it's inspired by miles and about every child who has a severe >> [inaudible] investment and infrastructure san francisco redevelopment agency for tuesday, march 18, 2014. madam secretary, please call the first item. >> thank you. the first item of business is roll call. commission members please respond when i call your name. commissioner ellington? >> here. >> commissioner mondejar? >> here. >> commissioner singh? >> here. >> chair johnson is absent. acting chair rosales? >> here. >> chair johnson is absent and all other members of the commission are present. the next order of business is item 2, announcements. a, the next scheduled commission meeting will be a special meeting held on tuesday, april 1, 2014 at 4:00 p.m..

b, announcement of prohibition of sound producing electronic devices during the meeting. please be advised that the ringing of and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person(s) responsible for the ringing of or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic device. c., announcement of time allotment for public comment. please be advised the member of the public has up to three minutes to make pertinent public comments on agenda items unless the commission adopts a shorter period on any item. it is strongly recommended that members of the public who wish to address the commission fill out a speaker card provided by the commission secretary and submit the completed card to the commission secretary. item 3, report on actions taken at previous closed session meeting, if any. there are no reportable actions. the next order of business is item 4, matters of unfinished business. we have no items. the next order of business is item 5, matters of new business

consisting of consent and regular agenda. first, the consent agenda. item 5a., approval of minutes: regular meeting of february 18, 2014. madam director? madam chair, excuse me. >> do we have any speaker cards? >> i have no speaker cards. , madam chair. >> do we have any comments on the minutes from my fellow commissioners? >> i thought they looked good so i move we he approve the minutes. >> is there a second? a i'll second. >> we have a motion and a second. all those in favor please say aye. >> aye. >> any oppositions or abstentions? >> [speaker not understood]. >> we are on minutes, item 5a. approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of february 18, 2014. >> [speaker not understood].

>> madam secretary, i believe we have a motion and a second with mondejar abstaining. >> please announce your vote when i call your name. commissioner ellington? >> yes. >> commissioner mondejar? >> abstain. >> commissioner singh? >> yes. >> chair johnson absent. acting chair rosales? >> aye. >> madam chair, the vote is three ayes one abstention, one absent. >> very well. i would like to ask the commission to take item 8a out of order. if everyone is fine with that, i'd like to proceed to item 8a. madam secretary, please call the item. >> item ~ update on the march

11, 2014 fire at a 172-unit market-rate apartment building located at 1200 fourth street in the mission bay south redevelopment project area. madal director. >> good afternoon, commissioners, good afternoon to the members of the public. thank you very much for joining us. as you heard, the commissioner in the news media and as members of the public know, there was a fire in mission bay south on a building, a bre properties building, a 100% market rate building, 172 units. you actually have an informational memorandum in your packets today describing further information on that building which received design approvals from the former rda approximately two years ago. we are privileged to be joined by assistant chief robert postel. as we all know, the fire department acted quickly and courageously real toy prevent this fire from spreading to other buildings, but we're privileged to have assistant chief postel to more vied us with further information. we also have kathrin riley, our mission bay project manager who will follow the assistant chief

to provide some context on what else is happening in mission bay. with that, assistant chief? >> good afternoon, commissioners. just giving a brief synopsis update of the fire department's actions at the mission bay fire. as you know, this was a fifth alarm fire to which over half the people on duty in the city responded. it was a extended operation. as a matter of fact, we brought the last of the equipment there on saturday so we were there several days. currently the cause of the fire is unknown, it is under investigation. one of the challenges of the fire department faced when we got there ~ this was a building that was under construction. it was a wood frame building on top of a concrete fire resistive type 1 construction. the fire was in the upper floors of the building and it had already advanced quite a

bit upon our arrival. due to the fact that there was no sheetrock in place, there was no sprinkler system in place nor fire alarm systems. there was no protection systems to prevent the spread of the fire. when the exposed wooden members were exposed to the heat and flame, there was rapid fire spread. we almost immediately were forced to go into a defensive attack mode. the nature of the building, the lightweight wood truss construction is extremely dangerous in a fire situation. that type of construction fails oftentimes within 10 to 15 minutes of its first exposure to fire unlike a conventional wood frame construction. so, there was a tremendous risk to our firefighters to put them into that building and there were no lives to be saved. and our risk analysis indicated that a defensive position and protect the exposures was the best course of action. we were successful in

