Austin Allison grinned.

“This looks great; it’s a hip, high-tech vibe,” he said, snapping photos with his iPhone. “It’s open, collaborative space.”

Allison, 26, was seeking a San Francisco base for DotLoop, the technology company he founded in his hometown of Cincinnati three years ago.

He and his wife, Angela Allison, 28, who runs a decorative painting company, plan to relocate to the city this month with their Yorkshire terrier, Paris.

The couple’s move and their quest for living and work space epitomize a modern-day migration being played out continually in the city. San Francisco’s pull as a high-tech hub and cachet as a place to live is drawing growing numbers of entrepreneurs and technology workers who move here from as nearby as Mountain View or as far away as India.

“The Bay Area has one of the most educated and creative workforces anywhere on the planet,” said Gabriel Metcalf, president of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. “For companies trying to be innovative, the Bay Area is one of the best locations there is. This sets up a ‘virtuous cycle’: The more companies that locate here, the more talent wants to be here, which then improves the attractiveness to more companies.”

Since early 2010, San Francisco’s number of tech sector workers has grown by 13,000, hitting 44,000, according to an analysis of state Employment Development Department data, said Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis at CNRE, a commercial real estate firm.

Growing tech hub

In the same time frame, 150 tech firms have set up shop in the city, bringing the total number of such enterprises to 1,850.

Meanwhile, 18 firms from outside the city are seeking office space here.

“We’re seeing the office market explode with an influx of tech companies,” said Donnette Clarens of Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank, DotLoop’s broker.

The Allisons – high school sweethearts – did an initial foray in May, seeking a base for DotLoop and an apartment for themselves, and lost out on some places by not pouncing quickly enough. They returned for two whirlwind days of hunting in late June.

Austin Allison dropped out of his second year of law school in 2009 to found DotLoop, which automates paperwork for real estate agents. Launched with angel capital, the company became profitable in 17 months, he said. In May, to accelerate growth, it took $7 million in funding from Trinity Ventures.

San Francisco is the clear place for that expansion to happen, he said.

“San Francisco has a talent pool that is different and more robust than the talent pool that exists in the Midwest,” he said. “Our office here will become our bleeding-edge tech arm, but our internal operations will stay in Cincinnati.”

He wants to hire 10 to 20 people in San Francisco within the next year. Having an office that projects the right vibe – “fun, cool, energetic, with lots of natural light, high ceilings and an open floor plan” and near amenities and transit – is a key part of recruitment, he said. Another big consideration is flexibility: a space that can grow with the company, or a shorter lease period in case it needs to relocate.

Then there’s price. “We want to be scrappy and prudent, but we don’t want to scrimp by holing up in a cave,” he said.

Average rents

DotLoop wanted to pay in the mid-$40s per square foot per year. That’s on target with the city’s first-quarter average rent of $46.66 a square foot, as tracked by Jones Lang LaSalle, which notes that rates are up 39 percent from the market bottom in 2010. The firm needs about 2,000 square feet to start.

Austin Allison has a strong preference to be in SoMa, near other up-and-coming tech firms. SoMa’s vacancy rate is 3.8 percent, Jones Lang LaSalle said; it hasn’t been that low since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000.

While incubator spaces offer flexibility, he feels DotLoop is past the startup phase of working cheek by jowl with other nascent companies, just as people outgrow group houses after college.

“We are a real company with products, revenue and customers, not a three-person startup with an idea,” he said. “Our space should reflect that.”

Like other tech folks, he eschews the type of traditional offices inhabited by lawyers and accountants.

That’s spurred an odd trend downtown: Landlords rip out walls and ceilings so Class A offices will look more like old warehouses.

“They are exposing natural brick that’s been sheet-rocked up for years, opening up the ceilings, trying to maximize window lines to get great light,” Clarens said. “It’s all about making it more attractive to creative-user tenants.”

Austin Allison made offers on two offices: A space one floor above the open-floor-plan Second Street office and a cheaper sublet. After two weeks of negotiations, DotLoop signed for the Second Street space, agreeing to a two-year lease on 1,900 square feet in the low $40s. A big plus was a contiguous office that will be available in a year, offering room to grow.

Housing budget

On the housing front, the Allisons were in the lucky position of having a $4,000-a-month budget. At that price range, they didn’t have to deal with cattle-call open houses where dozens of hopefuls jostle for favor with a rental agent.

Still, it was competitive. In May, they were surprised when apartments they toured got snapped up within hours.

The couple’s apartment wish list mirrored that for DotLoop’s office space.

“We’re steeped in that world of lofts with high ceilings and an industrial feel,” Angela said. “Most San Francisco places are older in style; SoMa and South Beach are the only areas with robust modern architecture.”

They decided to boost their monthly budget to $6,000, because a second bedroom to host DotLoop’s Cincinnati employees was a must.

They looked at condos being sublet and apartments for rent in several high-end high-rises: The Infinity near the Ferry Building, the Paramount and the Metropolitan in SoMa.

