Relenting to City Hall pressure,
the Academy of Art University appears ready to pull out
of a controversial plan to buy the San Francisco Flower
Mart, potentially an 11th-hour reprieve in a deal critics
felt would have destroyed the local landmark.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin's office met
with representatives of the university late Monday and reached
a "conceptual agreement," under which the Academy
of Art will walk away from the transaction if the city modifies
certain zoning constraints that had limited what the school
could do at its properties elsewhere in the neighborhood.
"We've just saved hundreds of jobs, both locally as
well as regionally, and preserved a thriving San Francisco
institution," Peskin said.
The Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development
also received clear signals from the Academy of Art that
it intends to reverse course, after it works out legal details
with the current property owners, Managing Deputy Director
Jennifer Matz said.
"Our expectation is that they will be walking away,"
she said. "They represented to us that they needed
to talk to the sellers and to understand the consequences
of walking way, but that is the option they're pursuing."
Academy of Art spokesman Sam Lauter declined to discuss
details of the pending deal.
"We continue to have discussions, and the discussions
are near completion," he said.
The school agreed to purchase the western third of the site
at Sixth and Brannan streets, known as the Italian Side,
and planned to convert it into sculpture studio space. Tenants
of the 51-year-old Flower Mart, one of three wholesale and
retail flower markets in the nation, protested the deal
after receiving eviction notices from the current owners,
the San Francisco Flower Growers Association.
In response, Peskin introduced and the Board of Supervisors
passed a two-year moratorium on new institutional uses in
the neighborhood. The ban and a proposed permanent restriction
were key issues in the discussions Monday, as they limited
what the Academy of Art can do with its other holdings in
the area. The private, for-profit school owns 27 properties
throughout San Francisco and has been criticized by the
City Planning Department for alleged violations of zoning
rules.
"The agreement was predicated on a number of legislative
actions that will take place in the days to come, having
to do with the modification" of those zoning controls,
Peskin said.
Peskin planned to schedule a news conference for today to
announce details of the agreement.
The Academy of Art put down a $500,000 deposit on the property
and escrow was at one point scheduled to close on Wednesday,
sources said.
If the academy does back away from the sale, it would provide
a reprieve for the 30 or so tenants on the Italian Side.
While the academy had subsequently offered lease extensions,
it had planned to reconfigure the space in a manner that
critics said would harm those businesses.
"They were trying to take over their wholesale space,
and that's what they need day in and day out to make it
run," said Matz, who along with Mayor Gavin Newsom
also lobbied the Academy of Art to back off from the deal.
Some business owners on what is called the Japanese Side
of the property were also happy about the rumors of the
scuttled deal circulating through the market on Monday,
feeling that they, too, would lose business if the academy
moved in, took up parking and shuffled around the Italian
Side merchants.
"Everyone is upbeat and happy about it," said
John Nicolini, owner of the Delano Nursery, which was started
by his grandfather. "Hopefully, we can get things reorganized
down there."
Still, a quashed deal would be a blow to the owners, who
have been trying for years to cash out of the business.
In 2005, the San Francisco Flower Growers Association accepted
an offer to sell its portion of the property to a Virginia
housing developer for a reported $18 million. That transaction
fell through. Angelo Stagnaro Jr., president of the San
Francisco Flower Growers Association, didn't respond to
telephone calls.
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