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Rizal Wong, a junior associate at the tech and business communications firm Sard Verbinnen and Company, left the Bay Area in December, trading a studio apartment in Oakland for a cheaper one-bedroom in his hometown, Sacramento, close to his family. But after getting vaccinated, he moved to San Francisco in April.

“I felt like I was getting back to my life,” said Mr. Wong, 22. “Meeting up with co-workers who were also vaccinated and getting drinks after work, it definitely makes it feel more normal.”

Mr. Wong, like many who left the Bay Area, didn’t go very far. Of the more than 170,000 people who moved from the vicinity of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland in 2020, the vast majority relocated elsewhere in California, according to United States Postal Service change-of-address data analyzed by CBRE, a real estate company.

About 20,000 moved to the San Jose area, for example. A further 16,000 went to Los Angeles, nearly 15,000 to Sacramento and 8,000 to Stockton, in California’s Central Valley. The more than 77,000 people who left the San Jose metro area, a proxy for Silicon Valley, went to similar places: San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. In February, The San Francisco Chronicle reported similar numbers using Postal Service data.

The net migration out of the San Francisco and San Jose regions — that takes into account people who moved in — was about 116,000 last year, up from about 64,000 in 2019, according to the analysis of the Postal Service data.

Nearly every year for several decades, thousands more residents have left Silicon Valley and San Francisco than moved in, according to state data. Often, this movement is offset by an influx of immigrants from other countries — which was limited during the pandemic.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/technology/tech-workers-bay-area-back.html

“California’s communities have shown their resilience in the face of immense challenges this past year. As we look to a brighter future ahead, Apple is committed to continuing our work with partners across the state to support these communities and help combat the housing crisis in meaningful ways,” Kristina Raspe, Apple vice president of global real estate and facilities, said in a statement.

The majority of the $1 billion in funding has gone to fund down-payment and mortgage assistance for first-time buyers and to fund new affordable housing projects through the California Housing Finance Agency, the state entity that provides low-interest loans.

The company has also contributed funds to homeless nonprofit Destination: Home and Housing Trust Silicon Valley. Apple eventually plans to contribute a total of $200 million to the two groups.

San Jose resident Alma Rodriguez lost her job as a house cleaner during the pandemic and received financial support from Destination: Home’s Homelessness Prevention System, which helped her pay rent and pay for other expenses like internet service for her three sons’ remote learning. She recently started a new job.

“Once the pandemic hit, it was very hard to provide for my family, and every dollar meant a lot to me. When I found out about receiving the support I couldn’t believe it — without that help we would have lost our internet and so much more,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, said more corporate and philanthropic support is needed.

“While many in our community are seeing their lives return to normal, the most vulnerable among us are struggling just to keep a roof over their heads … with the level of need greater than ever, we need more corporate and philanthropic partners to step up and help us tackle this growing threat to our community,” she said in a statement.

Apple has also committed funding to 10 affordable housing projects in the Bay Area totaling more than 800 units, including the 30-unit Veterans Square in Pittsburg, which will include homes for homeless veterans.

In 2019, the company previously pledged to create $1 billion affordable housing fund in partnership with the state, provide $1 billion for home buyer assistance and use land valued at $300 million for affordable housing.

Google and Facebook each have committed $1 billion to local housing efforts.

For customers, it’s a new way of tasting indie California wines in sleek, modern rooms near downtown Napa, Healdsburg and Sebastopol — without required reservations and with a more casual atmosphere that caters to locals more than tourists. One of the new entities, a 3-acre property called Bacchus Landing opening on Friday, is even targeting families with children by offering an artisanal food market, an herb garden and bocce ball courts.

“Wine can have the tendency of becoming not so approachable sometimes,” said Monica Lopez, a co-founder at Bacchus and owner of Santa Rosa winery Aldina Vineyards. “We wanted to create all these different areas so everyone feels comfortable.”

The uptick in collectives is partly a business decision. In the past, small wine brands could rely on selling to restaurants and wine shops, but these days, vintners say that having a place to host visitors is crucial. Direct-to-consumer sales now make up 72% of the average California winery’s sales, according to a Silicon Valley Bank survey published in May. On top of that, direct sales are the most profitable way for wineries to sell wine, since they don’t have to give a cut of the profit to a distributor, restaurant or retailer.

The cost of overhead required to run a tasting room, though, such as rent and staff, might not be worth it for small producers.

Stephanie Mesher co-owns a wine brand, Essere, that makes just 500 cases of wine a year and “never really considered opening a tasting room of our own,” she said. Being part of a collective changed that. Along with five other small Napa wineries, she became a partner in Mia Carta, a stylishly decorated tasting room that opened in a prime spot on First Street in downtown Napa in June.

