of the unique s.r.o. hotels in the city. we have done a survey which gives an idea as to what this hotel is offering compared to general s.r.o. hotels in the city. we will have a large community kitchen on the ground level, which is about 600 square feet, which includes plenty of storage, three cooking stations, and plenty of dining area. we are also operating a roof deck, which is very rare in s.r.o. hotels, according to our survey. there was only one with a roof deck providing over 1400 square feet of roof deck. what we heard in the last hearing in september, where there was more need of project back and shared bath, we've added several bathrooms to the

building. it shows on the chart that we are providing about one bathroom per 2.4 rooms. in terms of operations, the signed agreement with us to propose -- to comply with our house rules as well as the visible roles and policy that the city has a place. we will be providing 24-hour desk coverage as well as surveillance cameras to wrap the property to ensure that the place is safe and secure. -- surveillance cameras throughout the property to ensure that the place is safe and secure. in the past eight months, we have met with neighbors, for committee meetings as well as investors separately, to hash out the issues they have in

terms of past management of the place. we have never managed this hotel on day-to-day operations. we agreed to the conditions that were proposed by the neighbors and the d.r. requestors, which are included in your package. without taking a longer time, i'd like to turn this over to the project architect. thank you for giving us the opportunity to represent our updated project. i will be here to answer any questions you may have. thank you, commissioners. president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is patrick. i mean the architect of this project. it -- i am the architect of this product. after the last hearing, we have taken your comments into account.

we have made changes to the plan through the comments, taken those into account, and these changes are beneficial to not only that tenants but the neighborhood also. i'm going to show you the plans as we have changed them. inow we have a kitchen that we have consolidated into the ground floor. the previous kitchens work on individual flores. there were approximately 120 square feet. this kitchen is approximately 400 square feet. it is a lot more than the two. this has seating and storage and a common area for cooking, and is located so it is easily accessible to everyone. in terms of the use of this

space, we see it as a socializing area. it is very visible for control of the whole area. on the right side we have this area dedicated to a restaurant that we hope will be used to enhance the neighborhood and for use of the tenants also. the floor plans. this is a typical floor plan for the second and third floors. the blue areas indicate the bathrooms. previously, we only had a three bathrooms up here. now he have added four bathrooms in total. there are two more full baths on both floors, for full bathrooms, and for smaller bathrooms and

four, and bathrooms. these are located on the side of the fifth street where we felt the tenants would not have easy access to the bathrooms and the back. in addition, all the rooms have a sink. i think this is very essential to these rooms to keep their privacy. the roof plan sshows the recreation and open space, as required. it is approximately 1450 square feet, and i think this will also be a plus to the project. also, in the basement, i have plans, but we have spaces for bicycles. there are 16 spaces for five

sickles -- there are 16 spaces for bicycles. the elevation, as it is now, it is boarded up and run down inside. this is a detriment to the neighborhood. but the with the sponsors are planning on rehabilitating this building, we will replace the windows on the face of the fifth street. these windows are an adequate and they don't belong to the building. we will replace them with something which is more and character. we will replace the boarded up openings on clara street, and in general, the facade is going to enhance the building as a whole. and now if you have any questions, i will be able to answer them.

and i will turn it back. thank you. president miguel: thank you. i have a number of cards on public comment. >> hello. good afternoon, commissioners. i have been chair of the redevelopment committee on the south of market. for quite a number of years. one of the fundamental definitions of light is an -- one of the definitions of blight is in an empty and abandoned building like we have now. we want the building reactivated and a niece. he has been empty for four

years, and it shows it. we would like to get it filled with residential units. the advantage of this particular design is all the buildings are residential. you don't have the torras units. in an s.r.o. hotel, the worst problems are the people who come in for a few days and recap back and leave. the fact is permanent residence is a positive thing. in the old days, it was so bad, even among the street people it was not as -- it was known as an atrocious hotel. it has been turned around. sam has the will and the ability to change it effectively. most of the concern seems to be about the drug and behavior problems, yet a lot of the discussion seems to be about

kitchens and bathrooms. one has nothing to do with the other. it is all about what happens at the front desk. the primary purpose of the front desk is to pete -- is to keep people out who will be disruption. we support this project. we want the corner activated with competent management. that is what we're looking at. thank you. president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon. i am catalina. i would like to agree that we but like to have all the residential there. we don't want any tourists there. i have lived here so long and i live right across the street, at the mcalister house. we have a lot of work to do

within the s.r.o. and i think i would really like to say i have seen some of these commissioners down on the streets and they know who i work for. we're trying to straighten that out with our own policies. i like to see that. if people who have drug problems are put in one location and people who are sick, when i go to the west hotel as a woman representative, i see a lot of oxygen bottles, a lot of poor people. we're moving towards baby boomers become older. we are not all bad people. we're just subject because of the economics are not there, you know? i still say, god bless this commission because i have seen them out there, and i believe all of this can be straightened out, but please, let's keep this for these residents and let's keep the tourists out of there. thank you. president miguel: thank you.

