Commissioner fung. roll call . So moved. That passes unanimously 60. I want to Say Something that i should have said. My brain is moving slowly today. I wanted to wish commissioner johnson a very happy birthday. Thank you for being here, being a trooper for a long day today. Thank you. Happy birthday. Item 12. 2018016625dnc for 50 post street. Downtown project authorization. Good afternoon. The project before you is downtown project authorization for the crocker retail galleria 50 post street. It is a three Story Building with vaulted glass ceiling. In addition it is fronted with a small third frontage on the west side. The galleria and project also including the three story retail building located between the main portion and the ad jaysant adjacent hotel. It was approved in 1979 and constructed in 1983 as part of a larger project which included a tower and 25 montgomery and 111 sutter. That is all into the new galleria. The project today only involves the building itself and no modifications to the office tower. The original project called for open space in two main areas first on the roof of 1 montgomery and second above the three story retail building between th the daller ria. It includes increased tables and seating and movable seating. The proposed project consists of interior and ex steeria alterations and no building expansion except for elevator extension on the sutter street side of the building which allows for existing elevator to be brought up to the rooftop open space. The Square Footage would decrease slightly due to creation of new grand stair and public seating between second and third floors. It would replace 14,000 square feet of retail use at the third floor with office use which is a permitted use here in the Downtown Office district. On the proposed design the department supports the modifications proposed as they improve accessibility to the rooftop open space and result in Greater Transparency to the galleria and improve the sidewalk adjacent to the galleria. The project received very little Public Comment much of which was received in may. At that time the exists tenants expressed concerns how this might impact the dennis lease the tenants lease. They will resolve the issues. Staff received a letter of support from the galleria merchants. A letter was sept yes sent yest. The Department Finds the project is on balance consistent with the policies of the downtown and supports the approval with conditions to have the project sponsor continue to work with staff on final signs and finding to further guide Public Access to the rooftop. That concludes staffs presentation. I am available for questions. Thank you. Is there a presentation from the project sponsor . We do. Hello. I am sig anderson. We have been involved for a number of years. I was not here in 1983 when the project was completed. I understand it opened to great fanfare with solid base of retail tenants. Over the last 10 years, as most people can see going to the galleria today, there is a shift. There is a shift in where retail learns are located. More activity around union scare has changed that. They have struggled to retain retailers, we started to explore several years ago a number of options for how we could retenant the project and how we could modify some of the function that today is obsolete. Things like access off the street with the fairly dangerous steps going to the lower level and we looked at ramping to allow to solve ada access and enhance the Customer Experience to the project. Our architect will provide detail what that looks like. We have been working over the last year with existing tenants. The letter speaks for itself. Be. [please stand by] access across site. And really creates a destination for the community who visits, lives and works in the area. To achieve this, weve doubled the size of the Public Entrances on post and sutter. Weve designed large doors that open to the sidewalk when the gallery is open. And weve sloped up the ground floor to meet the sidewalk to eliminate the series of stairs and elevators that constrict and confuse the entrance today. In addition, we would like to extend a new elevator to the renovated space on the roof to also increase the access and public use of this space. Weve also reconfigured the existing dish on the post and sutter street elevation to bring it up to building code. So now the fair stairs exit on to the sidewalk, which is a much safer exit path in case of an emergency. At the exterior entrance, we have chosen to highlight the buildings greatest asset which is a glass barrel vault that connects the elevations. Weve made it the primary feature of the facade itself. And weve complimented that on either side with the scallops you see in the rendering. Its a ground and polished dfrc that resembles the look of stone with this texture you see. Weve also added seats and planters down at the base so the street is more active. And its also to engage the entrance more effectively. On the roof, we are proposing improvements to the space. We are, in addition to extending the elevator im sorry, we have opened up the stairs that connects to the roof as well that lead the public up to the roof and made it more accessible and transparent. We are also working with the planning to design the signage as andrew mentioned, to make it a prominent and feature the space for the public and for the site itself. You can see that we are also planning on renovating the roof, pavers, more landscaping, about three times the amount of seating. Some of that is fixed and some is flexible, to give the diversity of uses and programs up on the roof for the public as well. With that, i thank you for the time. Thank you very much. Do we have any Public Comment on this item . Okay. From supervisor peskins office is here. Good afternoon, commissioners. I