In the two weeks since Jan. 7, when residents of the Gateway learned of the impending closure of the Starbucks at 99 Jackson St., they have followed the example of Joe Hill, and not mourned, but organized.
They sent direct letters to every Starbucks executive they could think of. They held a rally, which doubled as a press conference. They held a meeting attended by four Starbucks representatives, a property manager for the real-estate investment firm that owns The Gateway (Greystar Real Estate Partners), and The Gateway’s new district supervisor (Danny Sauter).
Everyone expressed a sincere desire to roll up their sleeves and work together to keep a Starbucks at 99 Jackson St.
Everyone, that is, but Starbucks. The store is still scheduled to close on Feb 9. They did, however, give each resident at the meeting a $20 Starbucks gift card.
Situated on the north border of San Francisco’s downtown, the Gateway is one of the city’s largest apartment complexes: It includes 1,254 rent-controlled units, home to thousands of residents, many of them seniors. But, since the pandemic, storefronts around the complex have shuttered at a rapid clip. The Gateway is currently surrounded by six blocks of nearly vacant storefronts.
It may be a cautionary tale for the city’s plans to revitalize the economic fortunes of the Financial District by converting the upper floors of office buildings into housing. North Beach, a 15-minute walk away, is also a densely populated neighborhood that is home to many seniors; but there, cafes are abundant, even as restrictions keep most chain stores out of the neighborhood entirely.
“I think this is the first time they have gotten pushback on closing a store,” said Michele Hennessey, a Gateway resident, board member of the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association, and Starbucks shareholder. Hennessey sent a letter to investor relations protesting the closure. She’s had a standing date there with a group of friends at 8:30 a.m. every Monday for years, catching up on everyone’s weekends and getting to know new neighbors.
In her pre-retirement days, when Hennessey did research and development for fast-food chains, she can not recall a single time when neighborhood residents organized to keep a chain store open. Now, she is willing to be the exception.
“The neighborhood has gotten together to say, ‘If there’s anything that we can still do to try to keep our neighborhood gathering place, we’re going to try,’ said Hennessey. “What do we need to do in order to keep it open? We can do buy-in days, once a month; whatever it takes.”
“We have been in five different meetings about this,” said Sauter. “We’re trying to get through the layers of corporate bureaucracy to get to the people that actually make these decisions, to appeal to them. That’s been a tough slog.”
Because the Starbucks is located downtown, it is eligible for funding and other incentives to help keep area storefronts afloat. Sauter offered to walk Starbucks through the different programs that the city has, to no avail. “It seems to be something coming from the top, coming from corporate changes around the new CEO.”
The closure of Jackson Street Starbucks comes as the company braces for restructuring and upcoming layoffs. A Starbucks at 744 Irving St., one of the two unionized Starbucks in San Francisco, will also be closed on Jan. 31, Starbucks confirmed to Mission Local. In 2023, the Seattle-based coffee chain also closed a series of outlets, including seven in San Francisco.
Alec Bash, vice president of Gateway Tenants Association, moved to the neighborhood because of 87 steps: The number that he had to climb to get from the bottom of his place in Noe Valley to the top floor. Bash, a former city planner, and his wife, a retired computer programmer, had lived there for 45 years. As the years went on and they both entered their 70s, the idea of living in a place with an elevator grew more and more alluring. They both liked the idea of being in a more high-density, urban part of the city, close to North Beach, the Ferry Building and the waterfront.
They moved into the Gateway in 2020, just as the city was going into lockdown. California Street was so empty they could walk down the center of it. The nearby Embarcadero Cinema closed, along with most of the retail spaces in the Embarcadero Center, a five-minute walk away. Four years later, all of the apartments are still pretty fully occupied, but retail has largely left. Earlier last year, the local Walgreens closed; Gateway residents protested that too. Now, with Starbucks’ imminent departure, the only spot that has decent foot traffic is a Safeway on a corner opposite the Starbucks.
The Starbucks representatives who attended the Tuesday meeting made it clear that the closure is a financial decision, according to Sauter, who assumed office on Jan. 8 and didn’t expect saving a Starbucks to be one of his first tasks. He has asked for a follow-up meeting with Starbucks and the property manager. “I hope we get it,” he said. “If you know the thousands of residents right there, this is more than a coffee shop. It’s a living room.” If he can’t persuade the Starbucks to stay, he said, he’s committed to getting another cafe into that space “one way or another.”
