Original Body
pstrongThe Myth on Market Street Series Continues..../strong/p
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pby Martha Bridegam/p
pMarket Street between Sixth and Seventh offers a large choice of restaurantsbr /
where you can buy coffee for less than a dollar. Pick a place with a large,br /
clean, front window. Sit down with your coffee where you can see into thebr /
street. There is usually something to watch./p
pThis immediate area contains a pharmacy, some bars, a methadone clinic, twobr /
nude theaters, a lot of residential hotels, and two check cashingbr /
storefronts. Also nearby are the respectable Golden Gate and Warfieldbr /
theaters, a federal courthouse, and several tourist hotels. And a slummers'br /
best-kept secret, the the ambrosial Tu Lan Vietnamese restaurant on Sixth./p
pThis is a picturesque block but it is not a slum exactly. It is a necessarybr /
kind of urban place where people of all social classes mingle andbr /
occasionally communicate. Now it is going the way of New York City's Timesbr /
Square: it is being cleaned up./p
pWhile drinking your coffee you may see someone pass by wearing a paddedbr /
winter jacket in an unusual silver-tan color with a wide black stripebr /
running across the shoulders and down both sleeves. The Mr. Stag Fashionbr /
Center, down the block at 1041 Market, was selling those in early Octoberbr /
2000 as "The Puff Daddy Jacket." For a while they were asking only 30 dollarsbr /
apiece, marked down first from 80 dollars and then from 59 dollars. At least one man whobr /
bought a 30-dollar jacket was homeless at the time. After some days'br /
wear he said the jacket was a good one./p
pBut the 30 dollar jackets—and the 20 dollar second-hand bluebr /
jeans—are no longer for sale. After 31 years Mr. Stag was evicted in thebr /
fall of 2000, along with its brother institution, Jeffrey's Men's Shop. Inbr /
their place is a plywood enclosure covered in layers of advertising posters.br /
Inside, renovations are still going on. High up on the front wall is anbr /
architect's drawing of the property's future as an office building./p
pIn the block around Mr. Stag, one of the two House of Blue Jeans stores isbr /
closed. Other bits of the neighborhood are gone, too. The Homeless Advocacybr /
Project, where I work sometimes, has been displaced from Sixth and Market tobr /
Ninth and Mission. The Eviction Defense Collaborative itself was unable tobr /
hang on to its mid-Market offices and shifted to South Van Ness. The St.br /
Francis movie theater has closed and now has its own dreary shell of plywoodbr /
sheathing./p
pWhile new "live-work" loft projects stand empty in suddenly boomless Southbr /
of Market, the renovations continue around Market and Sixth. Maybe therebr /
really will be tenants to fill these newly cleared buildings once they'vebr /
been polished up to Financial District standards. But whether new payingbr /
tenants do or don't appear, the evictions of the old neighbors can't bebr /
undone./p
pIn 1969 Al "Big Red" Sultan founded Mr. Stag and Jeffrey's on the groundbr /
floor of the seven-story former Weinstein's department store, along thebr /
south side of Market between Sixth and Seventh. He hung on for 31 yearsbr /
through earthquake, fire and riot, and watched three different owners givebr /
up on renovating the rest of the building. The upper floors stood empty allbr /
that time, except when unauthorized pigeons and persons found their way in.br /
A small storefront between the two clothing stores was vacant for eight orbr /
nine years, too after a McDonald's restaurant failed there. But Sultan saidbr /
his own business thrived right up until the eviction./p
pThe building is a hodgepodge of structures from the early 20th Century, abr /
fact that makes renovation difficult. Paul Boschetti, who sold the propertybr /
for development this past spring, said the section that housed Jeffrey's—on the right as you face it—is the former Hotel America, built in 1910.br /
The rest of the building is probably 70 to 80 years old. City records showbr /
the department store's founding family assembled the property from smallerbr /
lots between 1924 and 1931./p
pBut by 1969, Sultan said the store had closed and the upper floors were "inbr /