>> hi, my name is jeff buckley. i am speaking in favor of the project. i want to give some explanation why we're doing that. i want to say given the history of the building, i am not surprised to see the neighbors are upset at the prospect of having a fully occupied s.r.o. in their neighborhood. it was apparently operated as a hostile and created a lot of problems for residents. i attended the meetings and heard their concerns. i would say that the project as it is outlined here not only meets their needs but i think also meets the needs of the residents who would occupy the building, as well as in general the city's needs to provide affordable housing for residents. i wanted to outline a few reasons why i think that is the case.

felice inmn does not have any people in there right now. there will be no residents harm from the transfer of these units. that is important to remember. the second thing, as antoinette eloquently said, we equate residential hotels with stability. i know sometimes it is confusing when you see there is a front desk operator, somebody at the front desk. you think is kind of run like to help or some other hotel, but the reality is in this day and age, within san francisco, s.r.o. hotels are treated very much like apartments. people move into these units typically to be able to live in a place and not just live there for a week or month. it is important to realize that torras units are translated into

daily, weekly, monthly activity, and we equate better and more stable conditions with residential units. we are establishing a completely residential hotel, and that is a positive thing for the area, it is positive for the people will live there, and i think it is positive for the city. i would also say this hotel, we have work to organize a tell residents to improve living conditions. it would have seen a lot of hotels. -- we have seen a lot of hotels. almost all hotels do not have these kind of amenities. i think hotel residents tell you good living conditions and amenities as much as anyone else does. lastly, i have been put off by the neighborhood residents, particularly in the beginning, the ugly characterization of s.r.o.'s. over time, they have learned to

get past the stereotypes. there is more there. lastly, i just want to say that we organize residents to improve living conditions and we will be keeping an eye on this property to make sure that basic of editions will be met. president miguel: thank you. elaine jones, tim, randy shaw. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is sister elaine jones, and i live at an s.r.o. i work for central city collaborative. i am very active in my community. i will let you know why residential hotels for low- income people work. because my truth is i have suffered with mental illness

most of my life. thank you, jesus. i am the perfect candidate to move into one of these hotels. the people, the neighbors, these hotels work. low-income housing works. it saves lives, gets people off the streets, and i am to tenant organizer of the raymond hotel, which the owner is here now. i am on to talk to him later, but it works. our building, we have our small problems and stuff, but basically we don't have a lot of people selling drugs out of from of the building because people like me and the staff make sure they don't do it. it can be done. residential hotel is not something to look down on. it is providing services,

getting people off the streets, giving them self-worth. relate, if i wanted to move into that s.r.o. hotel on fifth street, i would be the perfect candidate. but if you look through my background, you would see i have had 73 suicide attempts. but today, i may well contributing person of society. there are a lot of people out there. this is my truth. it is essential that we get these people into low-income housing and everybody wins. neighbors around there, they're just scared, but we can show them it works. at central city collaborative actually hired tenant organizers

and they go in there and they organize the people who live in the s.r.o. and make it work. we have monthly meetings to try to make the community work. and we branched out and make sure that everybody around our building is happy, too. so i m for low-income housing. thank you. president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. tim, on behalf of the san francisco housing coalition. we reviewed this project months ago, fell off the radar, we knew it would come back, and i am delighted it is here today. there are two reasons we think this from the deserve george support. the first, the housing action coalition believes in housing for all san franciscans at all of loss of affordability, and this project is one that we see

way too infrequently. it goes to satisfying a desperate need for affordable housing at the low levels of income. iwe believe a diversity of and comes -- a diversity of income makes it neighborhoods healthy. that is what this project looks like and we applaud that. the second thing, it is evident given the time from when we first saw it until when it came back to you that there has been a lot of work done on it, good faith work done to address the concerns of the committee, the concerns of the commission itself. we think when that effort has been made, it shows the good faith of tried to make this project successful at a credit to the neighborhood, and we think absolutely you should support it. we wish that we saw a lot more like it.

thank you. president miguel: thank you. >> thank you, commissioners, randy shaw. it is in port to recall that the problems that preceded this site came from may to worst use. i started a housing clinic in 1980 and i focused on preventing diversions. i wrote a menace to the hotel conversion law and we had a -- i wrote an amendment to the hotel conversion law and we had 25 objections against illegal tourist use. i am supporting this conversion because we're not losing any residential units at fully inn and we are transforming a bad youth hostel environment to residential hotel. i think the testimonies that you often hear, some of the old stereotypes, since mayor brown's leasing program, there

seems to be a broad acceptance and people realize there is not a -- there is not a stigma. if you look at a lot of the tourist uses, and i can cite many examples, it is the tourist hotels that bring the one-night people who do drugs. you don't hear people complaining about them. but residential use. this stability. the testimony that you have heard from some of the tenants of low-income tenants and subsidized programs. these are higher quality units. these will be working people in this hotel. i have done business with sam from 1999-2009. we know blogger have any properties with sam, but i know them very well. -- we no longer have any properties with sam, but i know him very well. he is a great asset to the committee. he invests money in the neighborhood.

