As anticipated, Kilroy Realty Corp. made known its plans for the embattled Flower Mart today. It's now promising a new underground market for vendors who won't, in all likelihood, be forced to seek a new home as the group builds towers for tech companies at the site.
All flower tenants will be offered five-year leases that maintain current rents. "We're going to work with the tenants to figure out the best way to do that," Mike Grisso, senior vice president at Kilroy told the SF Business Times. "The important thing we want to get across is we want to make sure the tenants have the minimum amount of disruption." It's almost like disruption is a bad thing now.
Per the Business Times, Kilroy is spending $80 million in order to build the new Flower Mart, and that doesn't take into account the hundreds of millions it will spend to build the towers.
The new space will be smaller, by a bit, decreasing from 135,000 square feet to 115,000 square feet, with 10,000 square feet of retail included. The underground area will have 24-foot-high ceilings, a roof skylight, and mezzanine level offices. According to renderings released today, a retail space at a plaza below the tech towers will have more room for retail flower vendors.
But opposition to the project and a war of the roses continues, as Supervisor Aaron Peskin and former Mayor Art Agnos lead the charge to block the project, most likely at the ballot box. And recently, as SF Weekly reports, Melanie Ann Tom of Oakland has accused Grisso and Kilroy of ignoring rules which require a one-year wait before lobbying former government officials.
Even with the release of these plans, things aren't set in stone. The Flower Mart’s space is zoned currently for development of up to 55-feet, but could be up-zoned as part of the City’s Central SoMa Plan.
The new Flower Mart and the towers could be ready for occupancy as soon as 2018, if all goes according to Kilroy's plan.