wore gold today just for commissioner johnsons birthday. Hes not here so i thought i would wish her happy birthday. I am here in my capacity as supervisor peskins chief of staff. The project in question is located within district 3s c30 Downtown Office zoning district. Our office became aware of the proposed conversion back in april of this year after several longtime merchants operating in the galleria expressed concerns their leases were not going to be renewed in order to make way for new office space. So we became concerned, we got involved. Over the course of the last several months, those tenants organized themselves. The supervisor ended up convening meetings with the project sponsor as well as the Tenants Group. And i really want to acknowledge that folks did spend a lot of time and energy discussing those concerns. Given the potential for any conditional use authorization to be appealed to the board of supervisors, the District Supervisor holds neither a support nor oppose position. I did want to be on the record the Tenants Group confirmed that the project sponsor addressed the collective and individual concerns of the 20 plus Small Business tenants in the building, including the farmers market. I did want to make one note for the record. The supervisor did take issue with representations made by projects council in the letter to Planning Commission president melgar on october 10 of this year, calling out the supervisors c3r controls as a significant factor in the projects alleged delay. This is a little surprising, given that she was engaged in providing input to that particular legislation, and we all know the current project in question was not and is not actually inside of the c3r, and it is not subject to the conversion fee, it is not subject to those controls and should not, for the record, be attributed in any way to the delay of this project. So i thought that was notable. But thank you so much for your considerations in this matter. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is richard lee from wakefield, commercial Real Estate Organization internationally. Im a neighbor. I work in the district. I frequent the galleria frequently. In fact wakefield was the managing company for many years of this project but not currently. But i am in short in support of this modification, this change in use, if you will. I will frequent it. I certainly do, in fact, today i was there for lunch, and of course there was a comment about the retailers having slinking in size, looking for foot traffic, well its true. Its really changed. And in short, i believe this is a valid change for the time. And thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Sue he recollects the prog took a lot of time with this space because it was the first open roof space they had. I have two concerns, basically i want the planning staff to go over and have one condition, lighting out Exterior Lighting all the time, because thats one of the things that deadens the street for pedestrians, and it should be a major priority of plan review at the Planning Department and conditioned by the Planning Commission. They need to be maintained by the owner of the building, not the tenants, and there needs to be attached to part of the building. And that obligation has to go permanently to the owner of the building. Secondly, the major thing that also came out in the press, 20, 30 years ago, i dont know how probably 10 or 15 years ago, nonsignage that alerts the public theres a popo. Thats a public open space. So the second condition i would ask you to put on as the planning staff has to approve really viable signage to attract pedestrians on both sides of the building to get up to the open space. Its private open space an extension for rich people in the area that know about it, so i think those are modest requirements. But im going to be a crank about them. So lighting for pedestrians, particularly people there have more mobility problems and really encourage use of an open space by real proper signage. You dont want to be the next story about, oh, all these popos and they are not available to the public. And those articles i can write for the chronicle, they do them periodically, about every two years, and they are right. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Im the portfolio manager. We are in full support of this project. We feel its going to create a lot of vie bransy and re vibrantsy and revitalize the neighborhood. We are looking forward to getting this started. Thank you. Any other Public Comment on this item . Come on up. Good afternoon, commissioners. Thank you for having me. Im the general manager of the Galleria Park Hotel adjacent to the project. I also frequent the crocker galleria often for meals and i know most of the tenants and retailers that are there. And my hotel literally supports this. They have been great partners when they were discussing the project, they were great neighbors and shared all the great improvements. And i am a resident of San Francisco. I feel this will bring more of the local residents a place to come. I personally love the popos because we used to do yoga classes for our customers there. So im looking forward to the enhancement. I think people do go up there, but i think with the enhancement there will be more people that go there. Im a huge proponent because i believe San Francisco needs more public parks. And actually we have this amazing architectural tour guide, he takes a lot of the tourists and local customers from my hotels and starts at my hotel and tours the space. So whatever we can do, i think it will be a great addition to sutter street. We dont get a lot of business and foot traffic on weekends, so i think whatever i can do to help support our Ownership Group is also in support of this. So thank you. Thank