preventing the exposure -- fire from exposing to any of the adjacent buildings including one building in a similar state of construction right across long bridge which is a narrow street. we he kept the fire from extending there. also kept it out of the adjoining apartment buildings, both across 4th street and i believe that was the biggest exposure was on 4th street. again, it was a very difficult fire. there was water supply issues. whenever you're on the periphery of the city like that, you have reduced water supply. mains are often dead ends. you don't have many options for water. we extensively used our high pressure water supply system, our emergency water supply system as well as the domestic water supply, and the puc was great getting us additional gate valves open and pressure to deal with that water supply

situation. so, from our perspective, although it was a massive fire, it was a great success in the fact we were able to prevent it from spreading to adjacent buildings and especially the buildings under construction. >> kathrin, perhaps you can provide some context for the commissioners and members of the public for what else is happening in mission bay in some of the other buildings that may be of concern for the commission and the public. >> thank you. good afternoon. i'm kathrin riley, project manager for mission bay. and just wanted to give you a context of the building location as well as an you update on the surrounding development. there is a mention it is located on 4th street. this is block 5, it's in the sin term of the new residential area that's under construction. 172 units, market rate, it' directly across the street from block 4 west, which is -- let me just check the number -- 192

units. this was constructed in 2008 and was occupied at the time of the fire. directly to the north is block 3 west which is also owned by summer hill homes on both of those blocks. that just recently finished construction and that's 147 units. just in the lease up period, those are the two buildings that were affected the most by the fire for residents, for the purpose of residents. ~ in the sense that my understanding as of end of last week, about 15 units in block 4 west and four unit in block 3 west were uninhabitable after the fire due to broken windows, doors that had to be opened to check for safety, and then the aso block 3 west across, sprinklers. so, smoke and water damage. luckily, block 3 west is still in lease up. so, the owner is able to offer residents who are displaced other alternatives for living directly in the building adjacent.

all animal are also gotten out safely, which was good. other to the north is block 13 east, which is 150 units affordable, that's under construction. it's one of our projects with mercy. this one is still in the process of assessment. because they were directly across from the streets that are still opening up and as they're securing the fire site, that mercy has not been able to get in and do a full assessment on the side that was most impacted. however, they have been able to restart construction on the other portions of the building. so, we're hopeful that it is primarily going to be smoke, possibly water damage on that side and we'll have more information, but they're continuing with construction on the rest of the site. other parcels, block 2, 13 west and 12 which are all under construction. i think 2 is completed. did not sustain any large damage and the two construction projects started up as soon as they were allowed back in.

we're also assessing damage to the street. we'll probably have to replace street lights and furnish a couple trees looking a little toasty right now, but it looks like it wasn't too poorly damaged. 4th street was closed, it what reopened a few days after. the other streets surrounding the sites are construction related so they were not open to the public. they have been reopened for construction access. talking to the developer bre on the block 5 site, they started construction or demolition as soon as they were able to get in there to remove any safety hazards to allow 4th street to reopen. they're anticipating it's going to take probably 4 to 6 week to finish demolition. they're hopeful -- the construction type is you have two floors of concrete podium for your parking and then you have the stick bolt because the fire is on the top part of the building, they're hopeful once they clean off the demolition that they'll be able to reuse the concrete podium and move from there.

