projects that feature family units with two or more bedrooms; new construction and substantial rehabilitation; units for extremely low-income populations that include supportive services; long-term financial viability; community support; and renovations to TNDC’s existing portfolio.

“We bought many of our buildings in the 1980s,” Falk said of the last criterion. “They need to be renovated.”

David Baker, NOMPC acting president, asked him how many units TNDC manages today.

“We own 1,716 solely or jointly,” he answered, “and that doesn’t include the ones in development”— 67 at Curran House, scheduled to be ready this August, and 110 at 990 Polk, which won’t be ready until 2008.

“Is TNDC interested in the YMCA?” someone asked. 

Falk grinned widely, paused a half-beat and answered, “Yes!” But he’d say no more.

At the last TFC meeting, Central Y Executive Director Carmela Gold announced that the Y was putting its main building and two parking lots up for sale, and hoped they’d be developed as housing. Realtor for the sale Monica Finnegan told the Chronicle March 31 that the building alone, without the lots, might be worth $9 million to $25 million.

“By the way,” Gold said at meeting’s end, “we’re closing the bids April 18.”

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