terrible shape" from disuse. He convinced the owners to let him convert thebr /
ground floor to storefronts. "The electrical, elevators didn't work. It wasbr /
just a bad situation up there, you know."/p
pI taped a long interview with Sultan the day he closed up shop for good.br /
That was October 17, 2000—11 years to the day after the Loma Prietabr /
earthquake kicked Mid Market into an economic slump but failed to dislodgebr /
Mr. Stag and Jeffrey's./p
pSo what was the neighborhood like 31 years ago?/p
p"You know, funny, much like it is now," said Sultan. "Hasn't changed—tobr /
me, I don't see it changed at all. It's the same bunch of people, samebr /
crowds, same everything, you know. We do get a few more tourists now than webr /
did years ago because they've made some improvements of hotels a block awaybr /
around the corner."/p
pWhat would he miss here? "Every customer, every face—I miss itbr /
all. To me, this is—it's like burying one of my children. This is, thisbr /
is the feeling I have, closing this store."/p
pRight up until moving day, these two stores formed a lively part of Marketbr /
Street's toughest block. Both stores, especially Mr. Stag, had broad openbr /
displays that extended onto the sidewalk during business hours. This meant thatbr /
they had to be watched carefully against theft. Like many Mid Marketbr /
business people, the staff stood up front with the merchandise, or sometimesbr /
out on the broad sidewalk facing it. They were part security guards, partbr /
salesmen, part bartenders—part of the lively jumble in a downmarketbr /
retail district that is now being smoothed out./p
pThey packed up Mr. Stag first, on the morning of the 17th, loading all thebr /
merchandise into a truck bound for a warehouse in Sacramento. Sultan saidbr /
the inventory of both stores would stay there until it could be sold at fleabr /
markets./p
pManager Delbert Hicks, who had helped to run both stores for most of the 31br /
years, paused in loading the truck to answer a shocked questioner on thebr /
sidewalk. No, the business hadn't failed, he said, "We've been dot-commed."/p
pEvicted, yes—dot-commed, no, not exactly. Scott Harper, a Whitneybr /
Cressman broker working with the building's new owner, said in late 2000br /
that he would want conventional office tenants for the rehabbed building,br /
like engineers, architects and lawyers—not dot-coms. "The landlord isbr /
motivated by having someone he knows will be paying the rent in a fewbr /
years," he said dryly./p
pThe afternoon of the 17th, Jeffrey's was full of customers paying lastbr /
visits. One of them, John Lamantia, had made a special trip from San Jose—"because he has outstanding clothes, and they're something you can't findbr /
all over, and I look good in them."/p
pThe two stores' stock in trade was a shrewd mix of the flashy and thebr /
practical. Mr. Stag featured puffy jackets, plus a table abundantly stackedbr /
with 20 dollar pairs of second-hand blue jeans—the only second-handbr /
goods sold in either of the two stores. Jeffrey's front window showed off anbr /
impossibly oversized display model of the wide-lapel "Joe Hollywood" blazer,br /
specially made for this store only, available in six colors of brightbr /
wave-pattern velour. Inside, the stock was mainly modest-colored men's suitsbr /
and jackets, though a shirt with "Millenium 2000" holograms—a big sellerbr /
the previous winter—was still on display./p
p"We don't compete with nobody, because nobody competes with us," Sultanbr /
laughed. "Nobody dares compete with us because they don't dare carry what webr /
sell."/p
pHe claimed to have no equal among neighboring stores, though Kaplan'sbr /
sporting goods and military surplus does carry some new outdoor wear, andbr /
there are several storefronts nearby selling shoes and casual clothing. Hebr /
guessed his customers would shift to the Ross's and Marshall's bargainbr /
stores along Market to the east of Sixth./p
pA grizzled customer, who gave his name as Lucky, said Marshall's would makebr /
a poor substitute. "I know. I've been, I've gone here a lot of times. He'sbr /
got the best little location, the best clothes for a working man's, uh,br /