you. Any other Public Comment on this item . Okay. With that, Public Comment is closed. Commissioner moore. While this particular project is not within a Historic District itself, it is surrounded by Historic Districts. And its inception in 1982 is it went through a major struggle, replacing the old wells fargo building at the corner of post and required a design that puts a tower that was called at that time in context of the entire Historic Assembly of the we will see fargo bank at the corner of montgomery and post. It is part of a design strategy which reconsiders the entire block function as one. As far as Historic Preservation, im surprised this project is not being reviewed by our h. B. C. Due to the fact i think its function and urban design strategy needs to retain itself approveable. I do not believe the current architectural configuration of the building does justice to this larger call. I believe that the opaquing of sutter street with materials which do not at all look at the larger idea of how this space was created, makes any sense at all. I do not believe the retail strategy that this office is proposing is a very good retail strategy at all. It is opaquing visibility that you need in order to see retailers as you are entering the galleria. We are still trying to have a retail corridor. While i do not object to the Additional Office in the upper floors, i believe the retail strategy at the ground floor is a completely missed opportunity which sets retail up to fail. The rules of retail and feasibility of how you approach it, when you have to see what is basically completely being lost. I know it is a challenge to have a lightfilled room which was originally dedicated entirely to retail to fill with office. I do believe there is a possibility to use the existing galleria to insert office. There is a possibility to change certain circulation patterns but in the way its done, i believe that this particular design sets retail up to fail ultimately this building is disappearing into the office use in its entirety. I believe that staff is actually very thin in its reporting on a major building alteration. Its a complete reinterpretation of the urban design intent of what this project originally stands for. And im actually asking that we ask Historic Preservation to take a look at this. I talked with commissioner highland and with several other Historic Preservation commissioners to do so. They were actually quite surprised that they have not been asked. And i also would like to remind the Planning Department that ground floor treatment on sutter street in particular, is supposed to be open with storefront windows facing sutter street. Instead of having a storefront on sutter street, we are closing it off so we have basically two huge garage openings fronting of what now is a very inviting transitional space to both of them midblock. I believe this project needs some additional work. I am in support of office. Im all in support of looking at access and improving open space. This project is not an open space project in its original intent. I think this project is an attempt to ultimately alter this entire building to become an office building. And its i strongly urge us to step back, have Historic Preservation weigh in, set parameters of how the block is completed, how it fulfills its original call for what it was meant to be and step back before we approve the project. Commissioner koppel im seeing it differently. I do value the importance of this building and this site. North of market we have our big streets curry and montgomery and battery and streets like pine and bush and post and sutter are those gateway streets that connect downtown to the rest of the city. And this property joins post and sutter. So i think its very important. I dont think it gets to the meeting of Historic Commission review at this time. Im not trying to disregard any of your comments. I think we could still move this ahead and fall back and still look at the architectural details you might be concerned with. Commissioner diamond. So i had a number of design questions for staff. First, could you please address the two points she raised. They seem important. I want to know how those issues get worked into the approval. Sure. She raised issues on Exterior Lighting for pedestrians and, to be frank, i am not sure on that element, about what the project is proposing. Perhaps the architect could speak on that. For the second issue on signage, we do have a standard condition on signage but in your packets the condition has been slightly modified. So part of the requirement will be the city standard popos signage on the exterior of the sutter and post street sides alerting passing pedestrians that this property does contain an open space for public use. But additionally, and this is something that staff will continue to work with the project sponsor on, we are expecting theres going to be a robust signage and way finding program interior to the building as well. So not only are you shown there is an open space but you are going to know how to access the elevator and stairs and to be able to get to that rooftop. I know it seems minor and im happy the elevator is going to the roof, but is it just going to be a big concrete wall that youll see from the street . And also when you are up there, is it going to look like a big concrete wall . Or is there design refinements that can make it more gracious . So we acknowledge that there would be some visibility from the street for this, but we believe the accessibility it would provide outweighs any potential visual impacts. Around the edge, between the elevator extension and the edge of the building, so as you are looking from the sidewalk or the exterior, the plans are calling for an area of planters, potentially we can discuss specific