City’s port tenants get rent relief
The Port of San Francisco will forgive rent for nearly 200 tenants, including restaurants and seafood processors.
The Port of San Francisco will forgive rent for more than a third of its 560 commercial and industrial tenants, according to a resolution passed by the commission that oversees it Tuesday.
Port staff said the program will “provide relief for small businesses who are least able to weather this downturn.” Struggling small businesses on the brink of closure are experiencing economic hardships amid the coronavirus pandemic, they noted.
In a unanimous vote, the Port Commission approved the rent forgiveness program for 196 tenants, in three categories.
The first are those whose leases include a base rent plus a percentage of profit, including retailers, restaurants, maritime excursion firms and parking operators. There are 48 businesses that fall into this category and are eligible for rent relief for up to 14 months — from March 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021 — or until sales rebound sufficiently, whichever comes first. For these types of businesses, base rent is waived but
the port’s cut of a businesses’ profit remains in effect, port staff said.
During the public comments period, Peter Osborne, owner of Mission Rock Resort, a waterfront restaurant, asked the commission to consider revising some of the terms for tenants like him.
“If you are able to exceed base rent for three consecutive months, you would fall back into the previous lease agreement,” he said.
He said he’ll be able to achieve that as long as the weather stays good but come the winter months, when outdoor dining isn’t complementary to the weather, he said he might have some challenges and asked the commission to give the threemonth criteria more thought.
Reporting monthly sales is required by the rent forgiveness program, as is reporting any governmentfunded financial assistance received during the time period that was stated for rent. That amount will be deducted from the forgiveness amount, port staff said. The rent forgiveness program does not cover other fees paid to the city. For example, restaurants which received permits for sidewalk dining but haven’t been able to use the feature due to local health orders are still required to pay those fees.
A second group eligible for rent relief are maritime tenants such as fishers, crabbers, seafood processors and other support businesses. A total of 121 tenants fall into this category and can have rent forgiven from March 1 to Aug. 31. The move will provide muchneeded relief to San Francisco’s fishing industry, which was left reeling after a massive warehouse fire on Pier 45 in May.
A third group of qualified tenants deemed local business enterprises, including small engineering and construction firms, are also eligible. A total of 27 tenants in this category can apply for rent relief for the period between March 1 and May 31.
Some of the port’s bigger tenants are not eligible for the program, including the Ferry Building, Pier 39, the Exploratorium and Oracle Park, among others.
“To the extent relief is required, it may be negotiated on an asneeded basis with the tenants,” port staff said.
The port expects to forgive about $13.5 million in rent. In 2019, most of the port’s $122 million in revenue came from property rentals for commercial and industrial businesses.
This is the third type of rent forgiveness program the port has initiated this year due to the pandemic, Rebecca Benassini, assistant deputy director for waterfront development projects said at the commission meeting. The port previously offered a rent deferral program that ran between March and July. Beginning Aug. 1, it started an optional rent deferral program that runs through December.