pocket." His voice gathered strength as he repeated himself: "That's whatbr /
you're dealing with. You're dealing with a working man's pocket. You know,br /
he had good quality clothes for—for the average man who really couldn'tbr /
afford to go into, like, Nordstrom's and stuff."/p
pAsked when he got the eviction news, Sultan turned serious. "May. May. Endbr /
of May... that was when the bomb fell." Despite a "financial settlement,"br /
Sultan expected to lose three to four hundred thousand dollars. "I wantedbr /
my year. I wanted my year here. A year, I could have liquidated my stores inbr /
an orderly manner."/p
pWalter Armer, a director at Seligman Western Enterprises, said part of thebr /
building was seismically unstable, to the point where "we felt badly aboutbr /
having occupants in the building." He said his company is overseeing thebr /
renovations on behalf of the new owner. The owner is a limited liabilitybr /
corporation with its address at the Michigan offices of Seligman Assocs.,br /
Inc./p
pAbout the eviction agreement, Armer says, "Suffice it to say, I think thatbr /
everybody was happy at the end of the day. That was certainly our goal and Ibr /
think that Mr. Sultan felt that way as well."/p
pThose vacant floors upstairs wore out a lot of investors' hopes over thebr /
years. Although the department store closed in the sixties, the building didbr /
not change hands until 1984. That year property records show the Weinsteinbr /
Investment Co. deeded the property to Alexander and Binyamina Anolik, whobr /
were to pay $1.75 million for it over time. But by 1996 the Anoliks werebr /
facing foreclosure and had to hand the property back. Sultan says thebr /
Anoliks' development hopes for the building failed because of the savingsbr /
and loan crisis and an early—'80s glut of San Francisco downtown officebr /
space./p
pOn retaking the property, the department store's legal successor, a trust,br /
sold it to Paul G. Boschetti, owner of the nearby Aida and Verona Hotels.br /
Boschetti says he got the building for just $650,000 by agreeing to take itbr /
"as is"—which meant a leaking roof and upper floors full of pigeons andbr /
trespassers' damage that looked like a "war zone."/p
pBoschetti fixed the roof and elevator and covered a window to shut thebr /
pigeons out. (Well, mostly out. Some were shut in, with unfortunatebr /
results.) He originally planned to develop the property into a touristbr /
hotel, and was thinking of converting the former McDonald's storefront intobr /
a lobby. However, Boschetti, too, had to give up on developing the place./p
pIn spring 2000, the building finally gave Boschetti a profit. He sold it onbr /
June 2, 2000 to a limited liability company identified on public papers asbr /
1050 HCT LLC. Computed from public transfer tax information, the sellingbr /
price from Boschetti to 1050 HCT was $5.5 million./p
pFour days after the purchase from Boschetti, 1050 HCT sold the propertybr /
again to 1035 Market Street LLC, which is the current owner. The purchasebr /
price in this second sale, also as computed from the transfer tax, works outbr /
to $7.75 million./p
pThe "1050 HCT" entity—the buyer that apparently bought and sold thebr /
property at a $2.25 million profit in four days—was represented on thebr /
sale documents by James I. Hunter and had its address in care of Hunter'sbr /
HCT Investments, Inc. in Alameda./p
pReached by phone recently, Hunter took a moment to remember the buildingbr /
involved, then said the $2.25 million difference between the prices soundedbr /
high—"I didn't think we made *that* much money. There must have beenbr /
something else." Later, commeting on the deal, he said, "Sometimes you losebr /
and sometimes you win." He declined to name the investors, but confirmedbr /
that the profit from such a deal goes in several directions. "Yes, and itbr /
goes in several directions when you lose."/p
pHow could the buying and selling prices have been so different from eachbr /
other within such a short period? He said, "at that time it tooked likebr /
offices were going to go down Market and that area was going to bebr /
rejuvenated." He said, office businesses had previously avoided the areabr /
because of too much "hassle." Had I seen the alley behind 1035 Market?br /
