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Quit your office job to run one of SF's Fire Engine Tour companies
Historic Firehouse #33, no longer putting out fires but still proudly situated at 117 Broad Street, finally sold after three years on the market. Looking at it (so cute!), you might wonder why, but maybe some buyers were cowed by the space-- an unusual layout, to say the least: the pole running through it all; oh, and the fact that it came with a fully functional business: the World Famous San Francisco Fire Engine Tour operation.
But three years and six real estate agents later, Zephyr Realtor Luba Muzichenko sold it for $875,000 in December of 2010. "The new owners," she says on her blog, are "in love with the integrity of the Firehouse," and "have promised to cherish and preserve its history."
That history mattered quite a lot to the original owners, Robert and Marilyn Katzman, who put Firehouse 33 on the market after (fittingly) 33 years living there. They hoped to find buyers ready to "slide into their entire fiery lifestyle, which included the Firehouse, the memorabilia and their amazing Fire Engine Tour business."
But the new owners of Firehouse 33 already have satisfying careers. They can't give them up to run the Tour. The upshot: San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventures still has not found a new owner.
History in the making...at half off
San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventures started in 1998. In no time, the business' popularity "spread like a wildfire all over the world," with features in multiple guide books, national and international travel magazines, a spot on The Travel Channel and even appearances in airline arrival films.
And now, it's much more affordable for the right person(s) to take over the wheel of the fire engine. The Katzmans have decided "the best way to sell a fire related business is, well, to have a fire sale!"
The business was originally listed at $249K when it was part of a package with the firehouse itself. Now offered as business alone, it's down to $125,000, 50% off. That price includes: truck and fire-fighter outfits; secured parking spot (extra monthly fee); up and running website; and training for new owners. Muzichenko suggests as well that there's actually room for the business to grow if someone wanted to expand it by paying hotel concierges commission for tours - the current owners haven't. So hotels will rarely book directly. Someone with a marketing flair could expand it to more tours.
The Katzmans include this personal message about their decade plus running the tours:
It was our dream to become part of the fabric of San Francisco. We Love This Beautiful City and we had always loved taking friends and visitors on adventures. When The Big Red Shiny '55 Mack Fire Engine came into our lives, our entrepreneurial spirit kicked into high gear. We knew there was something magical about this Fire Engine and we were right. Everyday is filled with smiles and happiness and to be able to make a living having so much fun has been a dream come true.
Who hasn't dreamed of something like this? No boss, no cubicle, just "smiles and happiness" while driving people all over a gorgeous city--and doing it in a fire engine?! And the best part: this new price might make that dream an actual possibility for some very lucky folks.
| March 01 2011 at 09:40 AM
Point and find commercial real estate with new iPhone app
Is there anything the iPhone can't do? It's certainly true to say that every day sees the arrival of a new app that promises to transform your life. And the technology that makes these gizmos work is certainly impressive.
The latest launch to cross our radar will be of interest to those who deal in commercial real estate.
The new junaio 2.0 app allows you to point your iPhone at any building as you walk or drive down the street, and up will pop complete information on available property listings. By subscribing to a channel on the app, you can also access information on nearby office spaces, including its size, and rent and type of lease, and then you can make direct inquiries to the listing broker or landlord from your mobile device.
The app has been developed in a partnership between " target="_blank">Rofo, a search engine dedicated to matching businesses with office space, and " target="_blank">junaio, a mobile "augmented reality" platform which uses the phone's compass and GPS to show digital content overlaid on real time locations. Junaio is part of augmented reality technology company Metaio.
The app is available now as for free on the iPhone 3GS and, we are promised, is coming soon to Android devices.
| May 21 2010 at 02:15 PM
Commercial real estate crash hits hotels hard. Does this mean holiday deals for travelers?
With declines in travel, business conventions, and property values, no one should be overly surprised to discover hotels are struggling in California. The extent to which they are losing the struggle, however, is dramatic. Bloomberg writer Nadja Brant reports that "Hotel foreclosures in California more than tripled in the first nine months of this year as business travelers and vacationers cut spending."
Hotels are also victim to the shady real estate loans that are also such a headache for the housing market, though in this case the loans that are defaulting are tied to construction and remodelling.
Lodging owners are struggling after adding rooms and properties from 2004 to 2007, when financing was easy to come by because banks could bundle loans into commercial mortgage-backed securities and sell them on to investors. About $83.4 billion in hotel-backed securities were issued in those years, according to Realpoint.
San Francisco, a city with much dependence on tourist and business travel economies, is feeling the pinch. The San Francisco Business Times reported in early October that "San Francisco and Bay Area hotels continued to post double-digit declines in July 2009." The Silicon Valley, despite being a business and technology hub, is also down: "Hotel occupancy in July [2009] was 53.85 percent, up from the previous month but down 13.68 percent from the same month last year, according to the San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau." Palo Alto is no better off, says the Mercury News: "Hotel occupancy rates have dropped almost 14 percent in Palo Alto this year despite a new tourism push."
