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Union Square BID buzzes with new construction activity

Nine new major renovations / new buildings underway in downtown SF hub

20 April 2005 - San Francisco, CA: Build it and they will come, the saying goes and come they are: a wave of tourists and new shoppers to San Francisco's Union Square area, buoyed by new construction, building upgrades and renovations.

“This is an almost unprecedented degree of new construction,” said Leigh Ann Baughman, Union Square BID Executive Director. “It is the most construction that I have seen during my 10 years of working in this neighborhood.”

Properties currently under construction / renovation are:

• 110 Ellis Street is remodeling the retail portion of the building in preparation for marketing to new tenants.  The Gates Hotel upstairs will soon re-open with approximately 125 rooms with its new “glass walled” addition on the Cyril Magnin side to house a Dim Sum restaurant scheduled to open later this year.
• 102 Powell Street is being renovated to house the new location of Paris Jewelry formerly at 167 Powell.
• 104 Powell Street is under construction and will house new store H2O (previously a tenant in SF Centre).
• 150 Powell -- This historic façade is being preserved and the entire interior gutted to house all new construction for West Coast flagship store of H&M. H&M will operate on the ground and 2^nd levels scheduled to open by December of 2005. There will be 29 condos completed by the first quarter of 2006. 
• 161 Powell Street -- The lobby of the Herbert Hotel will be the site of the new “Betty Boops Better Burgers.”
• 167 Powell Street is being renovated for the haberdashery, “Lids”.
• 200 Powell Street -- This classic art deco building at the corner of Powell and O'Farrell is currently vacant and awaiting developers' proposals.
• 835 Market Street is “under wraps” -- protecting the historic façade of the landmark “Emporium” -- and well on its way to completion as the Westfield San Francisco Centre extension. The extension is already approximately 30% leased -- not counting the cinema mulit-plex and Bloomingdales. Grand Opening scheduled for Sept. 2006.
• 72 Ellis Street – This surface parking lot is currently being considered as the site for a new hotel / restaurant by the Lembi family, owners of the adjacent Hotel Union Square.

The Union Square Business Improvement District (BID) is a 10-block area where property owners assess themselves to make their community cleaner, safer and more vibrant. The BID assessment is used to purchase services that supplement those provided by the City. The Union Square BID contains 91 properties and is roughly bounded by Sutter Street to the North, Stockton and Grant Streets to the East, Market Street to the South and Cyril Magnin to the West. In 1994, California joined most states in the country and passed enabling legislation for property based business improvement districts (PBIDS). There are currently over 1,000 BIDS in the United States and Canada.

A unique program of the Union Square BID are the BID“Ambassadors” -- a visible presence for safety and maintenance in the BID’s ten-square-block borders. Easily identifiable by their red and blue uniforms, the Ambassadors provide visitors and tourists with a variety of services including directions, transportation information, emergency response, and even help elderly shoppers with their bags as they cross San Francisco’s busy streets. Also part of the Union Square BID’s success are the “TAGGers.” “TAGGers” (an acronym for Take Away Graffiti and Grime ) are the primary caretakers for Union Square and the whole BID district. Every morning they sweep the sidewalks, pick-up and dispose of trash and debris, and remove graffiti from storefronts, buildings, area light poles and street furniture. Sidewalks are steam cleaned twice a month. For more information on the Union Square Business Improvement District, access their website at www.unionsquarebid.com, or call (415) 421-3135.