Ballet school’s unlikely ally is developer
When City Ballet’s young dancers spilled out from backstage wings in sherbet-colored dresses, they were like fairies spreading goodness wherever they fluttered. They articulated their back muscles one at a time, as a pianist might her fingers. They made gravity look optional, as if the default force guiding their movement pulled up, not down.
Such professionalism, grace and talent have long distinguished the pupils of the 20year-old school. What was different on a recent fall evening was the venue: Chorus Hall, a deluxe new theater on the first floor of market-rate residential building Chorus, at 30 Otis St. in San Francisco.
Both City Ballet and City Dance were among the address’s tenants when developer Align Residential bought the property in 2018. Now, not only are the dance companies staying, but they also have a gorgeous new facility in the 28-floor building, with a 224-seat theater, class studios, costume storage and offices.
“I will confess I had tears in my eyes,” City Ballet Executive Director Kenneth Patsel said of entering the completed theater for the first time in mid-September, before the venue’s VIP opening on Sept. 29.
Though partnerships between San Francisco real estate developers and arts venues and companies aren’t new, they remain rare. Yet for arts companies, the advantage of such a model is obvious: It’s a chance to upgrade facilities and secure a long-term lease in a turbulent real estate market.
Still, in 2018, when Patsel heard that his school’s building had been sold to developers, he wasn’t optimistic.
“When I saw the guys coming in their business casual, I said, ‘OK, here it comes,’ ” he recounted.
Then Patsel found out that Align CEO Roman Speron was
actually interested in learning about City Ballet, so much so that he eventually decided to bring his four daughters to one of the company’s performances of “The Nutcracker.” Shortly thereafter, Speron asked Patsel what City Ballet might want if it were a tenant in the new building. At the time, Patsel wondered, “What’s the catch?”
But when he saw that Align was serious, he drew plans for 20,000 square feet of space on the first floor of the 416-unit building. He requested plastic seating, but Align got him plush, cushioned seats in emerald green on retractable risers, allowing for flexibility for different types of events. (Chorus also plans to use the venue for resident-only events and offer it to the public as a rental space, with discounted rates for nonprofits.) When Patsel asked for topof-the-line Diablo lighting instruments by French company Ayrton, he figured, “OK, they’ll tell me we need something cheaper.” Align bought them.
“They have not skimped on anything,” said Patsel.
Now City Ballet has a 25-year lease, which includes the ability to use the theater for one week per quarter.
“Chorus has been extremely dedicated to the arts since its inception,” said Align Marketing Manager Katie Patton, citing a rooftop painting class an Align employee teaches to Chorus residents. “Being able to incorporate things like that really enhances the resident experience, and that brings more residents in.”
Partnering with the dance companies also didn’t hurt during the city’s notoriously arduous approvals process.
“We’ve had dancers actually speaking at City Hall about the virtues of having their own theater,” Patsel said.
Still, there are downsides. Align paid for Patsel’s relocation costs and also initially leased him the facility at rent comparable to what he was paying at his old space at the same address. But his rent will go up after the first year (Patsel declined to say by how much). Sandy Lee, owner at City Dance, which subleases Chorus Hall studios from City Ballet, said her rent is 50% more than it was in 2018, and that soon it will go up to twice as much as it was.
She praised Chorus Hall, though, saying that “in the arts, you just don’t usually have developer money like that. The facilities are like a luxury hotel.”
While the city’s 1%-for-Art Program, which requires certain real estate developments to pay for public art, has led to a proliferation of visual art such as sculptures and murals throughout downtown since 1985, partnerships between developers and other kinds of arts are scarce, often because incentives and timelines don’t converge.
One such example is 950 Market St., the site of Serif condominiums and Line Hotel, which was also supposed to include a rent-free, 2,000-square-foot workshop space for Magic Theatre. That deal has now been called off.
“The state of theater in the Bay Area, COVID and rethinking what our performances spaces can and should be made the project make less and less sense than when originally proposed,” Magic Theatre Managing Director Kevin Nelson said in a statement to The Chronicle. “The space had been fully designed by a wonderful team of generous and talented people, but the very real challenges of capital fundraising during a pandemic and rising construction costs made the project untenable for the Magic to take on.”
Eric Tao, a managing partner at real estate developer L37 Partners, helped broker the deal that had promised Magic Theatre the space, though he’s no longer involved with the project. Joy Ou, also with L37 and still involved, declined to comment.
“The problem with theaters is a developer can deliver the space, but it won’t be built for a theater, so the theater still needs to go raise money to complete the improvements,” Nelson explained, adding, “The developer just wants to get it done and move on.”
Meanwhile, the Mexican Museum, while still sputtering along, suffers from similar issues. The organization has a 99year lease from the city on the first floors of 706 Mission St., near Yerba Buena Gardens and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but has repeatedly pushed back its move-in date as it struggles to raise funds required for interior improvements and other expenses.
But board President Andrew Kluger remains optimistic. Developer Millennium Partners completed the building’s shell 22 months ago. Now, Kluger estimates he’s raised approximately $19.5 million of the $30 million he needs to move in, up from $14.5 million in pledges four years ago.
Kluger gave qualified praise to Millennium, which built 146 market-rate residences above the museum space.
“The contractor doesn’t have the museum in their focus,” he said. “What they have is to build something that they can then make profitability out of. We’re delighted that they were able to develop and deliver most of what we required,” acknowledging that he’d hoped Millennium would complete more of the museum’s interior than it did.
The site has been earmarked for the museum in one form or another dating back to the early 1990s.
Likewise, Teatro ZinZanni hasn’t begun to rebuild its venue on the Embarcadero, though that project, part of a boutique hotel, is already a decade in the making. ZinZanni founder Norm Langill told The Chronicle that the hotel’s price tag has swelled from $145 million to $162 million during the pandemic and that developer Kenwood Investments is still trying to gather the funds necessary to break ground.
Such extended timelines make Chorus Hall, which took four years from purchase to opening, all the more remarkable.
City Ballet’s old space at 30 Otis St., which was in the same building as an auto body shop and a carpet store, resembled “Noah’s ark upside-down,” Patsel said. In contrast, the new space’s lobby alone is both sleek and lush, like a red-carpet portal on a spaceship. Its neighbor is Chorus’ posh ground-floor cocktail bar, Reception, which is open to the public.
On opening night, when City Ballet and City Dance performed an hour-long program, the crowd was glitzy, all sharply cut blazers and motorcycle jackets, blending mohawks with evening gowns: the type of moneyed audiences in their 30s and 40s that arts organizations in more traditional venues are ravenous to attract.
Chorus doesn’t collect data on its residents, but, Patton said, “We’ve noticed a trend of quite a few first-time and many returning San Franciscans,” adding that in addition to painting classes, the facility’s drag brunches, trivia nights and pool parties are always lively.
It remains to be seen if the residents, who can reach Chorus Hall without stepping outside, will still be interested in ballet once the novelty wears off. For now, Patsel said, “This is a synergy of arts and and corporate money.”
“They have not skimped on anything.”
Kenneth Patsel, City Ballet executive director, on developer Align Residential’s outfitting of the Chorus Hall theater