their other site is block 11 which is located to the west, the 188 unit that was unaffected and they're already working on that project. and the other interest is right next to the west of the site is the future children's park which was slated to start construction in a couple weeks. it's probably going to be delayed a couple weeks to allow demolition to occur, but luckily nothing had started yet so we didn't have any damage to the children's park. the rest of the construction, over 1300 units of residential under construction, the public safety building with the police, fire, and the new police head quarters, police and fire station, plugging along with a november opening date as with all the ec, new hospital and all the rest of the work out there. so, small blip from the side of development, but realty was more kind of days versus months or any large impact to the rest of the development out there. very fortunate that the fire department was able to respond

as quickly. we're looking forward to getting that project back up and running as well. thank you. >> i have some -- >> thank you. >> yeah. >> before i simply take commissioner questions, i think we need to open it up to members of the public to see if there's any comment on the report. madam secretary, do you have any speaker cards? >> i have no speaker cards, madam chair. >> thank you. commissioner singh? >> whats was the cause of the fire? >> at this point we don't know. it's still under investigation. >> why it went so fast? i was watching on the tv. it went in a couple hours go all the way. >> yeah, because there was no sheetrock in place -- and sheetrock is essentially a fire stop, all that wood was exposed. so, the radiant heat from that fire and the direct fire impingement caused that fire to spread through the building rapidly. >> and when you know that what was the cause of the fire?

>> i don't know what the estimate is for when we'll determine what the cause or the origin of it. we have our fire investigation unit is working on it. l >> okay, thank you. >> since the fire started. >> anything else? >> i just want to say thank you to the men and women in your department for being courageous and giving the circumstances and letting the fire out within a timely manner. so, thank you. thank you guys for that. >> thank you, we appreciate that. >> i have a question for you when you have a chance. so, just clarifying are we confident there's no significant impact on just the general timeline of surrounding projects? >> talking to all the different developers, they're going along as quickly as they can. no one has shown -- minor repairs may add a little bit of time, but again, more on the weeks than any significant lengths. no one is talking about having to delay development. >> and do we know he the new

timeline going forward for bre or is that -- >> we're still in the assessment stage. >> gotcha. >> you've got insurance and all the rest of it. they'd like to get out there tomorrow if could be. they're going to be going as quickly as they can. we'll have more information in about a week or two. >> gotcha. awesome, thank you so much. >> um-hm. >> any other questions? i had actually a question for chief postel. i was out of town when this happened, so, i don't -- wasn't able to read all of the media on it. but were there workers on-site at the time? >> my understanding is all the workers were gone home about an hour prior to the fire being first detected. >> one quick question while you're up here. sorry about that. you mentioned the water supply issue. and i wanted to just bring that up, just from a policy standpoint and kind of an oversight standpoint. is that something that we can do moving forward?

i know we have, you know, on all our sites upwards of, you know, hundreds of homes to build and i want to make sure that we do what we can to kind of avoid this because, again, homes are close together in mission bay. homes will be close together in hunters -- the shipyard and transbay terminal. is that something we can do as a commission or direct staff or what do you kind of see -- >> through the chair, commissioner ellington, each of these broad area plans, whether in mission bay, transbay, or hunters point or in city-wide projects like park merced or treasure island, these new major emerging areas, they do provide for, at least in mission bay and areas under your jurisdiction, and you heard chief postel talk about it, this awss system, exitery water supply system, which is processed through the infrastructure plans that the board and the city approved, initially to adopt the plan,

that there would be these back up and redundant systems. in addition to regular domestic supply plus this awss and then in some cases additional back up, assistant chief p ostel -- >> the city may or may on be aware, there's two separate water system. ~ you have the domestic water supply system which is what your normal fire hydrants work off of. after the 1906 earthquake, san francisco is the only city in the nation that i'm aware of, we have a gravity-fed -- we call it a high pressure system, water supply system. and we have tanks at twin peaks, ashbury, and jones street, and we have two different zones in upper and lower zone. this is gravity filled, fed, it's a graded system so in the event of an earthquake we can isolate breaks and still continue to use it. and what the fire department through the puc now that they have ownership of this system,

we've been expanding the system into south of market area, china basin, a lot of west of twin peaks area. so, my understanding is that we are under the current esa bond expanding this high pressure system as we call it, and there's also a second esa bond that's coming on the ballot i believe in june that is going to address this further. so, from our perspective, this is an invaluable tool. any -- almost any great era arm fire we have, we go to the cititionv item, we'll begin to use it ~. if you see this, it's the large fire hydrants that stand on the corner. essentially each one of those fire hydrants is a fire engine to us. we can operate independent of having an engine. so, in the event of an earthquake or large fire like this, we can get large volumes of water and a lot of pressure out of that system and it's a tool that's unique to san francisco, but i've used it dozens and dozens of times in my career and it's invaluable. >> thank you.