Well, we're all struggling; otherwise we'd all be traveling and staying in lots of hotels. Can we find a silver lining in this latest doom cloud?
Indeed. If it doesn't make you feel too much like a vulture circling the wounded beast, now is a really good time to get a deal at a hotel, even one you'd usually think too dear. The Business Times found that "The most expensive hotels in San Francisco saw the biggest drop in room rates. Hotels with rooms over $200 saw their average rates plummet 26 percent in July 2009, to $251.73 from $340.00 in July 2008" and that "For the first seven months of the year, San Francisco average room rates are down 16.9 percent to $158.08." Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal found that "The average daily rate in July was $115.87, down $14.94 cents from July 2008."
Maybe this means we won't need the Kung Fu powers of William Shatner or Priceline.com to negotiate better deals for hotel stays. Better hurry though, before your favorite hotel forecloses.
| November 02 2009 at 10:33 AM
Market Street revival a (crack) pipe dream?
Long time residents of San Francisco recognize the irony of "Market Street," given that (in the lower blocks) the primary commerce consists of drugs and flesh. Recent attention to our blighted street makes us wonder if finally, Market can rival the grand avenues we see in so many cities around the world: a working artery that connects business with residents, commercial with community. Such a revival would clearly have great effect on San Francisco real estate values, especially those properties emerging in South of Market neighborhoods whose residents would regularly travel Market Street.
The first step on the city's plan is to make Market safer for pedestrians via a trial run at restricting traffic. The Chronicle's Rachel Gordon reports:
During the trial, cars heading east on Market Street toward the Ferry Building must turn right onto Eighth and Sixth streets and find alternative routes to get downtown. Transportation planners suggest Mission and Folsom.....Officials hope to discourage drivers from using the well-known Market Street corridor that runs from Eureka Valley to the Financial District as a thoroughfare.
A second, less obvious improvement comes to us on the November ballot. To quote from the proponent arguments in favor of Prop D, the measure would "revitalize Market Street between 5th and 7th with illumination with tasteful, historically inspired attractive signage." Funds from the signs are purported to support the arts and disadvantaged youth. Further, the signs go up at the cost of the advertiser, not the tax payer.
The voter pamphlet offers almost no argument against Prop D (its yay vote is well funded; its nay vote almost not at all). San Francisco For Tomorrow is the only published "No," reminding voters that this bill would over-turn an earlier voter-approved ban on billboards.
For those of us who do not actually enjoy brightly lit, over-sized ads burning into our eye sockets, who do not enjoy the lurid qualities of Time Square or the Vegas strip, it might be hard to imagine how these signs will make Market more... marketable. However, Carolyn Diamond of the Market Street Association wrote in a letter to the Chronicle editor that the plan "will bring new life and economic development to this underutilized and under served section of Market Street" and will "enhance art and cultural programs, and an arts and theater ticket booth will be created to raise the awareness of the plethora of entertainment venues in the mid-Market area."
Mid-Market does boast a plethora of legitimate entertainment venues. It also includes several that are not likely to make the Market Street Association's list: liquor stores, pawn shops, and strip clubs, for instance. Then we have to acknowledge the illegal trade that goes on twenty-four hours a day.
Indeed, people might feel safer walking mid-Market with fewer cars on the road. They might feel safer under bright lights. But the scary, dangerous elements of Market won't simply go away. At best, they'll move. This move won't be out of San Francisco: the bedraggled and addicted rarely have resources to relocate at such distance. Perhaps you can move the less desirable to another block, to a less lit corner. A likely relocation prospect seems the south of Market itself, where neighborhoods are still being established. Wouldn't this ruin the plan to revitalize, or to use C. W. Nevius's words "gentrify" that part of the city?
The question then: is it ever really possible to have a city unmolested by crime, drugs, and desperation? Or do we just move that aspect of urban life from one street to another, without ever trying to actually understand its true source?
| October 06 2009 at 12:00 PM
Value of commercial real estate is back to 2004 levels
Commercial real estate values have fallen to 2004 levels according to the newly released Moody's/REAL National All Property Type Aggregate Index.
www.rcanalytics.com
Commercial property values are back to September 2004 values.
Specifically, the index shows that, nationwide, the value of offices, apartments, hotels, warehouses and malls have dropped to September 2004 levels. The index hit 135.31 in April, down 8.6% from March and 25.3% from 2008. (100 on the index equals December 2000 prices.)
Declines were steepest in the South, where industrial, office, retail and apartment properties all saw greater than 20% declines.
In Southern California all four property types underperformed the western market as a whole -- but the office category was the worst performer with an annual value drop of 22.2%.
