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San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has admonished WB Coyle, a prominent real estate broker from district. 

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Real-Estate-Broker-Not-Welcome-in-City-215887761.html

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San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has admonished WB Coyle, a prominent real estate broker from district. 

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Real-Estate-Broker-Not-Welcome-in-City-215887761.html

Instead, the Board of Supervisors will push any vote on the deal off into the new year.

Three supervisors – David Chiu, David Campos and Mark Farrell - as well as Ken Rich from Mayor Ed Lee’s office have been in intense talks with Sutter Health’s West Bay president, Mike Cohill, and Warren Browner, CEO of the Sutter-affiliated California Pacific Medical Center. Mediating it all is Lou Girardo, the wealthy millionaire who co-owns Boudin Bakery and once sat on the Police Commission.

The proposal to build a 555-bed hospital on Van Ness Avenue hit the skids this year after it became clear that the hospital behemoth couldn’t commit to keeping the struggling St. Luke’s Hospital on Cesar Chavez Avenue open over the long term. The hospital deal is scheduled to be considered at Tuesday’s board meeting, but sources close to the talks said the item will be continued until next year; negotiations will continue all this week.

- Marisa Lagos

Sounding off: Christina Olague isn’t going out quietly.

The District Five supervisor, who lost her re-election bid last month, went on a bit of a rant last week during a committee hearing on a resolution that would help create a policy on domestic violence for city employees. Olague, who received widespread criticism for her vote to keep Ross Mirkarimi as sheriff, linked political opposition to her re-election campaign by the anti-domestic violence community to race issues and said she has been the victim of bullying by that group and Mayor Ed Lee.

“I recognize bullying when I am being bullied, and as a working-class woman of color, I feel that I have been exploited and bullied extensively by this committee,” she said, referring to an independent expenditure committee founded in the final days before the election to oppose her run. The group raised more than $100,000 and ran ads attacking her for her Mirkarimi vote. “I think it’s very unfortunate that this political action committee that was composed primarily of white women who have not directly worked and intervened with victims of domestic violence have been able to exploit a woman like myself from the working class who is an underrepresented minority.”

The committee was funded by Gayle Conway, wife of angel investor Ron Conway, and Linda Voight, wife of real estate investor Thomas Coates, but headed by Andrea Shorter, also a woman of color. Olague will be replaced by London Breed, who is African-American.

Olague said she hopes that in the future “the number of women of color associated with this issue will increase.”

Supervisors John Avalos - who also voted to keep Mirkarimi as sheriff – and Eric Mar, who did not, both said they supported her comments. Women’s groups have complained that they were harassed and bullied for opposing Mirkarimi’s bid to keep his job following his arrest last January on suspicion of domestic violence and later guilty plea to falsely imprisoning his wife.

- Marisa Lagos

A new plan: The San Francisco Planning Commission OKd a new way forward for development in the western South of Market neighborhood, voting unanimously to adopt a plan that has been hotly debated for years.

The plan, which still needs approval from the Board of Supervisors, calls for adding housing to an area north of Harrison Street, while a second section south of Harrison would be reserved for commercial use.

The creation of the Folsom Street Neighborhood Commercial District would effectively make Folsom Street the “ceremonial center” of the neighborhood, plan architects say.

Entertainment has been a contentious issue in the planning process, with some club owners concerned that adding housing could threaten existing nightlife spots. Supporters of the plan said entertainment would become fully permitted under new zoning for the 11th Street Corridor, which was changed from residential to mixed-use office.

Jim Meko, the chair of the citizens’ task force that has been working on the plan since 2004, said the goal is to make western SoMa a “more complete neighborhood.”

“We took a fresh approach to zoning and it made better sense,” he said. “It’s the most comprehensive and detailed neighborhood plan that the commission has ever dealt with.”

- Neal J. Riley

This week’s news

Monday: The Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee will discuss whether to ban smoking at certain outdoor events. The meeting begins at 1 p.m.

Tuesday: Mayor Ed Lee will make an appearance at the Board of Supervisors for question time, where Supervisor David Chiu will ask when the city will produce a report looking at how city laws impact small businesses and Supervisor John Avalos plans to ask what the mayor is doing to create living-wage jobs to prevent the loss of the city’s middle class. The meeting begins at 2 p.m.

E-mail: cityinsider@sfchroncile.com Twitter: @SFCityInsider

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Vote-on-S-F-hospitals-likely-in-2013-4104095.php

It also comes with a deal involving some of The City’s most valuable public real estate, and the pact with race officials needs significant changes if San Francisco’s financial ship is going to stay on course, a budget analyst’s report released Thursday says.

The business arm of the race, the America’s Cup Event Authority, plans to finance waterfront pier improvements that the Port of San Francisco cannot afford. In return, race officials would receive ownership and long-term rent-free leases after the 2013 event for some of The City’s most desirable Bay-front property to build luxury condominiums, retail outlets and other developments yet to be determined.

Although the Port normally requires such deals to include a portion of future lease revenue to be funneled back into public coffers, that’s not currently part of the America’s Cup agreement. But the report conducted by budget and legislative analyst Harvey Rose recommends a 1 percent equivalent of all condominium sales be retained by the Port and that it also should receive a cut of real estate transfer fees.

Under the terms of the current deal, the authority would initially invest $55 million in pier improvements in exchange for a 66-year lease at Piers 30-32 and ownership of Seawall Lot 330, a property already approved for condos.

