Sponsored link
Sunday, March 16, 2025

Sponsored link

UncategorizedThe other Twitter tax break -- and how it...

The other Twitter tax break — and how it cost the city $25 million

By Tim Redmond

Way back in 1969, when Sue Hestor was a young activist organizing a peace march, she asked the sympathetic owner of the Furniture Mart building on Market Street if he would let her group use a corner of his shop for office space. “He said he was sorry, but no,” Hestor, now a veteran land-use lawyer, recalled recently. “He said the legal use of the building was very clear: Just showroom space, no offices.”

That’s the position the city took in 2002, when the owners wanted to rent out the 1.2 million-square-foot space, which was used as a home furnishings showroom, as offices. The zoning administration, Larry Badiner, said that would require a change of use: Under city law, the property was never used for offices, and if the owners wanted to fill it with cublicles, they needed to apply under the city’s annual limit on new office space – and pay the fees that any other office developer would pay.

Now, of course, the building is home to Twitter, and has been renovated entirely for traditional office use. And there’s been considerable discussion around the payroll-tax break that Mayor Ed Lee used to entice the microblogging company to set up its headquarters, with several thousand employees, in the 1937-vintage mid-Market building.

But there’s been almost no discussion of the fact that the building owners never paid the $25 million in city fees for housing, Muni, and childcare that should have been required when the showroom became office space.(more after the jump)

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Marke B.
Marke B.
Marke Bieschke is the publisher and arts and culture editor of 48 Hills. He co-owns the Stud bar in SoMa. Reach him at marke (at) 48hills.org, follow @supermarke on Twitter.

Sponsored link

Sponsored link

Featured

This is one disease I though I wouldn’t have to worry about. Wrong.

Plus: Is SF moving away from harm reduction and Housing First? That's The Agenda for March 17-24

The magical little Grotto where writers boost up

Storied scribe support center The Writers Grotto in the Mission celebrates 30 years of collaborative wordsmithery.

A tsunami of chaos and destruction, but there may be hope

There's a car salesman in the White House and an evil billionaire in your Social Security file, yet cracks are starting to show.

More by this author

New voices, deeply eloquent sounds inspire at the Audium

The classic SF experience—a 176-speaker wonder—welcomes three sonic artists who bring resonating vibes of now.

The pinball wizard of Superfine Art Fair

Lead curator Sharone Halevy tells us how she fits 150+ artists—plus circus performers, live musicians, and more— into Fort Mason.

Party Radar: 5 hot spots to dance this mess around

We don't need this fascist groove thang—from Carnaval to the Klituation, with reggaeton, techno, and Detroit house in between.

You might also likeRELATED