ms. hester. >> oh. i have two minutes, not three. >> just pull that microphone down a little bit. >> i'm stunned, that i have two minutes for a battle that people have been waging >> i will give you as much time as you would like. >> thank you. because a lot of people couldn't come here today. one of the things that's been going on is this battle that's been waged by the public. the public, the planning department, supervisor peskin, was heavily involved at the beginning. thank you. a lot. but the main concern of the public was housing issues. and eventually housing issues, because they were taking over hotels and rent-controlled units. we didn't even know how much they had taken over because they never explained anything. they never bothered filing an institutional master plan. so we were out of compliance with the planning code. when they started following it, the planning department had enough information to start inspecting them. a lot of n. o. v.s went to them. and it became clear that there

ms. hester for not going over this. this is approved by the historic design commission and on compton place it shows 15 to 20 light fixtures on the soffit and this is a recessed store front and to span that width. and with the plan from that clarification. is this truly an albatross because of the configuration of the building or is this going to set a precedent for future building? >> an i currently have probably six additional applications to convert at the third floor to office and they are all generally coworking spaces and i think this is a trend. i think this is a precedent. i think that this -- i would -- i am not saying that we should keep everything vacant and there are a lot of different factors that are playing into the vacancies in downtown. and there is a lot that is going on. and the square footage that office space demands is much too precious, and that will never go back to retail. >> so i'm not quite ready to let go of the third floor retail. i am not convinced. last year a presentation and before i tak

ms. hester. okay. any other public comment? with that, public comment is cl. thank you. commissioner koppel. >> so those of you that have beg enough like ms. sue, remember te on that side of the microphone. and at the time, we had some ise academy of art as well. and i will admit that i'm pretth responsible for having all of ts inspected by fire, electrical, , building, fire, electrical, bui, all the inspectors had to walk f their buildings. [laughter] but i think they've come a long. i couldn't tell you how many hon billed to lawyers for this one. and i think we've come a long w. and to all the staff and all ths that put in the time and the efo say thank you. i'm satisfied with where we ared fully supportive of accepting t. >> okay. commissioner diamond. [off mic] >> turn on your mic. >> now it is. >> okay. one of the more significant beny is the financial payment. and i would like to understand e should have confidence that youn actually make good on those pay. >> so i think the confidence she financial guarantee that's prove city as part of the settlement . there's als

ms. hester. any other public comment on this item? >> hello. charmin spector, legacy business in downtown san francisco, as previous owners of 146 geary, i would like to lend support to the the project to have office space on the upper floors. i feel that it would be more beneficial to have more people at least in the area and we have experienced a radical shift in the retail momentum and i do hope that it will swing back, but a lot of that has to do with having people as a critical force down there to try to encourage more businesses to come down to downtown and not be so stepped back from it. we really have created a vacuum in the last two years. it's been devastating. and there must be a way with the help of the bid and the help of the landlords to try to make it the shopping center and destination that it always has been and deserves to be for our lovely small city. thank you. >> thank you. any other public comment on this item? >> hello, commissioners. richard lee from crushman wakefield. i am a stakeholder in union square. i am a member o