The authority could then opt to do additional pier work and get 66-year leases on piers 26, 28 and 29, which would trigger repayment from The City with an 11 percent interest rate. The report recommends that a cap be placed on the amount race officials can spend on improvements, or else The City could end up being roped into repayment for up to 91 years after the event.

The report suggests The City should nix Pier 29, at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from being transferred to race officials after the event. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has been pointing to the lucrative property as a problem spot in the deal.

“Pier 29 needs to come off the table,” Chiu said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll push to have it removed in the weeks ahead.”

Stephen Barclay, a board member of the authority and the group’s primary negotiator, has been talking tough in recent weeks, saying concessions have already been made to mitigate the financial stress on the Port. Barclay said on Tuesday he will “draw the line” with Pier 29, because it is essential to the authority seeing a return on the total $111 million it plans to spend.

“We face an urgent deadline to get construction under way, so any additional changes would detrimentally affect the balance of the bargain,” Barclay said recently in a statement.

The report also levies concern about potentially lax fundraising by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the nonprofit in charge of covering The City’s $52 million cost of putting on the race in September 2013.

If the committee raises its goal of $32 million by 2013 and The City can generate $22 million in hotel and sales taxes during the event, San Francisco will come out more than $2 million ahead, the report says. But if fundraising stagnates at its current $8 million level, The City’s taxpayers could be in the hole for nearly $22 million.

Local Democratic Party Chairman Aaron Peskin said the long-term fiscal impact of the race shouldn’t be taken lightly, and upcoming Board of Supervisors hearings on the matter should include discussions about how to expose The City to less risk.

“As currently structured, this transaction is still taking San Francisco and its taxpayers to the poor house, and many of us are hopeful the Board of Supervisors will insist on some rational changes,” Peskin said.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

America’s Cup price tag

$300M Total cost for competition

$52M Cost to The City

$32M City costs to be offset by fundraising

$22M City costs to be offset by hotel and sales taxes

$1.4B Economic benefits for Bay Area, as estimated by race officials

Sources: America’s Cup Event Authority, San Francisco budget and legislative analyst report

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/regatta-deal-might-sink-san-franciscos-coffers

It also comes with a deal involving some of The City’s most valuable public real estate, and the pact with race officials needs significant changes if San Francisco’s financial ship is going to stay on course, a budget analyst’s report released Thursday says.

The business arm of the race, the America’s Cup Event Authority, plans to finance waterfront pier improvements that the Port of San Francisco cannot afford. In return, race officials would receive ownership and long-term rent-free leases after the 2013 event for some of The City’s most desirable Bay-front property to build luxury condominiums, retail outlets and other developments yet to be determined.

Although the Port normally requires such deals to include a portion of future lease revenue to be funneled back into public coffers, that’s not currently part of the America’s Cup agreement. But the report conducted by budget and legislative analyst Harvey Rose recommends a 1 percent equivalent of all condominium sales be retained by the Port and that it also should receive a cut of real estate transfer fees.

Under the terms of the current deal, the authority would initially invest $55 million in pier improvements in exchange for a 66-year lease at Piers 30-32 and ownership of Seawall Lot 330, a property already approved for condos.

The authority could then opt to do additional pier work and get 66-year leases on piers 26, 28 and 29, which would trigger repayment from The City with an 11 percent interest rate. The report recommends that a cap be placed on the amount race officials can spend on improvements, or else The City could end up being roped into repayment for up to 91 years after the event.

The report suggests The City should nix Pier 29, at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from being transferred to race officials after the event. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has been pointing to the lucrative property as a problem spot in the deal.

“Pier 29 needs to come off the table,” Chiu said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll push to have it removed in the weeks ahead.”

Stephen Barclay, a board member of the authority and the group’s primary negotiator, has been talking tough in recent weeks, saying concessions have already been made to mitigate the financial stress on the Port. Barclay said on Tuesday he will “draw the line” with Pier 29, because it is essential to the authority seeing a return on the total $111 million it plans to spend.

“We face an urgent deadline to get construction under way, so any additional changes would detrimentally affect the balance of the bargain,” Barclay said recently in a statement.

The report also levies concern about potentially lax fundraising by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the nonprofit in charge of covering The City’s $52 million cost of putting on the race in September 2013.

If the committee raises its goal of $32 million by 2013 and The City can generate $22 million in hotel and sales taxes during the event, San Francisco will come out more than $2 million ahead, the report says. But if fundraising stagnates at its current $8 million level, The City’s taxpayers could be in the hole for nearly $22 million.

Local Democratic Party Chairman Aaron Peskin said the long-term fiscal impact of the race shouldn’t be taken lightly, and upcoming Board of Supervisors hearings on the matter should include discussions about how to expose The City to less risk.

“As currently structured, this transaction is still taking San Francisco and its taxpayers to the poor house, and many of us are hopeful the Board of Supervisors will insist on some rational changes,” Peskin said.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

America’s Cup price tag

$300M Total cost for competition

$52M Cost to The City

$32M City costs to be offset by fundraising

$22M City costs to be offset by hotel and sales taxes

$1.4B Economic benefits for Bay Area, as estimated by race officials

Sources: America’s Cup Event Authority, San Francisco budget and legislative analyst report

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/regatta-deal-might-sink-san-franciscos-coffers