A three-dimensional map of the city of Napa spans an entire wall (“our Instagrammable moment,” partner Kim Bogner said), and visitors can taste a diverse range of wines from the six producers (Essere, Art House, Ilsley, Rarecat, Redmon and Sciandri Family), from a $30 Sauvignon Blanc to $225 Cabernet Sauvignon.

“When we’re competing with wineries on mountains with views and caves, a space like this really helps us support one another,” said Elana Hill, manager of the Vichy Tasting Experience, a collective of three wineries located near downtown Napa. Her family winery, Prime Solum, is one of the three partners.

Other vintners simply wanted to be in a downtown area like Napa or Healdsburg because of the foot traffic, and teaming up made it more reasonable.

For years, winemaker Jason Holman was trying to get customers to come for a tasting at his Holman Cellars, located in an industrial park in an area of south Napa. “It was disheartening to see the amount of people driving by us and not even think about coming in for a tasting,” he said. In 2018, he co-founded Rebel Vintners with winemakers Kevin Cadle (Cadle Family Wines) and Tim Keith (Leaf Vine). Now, with a location in the heart of downtown Napa, the three vintners say their partnership has boosted all of their businesses.

“Just being able to be in front of the masses in downtown Napa has been huge for all of our brands,” Holman said.

Not all Wine Country tasting room collectives are the same. At places like Mia Carta, Rebel Vintners and Napa’s Outland, visitors are invited to experience bottlings from all of the wineries at once. These tasting rooms emphasize the diversity of their offerings, geared toward a customer who wants to try a lot of different-tasting wines made by idiosyncratic winemakers. At Outland, a flight might start with Forlorn Hope’s Picpoul, a viscous white wine, from the Sierra foothills, then move to a Sonoma County Pinot Noir from Poe, then a savory Syrah from Farella’s estate in Napa.

Other collectives capitalize on the shared real estate but maintain distinct branding. At Vichy, each of the three wineries — Prime Solum, Jean Edwards Cellars and Bougetz Cellars — has its own tasting room. Vichy evolved from a traditional tasting room belonging only to Prime Solum; it added partners to make better use of the space. They’re like-minded businesses: all have a similar price point, with bottles starting in the mid-$30 range and going to $150.

Bacchus Landing, meanwhile, devised a hybrid model. Four of the eight wineries that make up this collective have their own tasting rooms, while the remainder share a fifth. “It’s less about business survival and more about giving smaller wineries a consumer-facing location,” said Lopez, who founded Bacchus with her brother Francisco.

Many collective tasting spaces are also going beyond just serving wine, like Bacchus with its sandwich and charcuterie-plate food market. The Lopez siblings hope to bring in food trucks in the future. Vichy, too, has a commercial food license, and another new collective in Healdsburg — a joint venture of Leo Steen and Rootdown wineries called the Drink — has parked a vintage espresso cart outside its doors.

“It’s not that we expect people to go to all three tasting rooms in one visit,” said Karen Troisi, co-owner of Jean Edwards Cellar at Vichy. “But if they do a tasting with us, they can head over to Prime Solum for some food after.”

There’s evidence that this collective tasting room model may grow. Case in point is Region, which opened in Sebastopol’s Barlow complex last summer. It represents 25 Sonoma County wineries, which each pay membership dues and commissions. Its major point of differentiation is a massive, self-serve wine wall featuring machines that dispense 1-ounce, 2.5-ounce or 5-ounce pours of 50 different wines. Customers get a card, swipe it at the machines where they want to taste, then settle their tab before leaving.

At any given time, the wines available might range from Orsa’s Pinot Noir rosé ($22 per bottle) to Immortal Estate’s Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($300 per bottle). Each winery signs a one-year agreementwith Region. At the end of this year, four are expected to to leave, and four new ones will come in, co-founder Kerry Thedorf said.

The self-serve model is commonly seen at breweries, but rarely in wine-focused settings. “This is the soft-serve yogurt machine for adults,” said Thedorf.

Business at Region appears to be good — so good, in fact, that Thedorf and Eide plan to take the concept on the road. They plan to open a second location in San Luis Obispo in February, featuring wineries from Paso Robles, Edna Valley and other wine regions in San Luis Obispo County. Will there be further expansions beyond that? “Possibly,” said Thedorf. “It’s gotta be in a wine-growing region. It’s not just a chain you can open anywhere.”

Hill, of Vichy, suspects the trend will catch on with customers in a big way. “There’s infinite potential for this model,” she said. “It allows people who are making small amounts of wine to connect with guests, and there’s no pressure to sell or to answer to corporate folks.”

What’s more, at a time when more wineries are moving to appointment-only tasting models, these collectives often eschew that trend. Instead of plotting out a tasting schedule, people can simply show up. That, winemakers hope, may make it easier for locals to make spur-of-the-moment plans.

“At the end of the day, it’s our local community that’s going to create business for us,” said Monica Lopez. “They will come here even during the winter months.”