>> thank you very much. >> i just have -- >> commissioner singh? >> any one, you know. in a building of this magnitude and nobody leave behind any what see the building, what's going on? >> you know, i can't speak to the fire investigation outside of this. that's not my area of expertise. we have our own fire investigation unit and they work with the police department and they're working to determine what may have caused the fire. as far as security issues with the contractor and while we may or may not have had people on-site, again, that's not our area of expertise. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you again. madam secretary, please call the next item. >> the next item of business is regular agenda item 5b, conditionally approving the transfer of operations of

pearl's deluxe burgers, llc to the owner of the property located at 1001 market street and 4 sixth street, consistent with the terms of a facade and tenant improvement loan agreement approved under the six on sixth economic revitalization program; former south of market redevelopment project area. discussion and action resolution number 13 2014. madam director. ah thank you, madam secretary. ~ commissioners, the former redevelopment agency had a very active project area in the south of market redevelopment project area. through that work, the former redevelopment agency issued approximately 30 of these tenant improvement loans to model the program as you'll hear from staff. it was known as six on sixth street. it was so successful, the former redevelopment agency made over 30 of those ~ pearl's deluxe burgers was one of the largest if not the largest of a

forgivable loan of $400,000. there were specific provisions within that loan that tenant improvement loan consistent with the loan program that did allow ~ the owner to step in and continue retail operations which was critical. this is a catalytic corner and continues to be a catalytic corner. even though the commission, now stepping into the shoes of the former redevelopment agency, no longer is entering into new projects, you still have the oversight for existing loans and obligations in that area. so, with that i'd like to ask christine ma her a development specialist in our real estate and development services division to prevent this item ~. >> thank you, director bohe and good afternoon, commissioners. back in 2002 the former rehe development commission authorized the six on six program to provide forgivable facade and tenant improvement loans to property and business owners on sixth street in the south of market redevelopment area. as director mentioned, the

program was very successful. it attracted more than 30 new businesses to the sixth street corridor including subway restaurants such as ms. saigon and [speaker not understood] cafe. in 2010 the program was amended to approve higher levels of assistance, specifically for corner and catalyst sites at 6th and mission and sixth and howard street, excuse me. the goal was to revitalize these prominent corner locations and attract appropriate retail tenants. at that time the catalyst site located at sixth and market was extremely deteriorated, having been previously occupied by restaurant that had been shut down by the health department. filling this corner space was a major goal of the 6 on 6 program and the city as a whole. in 2010 the pearl's roux burgers signed a ten-year lease for the retail space at sixth and market and submitted an application under the six on six program for a $400,000 loan. plan improvements included a

new kitchen, a new hva system, [speaker not understood], new finishes throughout the entire restaurant and exterior awnings paint and windows. the redevelopment commission ~ ultimately did approval on the agreement in the amount of $4,000 -- $400,000 that is evidenced by promissory note and secured by a deed of trust against the property which is actually owned by the gall family. pearl's also received at that time a $215,000 loan from the city central market cultural district loan fund. consistent with the program's stated goal of assuring continuous authorizations of the business during the term of the loan, the loan to pearl's is forgivable over five years as long as pearl's does not sell, close, or transfer the business and is not otherwise in default of the terms of the loan agreement. however, this loan agreement is a little bit different in that it allows pearl's to transfer ownership or operation of business to the property owner

without triggering repayment of the loan. staff has interpreted this transfer provision to mean that the property owner must maintain a retail business at the site to [speaker not understood] triggering payment of the loan. [speaker not understood] was notified by pearl's that it was in negotiations to transfer operations to the property owner. under the proposed transfer, the property owner would find a new operator to continuously operate a restaurant business and pearl's would lease all of its furniture, fixtures, any equipment at the property to the new operator. the original promissory note and deed of trust would remain in place with pearl's still liable for any loan repayment required under the loan agreement. the parties have since entered into the transfer agreement to that effect. the property owner has also entered into an operating agreement with dan lou, an experienced operator and partner and the little grill modelest lunch key all successful restaurants located