if i was a neighbor of sam, it would be great. i like property owners who take money and don't give back anything, he is always investing his time. anytime there is a project he says count me in. that is the kind of guy he is. he took the boy hotel, which was a wreck, sued by the city, he took over, left a beautiful project at 41 jones street. this is not an operator that you have to worry about and this is not the core of the poor dealing with drugs. it is this myth that is associated. the fact i hear condition on this, six months, report back, i have not heard that from an apartment building. why do we have that condition with this hotel? i don't get it. the mushy do it with the condominium south of market, i don't think you do. -- unless you do what with the

condominiums south of market, which i don't think you do. working people will want to live there so that could walk to their downtown jobs. approve this. that is a great product and something should be proud of. thank you. president miguel: thank you. henry, russ? >> good evening, commissioners. i sit on the staff of a committee. i have worked on a majority of residential hotels in the city. not one hotel has with this hotel is going to provide. very few of them are open space, community kitchens. a bicycle parking? unheard of. this will provide all of those. it will be all brand new. iyou name it. i think will be a great asset to the city and i urge you to approve it. thank you.

president miguel: thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm a first generation hotel operator and operator of residential and tourist hotels and apartments in at san francisco. a lot of people have spoken about this in a positive direction. i think they're coming back to you guys, working together to put more bathrooms, which is a big issue in s.r.o.'s. sometimes it is hard to realize that the quality of life issues are important. buy them demonstrating -- it may not sound like two rooms are a big deal, that is all dollars and cents that are privately owned in a private industry it providing affordable housing to san franciscans. it is a great scale. you have properties that have programs.

this property will be a mid grade property with what henry mentioned, very high and finishing. you have to have the spectrum. one of my attendance at a hotel that i built an additional story, we debated the same issues. these gentlemen are going far beyond what was required of me because i build a whole floor of new s.r.o.'s. when it gets involved in that, earthquake security about a building, how would gets sheered. they are investing in a long- term product that will last over 100 years. these hotels have been here close to 100 years, and they're getting to the point where you need this type of upgrade in renovations. you are seeing it with a sprinkler ordinance, with the new seismic on the socks story that may be coming.

-- on the soft story that may be coming. it sometimes people don't understand that this is a small big city. one block changes the demographics of everything. to say that this hotel will be a detriment or problem? i think not. i think this will bring equality tenet, and that is what these gentlemen are looking to run, equality, clean, and safe operation that is an apartment building with a hotel name. lastly, don't forget, foley's will be generating transit taxes for the city. that goes right back into our coffers as soon as the project is done. i think overall, this is a well- planned project and i think everything has been hashed out now and it is time for,

hopefully, your approval today. thank you. president miguel: thank you. russ? >> commissioners, perhaps i am speaking out of order. i am speaking about 235 o'farrell street. i know the project sponsors for that segment of this project are here and perhaps they should speak first. president miguel: we call it as one item. speak on that. >> i am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you. i will direct your attention up to union square. this is a unique opportunity for the commission in that there are three similarities in these buildings. you have the opportunity to

approve this project today. both of them are really very attractive old san francisco buildings. by approving this project, both of these buildings will be renovated totally and brought into use. the second opportunity that is presented to you is affordability, both on the residential side it and also for union square, for tourists coming into san francisco looking for a budget hotel. that is something this will provide them. the third thing you have an opportunity to provide today is 60 jobs. that is a terrific opportunity, 60 jobs, split between fifth street and o'farrell street. i think those three elements, you need to both buildings, are why the project should be approved today. thank you. president miguel: thank you.

gary and foster. >> good afternoon. i am gary, the architect for 235 o'farrell products. i'm speaking out of turn, i imagine. president miguel: not at all. >> i am going to talk about the holiday inn express because it is going to be the second urban holiday inn express product in the nation. they have won in chicago and they're very interested in doing another one or more in san francisco. it is an ideal location. we are having a very economic hotel with their standards. the have much larger rooms, much

larger amenities and parking. none of those will be provided. we will have a small amenity package, but in general, every room is well appointed and is something that all travelers on a budget want to have, but to this not have with the big commodity practice -- the big amenity package. the rooms are smaller, they're very nice. each room obviously has to have its own private bath and a certain amount of amenity size, but in general, the size of these units are maybe 50 to 100 square feet smaller than the holiday inn express would like to see. this is an urban hotel. it is in at union square. people come there to experience the city, not to stay in a room and watch tv, although they could if they want to. but in general, the hotel