San Francisco has unveiled the first round of "pop-up" businesses that have been chosen to occupy rent-free empty downtown retail spaces as part of the city's new Vacant to Vibrant program.
Seventeen businesses were selected out of more than 900 applicants to receive empty retail space in downtown buildings. In addition to the free space-the pop-ups will pay no rent during three- to six-month "activation" periods-these companies also will get grants ranging from $3K to $8K from the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD).
Cooperating building owners receive $5,000 from the program to cover utilities and other costs.
Vacant to Vibrant, with an overall budget of $710K, is part of Mayor London Breed's Roadmap to San Francisco's Future, which includes a variety of initiatives designed to reimagine the city's downtown, which has been hollowed out by remote office workers, leading to an exodus of retailers.
OEWD is hoping that some of these pop-ups can stick and become long-term participants in a downtown revival, but the immediate goal is to bring more people into the beleaguered downtown.
Not all of the businesses selected for the first round are startups. Devil's Teeth Baking Co. and Green Apple Books, small businesses based in the Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods, now are sharing 500 SF in One Embarcadero Center.
The Mills Building, an historic building dating back to 1892 and now owned by Swig Co., is welcoming NPR radio station KALW-which normally operates from a studio near McLaren Park-to fill a retail space formerly occupied by a Ricoh camera store. The storefront also will provide gallery space for local artists.
Boston Properties, which owns One Embarcadero Center, is offering several suites to the Vacant to Vibrant program. The Gateway is hosting four pop-ups at two locations on Jackson Street, while Pembroke will be home to two pop-ups at 100 California Street. Lincoln Properties' 33 Pine Street will have two pop-ups.
Breed unveiled her roadmap during a State of the City address in February. "San Francisco's downtown, as we know it, is not coming back," Breed declared, positioning the speech as "a call to action to reimagine what our future holds."
The city is aiming to fill more than 40 vacant storefronts with the Vacant to Vibrant program, which will unveil the chosen applications in three rounds.
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