The report's authors say the numbers suggest that more owners are beginning to accept the decline in value and put distressed assets on the market. But sales are few and far between because of the difficulties sellers are having securing financing.
| June 24 2009 at 03:37 PM
At Jack London Square, retail runs to catch up with loft dwellers
Although you'd think planners would be more adept at this by now, it's still not unusual to see a situation where residents move into a newly developed area before amenities such as shops and restaurants arrive.
Witness San Francisco's Mission Bay district where the stalling economy has slowed retail roll-out plans for Fourth Street.
New Market Lofts in Oakland's burgeoning Jack London Square neighborhood.
And it's clearly evident in Oakland's Jack London Square where more than 1,000 people have moved into the area's new condos and apartments over the last few years -- but they still have barely anywhere to go to buy a pint of milk.
"A grocery store within walking distance would be nice," concedes Ken Shuman, head of communications at online real-estate company Trulia, who lives there. Shuman says it's a five-minute drive to the Whole Foods at the top of Lake Merritt or through the Webster tunnel to Lucky in Alameda.
But this inconvenience should soon be rectified as new reports show that $100 million worth of new construction, including retail space, is slated to go ahead in the next couple of years.
It hasn't been a major issue anyway for Shuman, a fan of lofts in industrial areas, who bought his 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo in the New Market Lofts building in August 2007. It cost $549,500.
He says he loves the area's convenience: he takes the ferry into the city or goes to the Lake Merritt BART stop which is only a few blocks away. He rates the restaurants and coffee shops; the Sunday farmers' market and the fact that there's a movie theater and Yoshi's Jazz club both within walking distance.
There are plenty of options out there for other loft lovers who want something a little more affordable than San Francisco's SOMA. Check out possibilities -- including the Brickhouse Lofts, the Pocket Building Lofts and the Portico Lofts -- here.
| April 17 2009 at 02:21 PM
One-stop shopping for apartment buildings
Wheelhouse says its multi-unit MLS search provides an objective synopsis of all Bay Area apartment buildings on the block.
If you're in the market for a multi-unit building in the Bay Area, Wheelhouse Investment Real Estate Brokerage is offering a Web tool to make your search a little easier.
It has put up a site that aggregates multi-unit MLS listings across the whole Bay Area. Each property is listed with a description, photos, price, price per square foot and other data. It shows 444 current listings around the region in one centralized location, eliminating the need to visit the patchwork quilt of multiple local MLSes.
| April 02 2009 at 05:26 PM
Rockridge Safeway Reboots With New Architect
A few weeks ago I reported on the plans by Safeway to revamp its Rockridge store, at the corner of Claremont and College Avenues in Oakland, and the vocal opposition some of those plans had provoked among many local residents.
Lownley Architecture
Safeway has engaged the architect behind this Oakland Whole Foods for its new Rockridge store.
Safeway has now decided to, in its own words, "take a deep breath" and evaluate next steps. The store has canceled a meeting it had promised to hold with stakeholders early this year and engaged a new architect for the project -- the third to be involved in what has turned into a contentious development.
Ken Lowney from Lowney Architecture is an experienced retail designer, having created a Whole Foods store from the old Cadillac dealership on Harrison St in Oakland. According to Safeway, Lowney is aware of concerns over the scale of the proposed Safeway store -- mooted at 50,000 sq ft -- and is meeting with a group of local architects (including RCPC Land Use Committee member Glen Jarvis) that has been working on designs for a smaller, more neighborhood-friendly alternative.
A community meeting is to be scheduled for April where the store's new plans will be unveiled and a formal application to the City is expected shortly after that.
| March 19 2009 at 09:23 AM
Commercial Property Market Feels Pinch Too
While much media coverage of the property market tends to focus on residential real estate, commercial real estate is hurting too, with new construction grinding to a halt and a rise in the number of vacant rental spaces.
In San Francisco major projects, such as two new biotech buildings slated for Mission Bay, have been put on hold.
mobilephonetrainingagency.com
Office vacancies are up around the Bay Area.
In Oakland developers are also taking a cautious approach, despite such bright spots as the recent re-opening of the Fox Theater and the city's brand new modernist cathedral.
In Berkeley, offices and commercial rentals are feeling the pinch with office vacancies up to 15.14% at the end of December 2008, up from 13.35% at the end of September.
Jeffrey Weil, who writes the East Bay Almost-Daily Commercial Real Estate blog told the Berkeley Daily Planet: "We're in uncharted territory. I've been through real bad downcycles before, but the current downturn differs significantly from others -- like the dotcom bust -- which were limited to certain sectors of the economy. This one is across the board. This time, there are very few companies that are not affected."
There is one bright spot, however. If you're a small business owner looking to rent space -- rather than the owner of that space -- you're likely to be able to get a much better deal now than a year ago.
"For a tenant it's an awesome time, one of the best tenant markets for the last 30 or 40 years." Weil said.
| February 19 2009 at 11:18 AM
Daily commentary on the nation's most diverse and unpredictable real estate market.
By Anna Marie Hibble, Jenny Pisillo, Carolyn Said, Robert Selna, Read Bios
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