"They're dealing drugs all the time... It hadn't been regarded as safe."/p
pBut Hunter was speaking in the past tense, at least about the San Franciscobr /
office space market. "All that has changed."/p
p"There's millions of square feet [of office space] available 'cause of allbr /
those dot-commers gone bust."/p
pDid he eventually expect buildings along Mid Market would turn into businessbr /
offices? Sure, he said, "They eventually should." They're near BART, andbr /
"Market is a hell of a street...That area should've gone a long timebr /
ago.... it should've gone in advance of the South of Market area." Whybr /
hasn't it? "The difficulty of doing business in San Francisco." /p
pWhy did South of Market "go" first? He guessed because the warehouses, with detailsbr /
like "big wooden beams" were more to the taste of the dot-com companies,br /
and there were "not as many people to hassle their employees."/p
pDid he feel sorry for the current owners, stuck renovating the building inbr /
the newly fallen market? "I think they'll be fine in the long term."/p
pTheories vary about what has kept mid-Market rents low since the days when abr /
department store could flourish between Sixth and Seventh. Some old-timersbr /
think it started with the BART subway construction diggings on Market Streetbr /
in the early 1970s. Also in the 1970s, Boschetti suggests, the city'sbr /
skid-row focus was driven westward from Third Street to Sixth by thebr /
hard-fought Yerba Buena displacements, which cleared two whole blocks ofbr /
dense, cheap housing to build the complex between Third and Fourth Streetsbr /
that is now a park, convention center and entertainment complex./p
pAfter the displacements came the downtown office space glut of the 1980s,br /
and then the 1989 earthquake—all of which has probably helped preservebr /
Sixth Street as the last big low-rent enclave in the South of Marketbr /
district. "Low-rent" being a relative concept on Sixth, however: subsidizedbr /
rooms at the Seneca Hotel cost $450 per month, and even the worst privatelybr /
run hotels can now get $150 per week and upward for a single room withbr /
bathroom down the hall./p
pWith nonprofit offices being replaced by businesses up and down the street,br /
and even Sixth Street poverty getting expensive—well, yes, the lastbr /
scruffy block of Market Street is probably turning around./p
pLast fall Armer, of Seligman Western, expressed excitement at the task inbr /
front of his company: making a commercially rentable property out of "almostbr /
a hundred thousand feet of vacant space that's been collecting pigeons." Hebr /
said the renovation would keep the existing facade and fire escape for abr /
"funky, retro-type look," while doing some seismic strengthening andbr /
bringing the mismatched parts of the building to a uniform height. Thebr /
architect is Gelfand RNP./p
pIt's still not clear what kind of tenant is likely to replace Mr. Stag andbr /
Jeffrey's. Sultan mentioned a rumor about a Starbucks moving into his spot,br /
but Armer chuckled at that suggestion, saying a Starbucks would need highbr /
pedestrian traffic and a lot of nearby office workers—not a likelybr /
combination around Sixth Street. Sultan also guessed his space might bebr /
attractive to a large drug store chain if it decided to crowd out the fadingbr /
Merrill's pharmacy at Seventh and Market. Armer declined to comment on thebr /
suggestion about Merrill's./p
pMerrill's is distinctly part of old Mid-Market. Its red and white awningbr /
formed the background to a memorable realist scene in the 1994 Terry Zwigoffbr /
documentary "Crumb." On a visit to one of his eccentric brothers, thebr /
cartoonist R. Crumb sits sketching on a sidewalk bench while an elderlybr /
woman with flaky dry skin and a painfully bent neck stands nearbybr /
overfeeding the pigeons./p
pWhether or not Merrill's hangs on, the "Crumb" scene already belongs to abr /
different Market Street of the early 1990s that is no longer reproducible.br /
The pigeon lady disappeared around 1995. Around that time they took out thebr /
benches, too. Mr. Boschetti takes credit for reducing the pigeon populationbr /