Now, customers are eagerly awaiting a new restaurant, Table at 7, by Singapore’s oldest cafe chain. It promises to present modern Singaporean and Indonesian flavors while highlighting produce from local farms. Walnut Creek is also getting a new matcha cafe by Berkeley’s wildly popular mochi outfit Third Culture Bakery later this summer. And the East Bay city’s first food hall, the Foundry, is in the works.

It’s been a gradual, but pointed, change for the small suburban city. Ambitious restaurateurs in the Bay Area tend to eye cities such as San Francisco or Oakland, not comparatively quieter locales farther east like Walnut Creek.

“(Table at 7) is going to be incredible,” said Brian Hirahara, a real estate developer, Walnut Creek resident and self-proclaimed foodie. “Seeing more interesting options and diversity as opposed to more of the Cheesecake Factory — that’s been a big shift.”

There are several reasons Walnut Creek is suited for development and new restaurants, according to BH Development’s Hirahara, who was behind some of the city’s most exciting restaurant openings in the past 20 years. It’s located at the confluence of two freeways. It has multiple theaters and the Lesher Center for the Arts, which puts on plays, dance performances, outdoor concerts and gallery exhibitions. There is a ton of shopping, from major retailers like Nordstrom to indie boutiques. Several new residential developments promising more than 500 units are on their way.

And with its warm weather and many downtown restaurants taking advantage of outdoor dining, the city became a bustling destination throughout the pandemic, Hirahara said.

“Obviously San Francisco has a great dining scene, but maybe people just want to get away,” he said. “We’re becoming more urban but we’re less congested, a little more charming.”

Leading up to the pandemic, restaurants were booming in Walnut Creek. Between 2015 and 2020, downtown added about 30 restaurants, according to the city. While Walnut Creek saw several close due to the pandemic, openings have been swift since last fall, with 15 additions. And there are plenty of people ready to support the restaurant boom: The city’s roughly 70,000 residents have a median household income of $105,948, compared with $73,691 in Oakland, according to American Community Survey data.

Yet for years, the dining scene felt underwhelming and suburban. Driven by a desire to dine at an exciting restaurant without driving to San Francisco, Hirahara began a mission to open restaurants in Walnut Creek with eight-time Chronicle Top 100 pick Va de Vi in 2004. Now, he is working on re-envisioning the Foundry in a post-pandemic landscape, delaying the opening by a few more years.

Other restaurateurs have followed due to the energetic downtown area. Lila Owens opened a new Walnut Creek location of her hit cupcake shop Cupcakin’ earlier this month — her first outside of Berkeley. It was an easy sell for Owens.

While she used to associate Walnut Creek with high-end shopping like Tiffany’s, Owens said she’s appreciated seeing more affordable tenants move in. The city has become a draw for local independent chains like fried chicken purveyor Starbird and vegetarian fast-food spot Amy’s Drive-Thru, though the City Council rejected the latter because of traffic concerns.

“People are out. It’s lively,” she said. “I think it’s evolving to be a little more approachable and not so upscale, and we want to be part of that evolution.”

Walnut Creek’s dining scene is also still growing and not as competitive as San Francisco’s, meaning there’s opportunity for newcomers to stand out. Richard Reyes, the former developer for the Singapore company opening Table at 7, said that’s one reason he picked the city.

“I studied the area. I looked at what they had,” Reyes said. “What we bring to the table is completely different.”

Plus, the combination of a dynamic downtown and easy parking was something that he’d never find in San Francisco, he said.

During the pandemic, Walnut Creek has seen an influx of new residents from San Francisco, a demographic that may influence dining tastes in the years to come. Nearly 4,000 San Franciscans decamped for Contra Costa County, according to postal data.

Other slices of Contra Costa County have been seeing more attention from Bay Area restaurateurs too. San Ramon’s new shopping development, City Center Bishop Ranch, nabbed locations of San Francisco’s famed Vietnamese restaurant Slanted Door, hip Italian spot Delarosa and popular bubble tea chain Boba Guys. Popular Filipino-Mexican outfit Senor Sisig and Jewish deli Wise Sons headed to Lafayette this year through a new ghost kitchen.

Looking ahead, Hirahara sees more diversity developing in Walnut Creek’s restaurant scene and, he hopes, some permanent outdoor dining. About 70 restaurants used Walnut Creek’s pandemic program to create new outdoor dining patios, according to city worker Collette Hanna. The plan is for the City Council to formally extend the program through the end of the year on July 20.

“We’re looking at figuring out a way to keep street dining on a permanent basis,” Hirahara said. “I think that’s going to change the way the street feels as well as how operators feel about Walnut Creek.”

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Article source: https://www.wealthmanagement.com/cre-wire/11-must-reads-cre-industry-today-july-13-2021