San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed joined the Office of Economic Workforce and Development (OEWD) Executive Director Sarah Dennis-Phillips and program partner SF New Deal today to announce the official launch of the City’s inaugural Vacant to Vibrant pop-up concept. The program, a component of the Mayor’s Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future, is designed to help small businesses, entrepreneurs, artists and cultural organizations activate vacant storefronts.
Vacant to Vibrant is comprised of 17 local activators who are creating unique pop-ups and experiences in nine properties Downtown. Each activation is now open to the public for the next three months, until the end of the year. The Pop-ups are taking many forms including one-day events and multi-month activations, and span arts, retail, food & beverage, nightlife, and entertainment that will transform vacant storefronts into vibrant gathering places and help re-energize the neighborhood.
"San Francisco is open for business and it is great to see the progress being made to revitalize and rethink how our Downtown serves residents, businesses and visitors,” said Mayor London Breed. “Finding creative ways to fill our empty storefronts is one of our key priorities for Downtown, whether that’s through policy reforms to remove unnecessary zoning and permitting barriers or creative programs like Vacant to Vibrant. This is an exciting next step for a long-awaited program that I know will be good for small businesses, residents, and visitors to enjoy.”
As the City continues to face challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayor’s Budget builds on investments to help boost Downtown’s economic recovery, including efforts to enact new laws to make it easier to fill and convert vacant spaces, streamline the small business permit process, reform taxes to recruit new and support existing businesses, and deliver key activation efforts to bring more people Downtown to help reimagine San Francisco’s future.
The City has implemented key elements of the Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future by broadening transportation in the Financial District, heightening safety measures, investing in new public spaces like the Landing at Leidesdorff, and bringing successful cultural nightlife to Downtown through free events and activations like the Bhangra and Beats Night Market, Let’s Glow SF, World Cup viewing parties, Union Square in Bloom concert series, Yerba Buena Art and Makers Markets and others - attracting over 150,000 people into the area to date. Tasked with leading the charge on economic recovery, OEWD supports these revitalization measures through programs like Vacant to Vibrant that bring integral foot traffic to San Francisco’s Downtown, while supporting small businesses, the arts, non-profit organizations, and the local workforce.
“Vacant to Vibrant is yet another signature initiative bringing activity, life and fun to the streets of Downtown. As part of Mayor Breed’s Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future, this effort filling storefront and ground floor vacancies allows local artists, retailers and cultural institutions the opportunity to test new concepts, new locations and new customers,” said Sarah Dennis Phillips, Executive Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “We hope it will lead to long term leases and economic impact, particularly for our small business sector; but in the meantime, we want people to experience and enjoy Downtown!”
Accounting for approximately 95% of businesses and employing nearly 1 million Bay Area residents, the small business sector is a vital contributor to the City’s economy and vibrancy. Since the start of the pandemic, Mayor Breed has directed over $83 million in grants and loans to support more than 4,800 small businesses.
“The Vacant to Vibrant Program represents our long-term vision for economic revitalization Downtown by filling vacant spaces with experiences featuring food, culture, and the arts,” said Wade Rose, President of Advance SF. “It’s great to see the strategies in the City’s Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future coming to life, and we look forward to seeing San Francisco implement more of these innovative initiatives.”
Managed by OEWD, Vacant to Vibrant launched earlier this year in April in partnership with SF New Deal, a local non-profit organization that strengthens neighborhoods by making it easier for under-resourced small business owners to succeed.
"I'm proud to stand alongside our partners in the Mayor's Office and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development as we open the doors to 17 new businesses downtown. Vacant to Vibrant offers a glimpse into a future San Francisco, written by San Franciscans themselves and specifically defined by the vision, energy, and innovation of small business people and artists across the entire Bay Area. I encourage everyone to come downtown to visit these pop-ups, both to be a part of providing a much-needed infusion of culture and economic vibrancy to our downtown as well as to be a part of the public conversation about the future of our downtown," said SF New Deal's Executive Director Simon Bertrang.
OEWD and SF New Deal have provided permit navigation to enable swift openings for the pop-up tenants, and are working together to continue to support each program participant and small business with the outreach and matchmaking, technical assistance such as lease negotiations, permit support, insurance, and marketing. Selected activators were awarded up to $8k to help with set-up and operating costs. Property owners also received up to $5,000 in value of support to cover for utilities and tenant improvements.
In addition to the nine primary tenant activators another eight are supplementary tenants who are also opening to showcase their products and services. The 17 pop-up activators make-up small businesses, nonprofit organizations, artists, and makers:
- Bee Betwee (artist)
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- Hosted by The Swig Company at 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 100
- BRUJAS (skate collective / streetwear apparel brand)
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- Hosted by The Gateway at 201 Jackson Street
- Creativity Explored (art nonprofit)
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- Hosted by The Swig Company at 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 100
- Devil's Teeth Bakery (bakery)
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- Hosted by BXP at One Embarcadero Center, Suite R1113
- Holy Stitch! (apparel education)
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- Hosted by Pembroke at 100 California Street, Suite 140
- GCS Agency (multi-media agency)
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- Hosted by The Gateway at 201 Jackson Street
- KALW-FM 91.7 FM (radio station)
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- Hosted by The Swig Company at 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 100
- The Mellow (performance venue / plant store)
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- Hosted by Lincoln Properties at 332 Pine Street
- Nature’s Keeper (outdoor apparel brand)
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- Hosted by Pembroke at 100 California Street, Suite 140
- Risa Iwasaki Culbertson (artist)
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- Hosted by The Gateway at 151 Jackson Street
- Rosalind Bakery (bakery)
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- Hosted by BXP at Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4054
- Sucka Flea (retail shop)
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- Hosted by Lincoln Properties at 332 Pine Street
- Teranga (restaurant)
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- Hosted by BXP at Four Embarcadero, Suite R4104
- Victoria Heilweil & Phil Spitler (artists)
- Hosted by Lincoln Properties at 332 Pine Street
- Whack Donuts (bakery)
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- Hosted by BXP at Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4507
- Yonder (retail shop)
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- Hosted by The Gateway at 151 Jackson Street
- York Street Café (restaurant)
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- Hosted by BXP at Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4507
"The time has finally come to open our doors to Mellow Mercado located at 332 Pine - a marketplace full of all the things we love! Our guests can look forward to Mellow Sessions each Friday evening, curated retail, light installations, as well as housing residencies for over 6 small business owners from our community. We’re extremely excited & honored to be a part of Vacant to Vibrant, so please come visit and see what we've created," said The Mellow Co-owners Lorena Cortez and David Velasco.
"It's honestly hard to capture how extraordinarily excited our team is to be part of the Vacant to Vibrant program. We're so happy to be here. Our in-person launch event, on Thursday, October 5, is a microcosm of what KALW does on the daily, including a panel discussion with community leaders about the state of downtown San Francisco followed by a set of eclectic music spun by one of our 14 DJs. During our residency, you can expect lots of Tuesday Town Hall conversations, live music performances, and lots of KALW shows broadcast in real time out of our space — and you're all invited," said KALW's Interim Executive Director Ben Trefny.
"100 Cal and Pembroke are excited to participate in Vacant to Vibrant and be part of the community coming together to support bringing people back to downtown San Francisco. We are a people-first team and value the relationships that this program has helped us establish with fantastic operators such as Holy Stitch! and Natures Keeper," said Pembroke's Regional West Coast Director Stacey Spurr.
For more information on each pop-up and their hours of operation, please visit www.vibrantsf.org or call (415) 480-1185 to learn more. Follow along on Instagram at @VacantToVibrant.
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