by shutting off their roost in the empty floors above Mr. Stag. Everythingbr /
is cleaner and duller now./p
pOne of the customers taking a last look at Jeffrey's on closing day was citybr /
police officer Darryl Jones. He looked at the jackets and bought a tan suit.br /
Sultan carried the pants back to his work table in the storage room and tookbr /
in the cuffs while reminiscing about his store's dramatic moments./p
pHe told about a 1979 fire that demolished part of the Kaplan's building andbr /
caused smoke damage at Jeffrey's and Mr. Stag. Then the earthquake in 1989,br /
which caused "a depression" in mid-Market retail and forced Sultan to watchbr /
expenses for a while. Then there was the Rodney King riot in 1992, whenbr /
looters broke into Mr. Stag and set a fire. Luckily Sultan arrived in timebr /
to put it out, so his loss was limited to theft and carpet damage. And nowbr /
it was time to leave./p
p"You know what's going to happen when I leave? When this business closes,br /
after today and tomorrow, every business in this block is going to feel thebr /
impact of the loss of these stores because of the customers that we drawbr /
here... Lots of times... if I get a customer for shoes, I mean, I alwaysbr /
send them down to my neighbor down the street, where he can get some nicebr /
shoes. Sometimes my neighbor sends them here because they know, well, youbr /
know, where they can go to get a nice suit. And... everybody benefits frombr /
that. But now, we'll be gone, what are you going to do?"/p
pSultan finished with Officer Jones' trouser cuffs and excused himself towardbr /
the front of the store, muttering, "I gotta go back and get him to put hisbr /
pants on." He turned me over to his accountant, Julian McClendon, who wasbr /
sentimental too, and also a little bit dazed./p
p"...Well, Al is like, an icon, you know, certainly from my point of view, Ibr /
mean, not so much from the point of San Francisco, I'm not quite sure howbr /
they view him, but I'm sure that with - with all the customers that theybr /
have in here that they're going to miss him. But this is probably my lastbr /
client that's on this street. Most of them are in the Financial District andbr /
although you get tired of the smell sometimes and that sort of thing whenbr /
you walk up Sixth Street, still, it's a part of what sort of keeps peoplebr /
alive, all those different smells and things that they see, you know, thatbr /
sort of thing, and when you're no longer on Market Street because yourbr /
clients are gone, and you're just in the Financial [District] area, youbr /
know, they kind of change, and you just kind of miss it."/p
pHow does Sultan see his block two or three years from now?/p
p"Well, I see it as the same characters walking the street. I don't care howbr /
many millions of dollars they put in fixing buildings here, everything,br /
you're not going to change the same people that walk here, because of allbr /
the types of remaining businesses that are here - check cashing places, andbr /
those places, you know."/p
pSome time ago one of the Sixth Street hotel landlords told me he expectedbr /
the residential hotels there would turn into hostels for young backpackbr /
tourists. But Sultan dismissed this prediction—"No, I don't think so...br /
eventually somehow the city will buy up those buildings somehow and try tobr /
get all of those places closed out and get everybody out of there and thenbr /
resell the properties to developers. But I think that—the only reason whybr /
it's there now... it's the only place they can get housing for, you know,br /
the poor."/p
pMcClendon, the accountant, agreed Sultan's stores could have survived if notbr /
for the eviction, but at the same time he predicted the neighborhood wouldbr /
change. "Oh, it's just—it's just dot-coms, and—and in the retail areabr /
it'll be selling to people that can buy retail but they'll also be able tobr /
afford four-thousand-dollar-a-month apartments... 'Cheap'br /
four-thousand-dollar-a-month studio apartments. So the kind of retail thatbr /
you're going to see in here is going to be a different kind of retail.br /
Because the common folk will just be out of here."/p
pbr /© 2001 Martha Bridegambr /
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