Part of why the Starbucks is important, says the retired planner, Bash, is that the Gateway complex was designed in the 1960s as part of the city’s redevelopment of the city’s former produce district, three blocks of condominiums without the central, high-traffic public spaces typical of older neighborhoods, or the community meeting spaces that are standard in more recent developments.
The Starbucks, which has been here since 1992, gradually became an informal substitution. Residents, some as old as 100, use it as a “third place,” aside from their small homes and workplaces. They come into the Starbucks with walkers, caretakers, laptops and zoom meetings. The Starbucks has co-sponsored community events for people to discuss public safety with Central Station police captain Douglas Farmer.
Office workers are returning to the area, but the Jackson Street cafe fails to enjoy as much foot traffic as it did before the pandemic. Still, said Hennessey, “It’s a good crowd there, especially in the mornings.”
At 11 a.m. last Friday, this Mission Local reporter saw about a dozen people waiting to place orders at the counter. Most of the seats indoors were taken. While other coffee shops have reopened nearby, they’re all kiosk-style operations with limited to no seating.
The clock is ticking. “It’s sad,” said Hennessey. A Starbucks being part of the community “could be a great concept store for them.”
“We would rather not have a tear in the fabric of the community,” said Bash. It is a “Starbucks for the people.” He chuckles. “Not what you expected to hear, is it?”
Waiting for the usual chorus of bootlickers arguing that we need to turn SF into an open-air prison or give mega-corporations everything they could ever ask for so we can have grocery stores, cafes, or hardware stores…..
Or, perhaps we could do some work around commercial real estate reform to bring prices down so a mom and pop cafes, hardware stores, grocers could move to the area.
“commercial real estate reform”
Oh right, no need to do anything then, as we wait until 2032 for this to probably not come to fruition.
Just an FYI… most folks who support increased beat cops and tougher stances on retail theft, also staunchly support reforming our commercial real estate code to incentivize small business. This isn’t an either/or.
What reforms around commercial real estate would you suggest?
This is about a corporate CHAIN with unethical practices deciding to cut losses. Their reasons are opaque to us. People upset should buy their beverages from ethically managed local companies that provide a better product for the same or lower prices, and they’re literally everywhere. Too bad this handful of people are losing their local hangout, but they need to put on their shoes and find any of the thousands of other spots around. It’s not exactly a food desert problem. Starbucks sucks, move on people!
That’s quite a response to a human interest story about people who want to keep their local coffee shop.
There are two other coffee shops within 2.5 blocks, a 5 (or if you walk slow, a 15) minute walk away. Get some exercise, people.
I hope that if you’re ever old and have limited mobility, people show you more empathy than you have for these seniors.
Old people live longer with more exercise. Scientific fact.
Imagine if the energy and considerable means of these folks were used to accomplish something more substantial than a morning buzz.
Agreed Chaz. This is Fox Plaza syndrome i.e. a bunch of entitled boomers whose major achievement in life is desperately clinging to a rent-controlled lease. And thereby staying in a city they cannot afford by virtue of anything they earn, contribute or achieve.
Let them make their own coffee. Starbucks coffee is over-priced crap anyway.
You’re both missing the point. It’s a community gathering place. It’s not about the coffee.
In my ideal world, they’d open an independent, co-op café in the same space, and have social continuity, without needing any permission from a union-busting mega-corp which clearly doesn’t give a damn about these people.
Joe Hill would’ve organized the masses, not met with the corporate leaders
Instead of needing to beg every Safeway, Walgreens and Starbucks to stay open why don’t we just make it easier to open new coffee shops? I live nearby and there’s dozens of vacant spaces in the area.
seems like a great opportunity for danny sauter to advocate for lowering the barrier to opening new businesses in the district.
It’s leaving just like all the other businesses have fled this city. How can you be so blind?
While it mentions that the area has experienced reduced foot traffic and the closure of other retail spaces since the pandemic, I’m still unclear as to why this location is closing. Are there other Starbucks close-by? Are the margins that’s slim? Could it be replaced by another chain or locally owned shop?
Not sure why it’s the district reps job to lobby for a Starbucks to stay.
That said, the closing of the 744 location is worth a deep dive.