San Francisco Downtown Development Fund Needs More Money

The San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation might have secured more than $60 million to support downtown’s recovery since launching earlier this year, but that amount is not enough if the nonprofit hopes to achieve its long-term goals.

In order to ramp up its fundraising operations, the Downtown Development Corporation is working to create a legal entity that can access both private market and public financing tools to acquire, build and manage real estate, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The development corporation wants to begin pursuing bigger projects in the next two years, though it will need much more money.

“There’s no question we’re talking about a generational moment that will require hundreds of millions of dollars to build large-scale public parks [and] mixed-use development[s] — projects that fuel the economic recovery, deliver additional revenue to the city’s general fund and ultimately make San Francisco, particularly downtown, a place where businesses want to invest, stay and bring their employees,” Shola Olatoye, CEO of the Downtown Development Corporation, said.

The $60 million funding commitment, announced on Tuesday, comes from a group of nearly 50 entities, including real estate developers Emerald Fund, Fifth Space, Presidio Bay and TMG Partners, as well as high-profile companies operating in the city like OpenAI, Google, Salesforce and Amazon.

The money will be used in DDC’s ongoing efforts to revitalize downtown, funding things like enhanced lighting and security cameras, recruiting efforts to hire more police officers in the city, a new downtown business fund to help fill vacancies along the city’s key retail corridors, a new park in Embarcadero Plaza, improvements to the East Cut Crossing and investment in public art.

Banking giants J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citizens will “provid[e] below-market capital” to help businesses who want to move into vacant commercial spaces, Olatoye said. Details about that program will come in the second quarter.

— Chris Malone Méndez