Sticker shock

A converted loft in a smaller building in Mint Plaza appealed to both for its industrial aesthetic – but it had just one bedroom. At the Brannan in South Park, a stunning view of the bay and ATT Park was a draw, but the $6,000-a-month condo’s biggest pluses were that it came fully furnished in a sleek, modern style; had two bed/bath suites separated by the living/dining room; and was near Highway 101 for quick access to SFO.

They decided to go for it and signed a one-year lease.

Not surprisingly, the couple had some sticker shock.

“Our Cincinnati condo is about $350,000; it easily would be $1.5 million out here,” Austin said. “Our Cincinnati office is less than $10 a square foot. It’s extremely competitive out here; the landlord has more leverage to dictate how the game is played.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Tech-firms-seeks-perfect-space-in-S-F-3691082.php

The Mission Blue butterfly is the central image in Mona Caron’s mural of Brisbane, California. www.monacaron.com

You drive by it often. You can see it from any high vantage point. And yet many people living in the Bay Area know very little about San Bruno Mountain – the massive, bald hill just south of San Francisco – let alone its fame among national and international conservationists.

The surprising story of why San Bruno Mountain, the largest undeveloped landmass in the urban United States, remains predominantly real estate-free is told in the documentary Butterflies Bulldozers, showing this week at the first San Francisco Green Film Festival.

The 40-year-and-counting fight to save the mountain has ruined friendships, altered the Endangered Species Act, and spurred E.O. Wilson to dub the mountain one of eighteen global biodiversity hot spots in need of protection.  All that and in your own backyard.

One of the few movies in the new film festival to focus on the Bay Area, Butterflies Bulldozers is the work of two local filmmakers Ann and Steve Dunsky. Way Out West recently spoke with the Dunsky’s about their movie.

WOW: Sum up the story told in Butterflies Bulldozers.

Ann: The big picture is that it’s a story about San Bruno Mountain and the attempts to develop it over the years.

Steve: It’s a story about compromise. We start with a quote by Aldo Leopold in which he says, “The question of when to compromise is one for which there is no easy answer.”

Ann: What really interested us was this relationship between David and Fred. Two young guys move to San Bruno in their 20s, both want to protect the mountain and wind up having this bitter falling out over how to go about doing it.

WOW: David and Fred seem to capture two opposite approaches to conservation.

Ann: I would agree. David’s heart is so big, and I think he bleeds when he thinks about anybody killing anything. And he’s right, they are killing endangered species through the destruction of habitat. And Fred decided to work within the system.

Steve: Whether David Schooley’s hard line, no-compromise stand is the right one or Fred Smith’s working within the system is the right one, we feel that both of those are valid ways of trying to achieve a conservation objective. This story is repeated over and over again in conservation history. And so while it’s about San Bruno Mountain, the story is symptomatic of the environmental movement.

WOW: Why is San Bruno Mountain worth protecting from development?

Ann: It’s the last intact fragment of what they call the Franciscan biome. It’s the only part of the original San Francisco landscape that’s left. It’s also the largest open space within an urban area in the country.

A lot of people we interviewed said, “Really, frankly, it’s a big, brown, bald mountain.” But until you get on it, you have no idea what’s up there. It’s cold and it’s wind swept, but it’s an amazing place. It’s a wonderland with springs, a cave, and there are different areas that are very distinct from one another. David is the one who knows it like the back of his hand. He still leads nature hikes.

WOW: How did the fight to save San Bruno Mountain change the Endangered Species Act?

Steve: It’s really a significant piece of environmental history. The larger story is the rights of endangered species versus the property rights of individuals. There was a train wreck coming between the fifth amendment of the constitution, which allows for just compensation of property owners, versus, as one character said, the rights of a subspecies of insect.

Legal minds like Fred Smith and Tom Adams, the lawyer in the film, said, “We’re going to lose this [San Bruno Mountain] if we try to make this butterfly versus development. We need to find a way to make a compromise.” When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, we had these charismatic megafauna that we were saving – grizzly bears, wolves, and bald eagles.

The act only allowed for the taking of endangered species for scientific purposes or for certain government projects. Tom Adams and his wife, who is also an attorney, were trying to figure out how they could maybe allow this [San Bruno Mountain] development to occur in this area that was designated as critical habitat for these butterflies. They started working with a bunch of people in Washington to develop the Habitat Conservation Plan.

It allows for the preservation of some areas of habitat that are critical, so you’re not taking all of the habitat. And the idea was that in exchange you could actually restore some habitat that was degraded.

A lot has been learned about how to do these in the 30 years since that first plan. There are habitat plans in other parts of the country that have also had problems and there are some that have been very successful.

Ann: Some people, like David Schooley, will tell you that they’re all horrible and all wrong, and other people will say they’re all brilliant. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Butterflies Bulldozers runs 62 minutes and is showing at 12:30 pm, Friday, March 4. Steve and Ann Dunsky will be in attendance.

Tags: ann dunsky, butterflies bulldozers, environment movie, san bruno mountain, san francisco green film festival, steve dunsky

Article source: http://www.wayoutwestnews.com/2011/03/02/bay-area-premier-of-the-san-bruno-mt-film-butterflies-bulldozers/