along the mid-market corridor. staff as concluded the proposed transfer does not trigger repayment of the loan so long as the following conditions are met. one, the new tenant must be a retail restaurant business and shall not be charged a rent that exceeds the six on six program rent control standards. two, during the remaining term of the loan, the property must be continuously operated as a retail restaurant business except for a 30-day period after the closing of pearl's foreign vations. three, during this 30-day closure period, the property must display a sign announcing the name of the new business ~. four, pearl's must enter into a lease of all of its furniture, equipment and fixtures to the new operator and finally pearl's must remain the borrower under the original loan agreement and the promissory note and thus remain liable for repaying the loan if the new restaurant closes before the term of the loan agreement expires. staff believes that approval of

the transfer with these conditions meets the original program goal of revitalizing a prime corner location with a vibrant neighborhood serving business. that concludes my presentation. thank you. >> thank you, ms. maher. do we have any speaker cards? >> uh-huh, one speaker card from tracy ebber line. ~ hi, good afternoon, commissioners. tracy ebber line from the central market community benefit district. and prior to that i was with urban solutions for eight years and worked with the former agency staff to transform the space into a resource for the community. and i wanted to today just express my confidence in the new operators of this space. we couldn't have asked for a better team, both tenant and landlord really know he the community. they have operated three successful businesses in the community for at least a decade

that i have been working on sixth street and [speaker not understood] the job of providing a [speaker not understood] that's incredibly community surveying with a rare accessible price point. so, i think this new operator is just a really advantageous transfer for the community. thank you. >> thank you. >> i have no other cards. >> yes, questions by the commissioners? >> yes he, do we know what type of restaurant is moving in? i don't think that was in the [speaker not understood]. >> my understanding is it's actually going to be another burger restaurant. >> gotcha. got it okay. and i guess my next question he is you talked a little bit about -- >> and apparently the owner is here if you would like to -- >> oh, sure. >> -- step up. so, we can introduce the owner, john. i'm really excited about the fact that pearl's only did

lunch and a limited dinner. the new operator are going to do breakfast, lunch and dinner. the breakfast has been missing in the community for a long time. especially with construction workers in the area knocking on the door, can we get breakfast here? i'm going to introduce john chow. hi, my name is john. i currently own middle grid l. it's on 1400 market street, so, i do kind of understand what's going on on mid-market ~. i really did want to go into the space because i believe it needs like a cafe that's where friends could kind of come together and just meet. there isn't really space there that has that. so, i created our menu already. so, we have a full breakfast menu and we have a full lunch menu. >> nice.

>> so, i'm focusing more on the breakfast and lunch. ~ and i have other sources of catering and whatever, just like make up the money if we don't make it, you know, with the space there because it is limited with -- just like [speaker not understood] construction going, there's not there yet, but i do believe it's going to be there in the next maybe five years, so. >> awesome. >> thank you. >> any questions? >> i have a question. >> commissioner singh. >> [speaker not understood] the owner of the deluxe burger, is he here? ~ where is the owner of the deluxe burger, is he here? good afternoon, my name is silvia yee. >> [speaker not understood]. my name is silvia yee and my husband and i own pearl's roux burger. ~ bluxome burger.

deluxe burger. >> i remember that. you have another store. we have one on post. >> that is your second. what is the reason you are leaving? you know, we he -- it's very bitter sweet ~. i still believe in the revitalization of that area. i think our problem was that we were just a little bit too early with all the changes that are about to happen. we are more of a gourmet high-end burger restaurant and all we do are burgers and sandwiches. we don't serve breakfast. our menu is limited. and, so, we did a good lunch business, but the dinner business, because we didn't have a variety in the menu because we specialize in burgers, and then also the foot traffic right there at nighttime just wasn't enough to sustain the business. so, we have lost a lot