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Future of SF Flower Mart

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

The future of the Wholesale Flower Mart may be in the hands of The City’s voters come next year.

On the heels of a pending sale of half the site at Brannan and Sixth streets, a group of flower vendors, florists, wholesalers and concerned citizens plan to file paperwork with The City today to get a measure on 2015′s ballot that would protect the San Francisco wholesale flower market from a planned tech office development.

With roughly 100 vendors, the more than 50-year-old covered market connects growers with buyers from across Northern California and beyond and is the nation’s second-largest flower wholesaler. In the early-morning hours, trucks delivering flowers unload their wares for sales inside the large airy building. To many, it is a San Francisco icon whose presence is part of The City’s fabric.

The San Francisco Flower Mart Protection Act will make it impossible for The City to give any planning exemptions, which might facilitate turning the site into a tech campus or other office space.

“We thought we’d take it to the voters of San Francisco,” said Patrick McCann, a vendor at the site. “The Flower Mart has a long history of being heard and it should stay here.”

FLWRMART01. AgnosFormer San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos.

Public efforts to protect the Flower Mart began in August when a group of local politicos, including former Mayor Art Agnos and former supervisors Aaron Peskin and Quentin Kopp, held a news conference announcing their fight to save the more than 80 local businesses located there.

Those efforts were meant to notify the public about a pending sale of the site and keep working-class jobs in The City.

Despite such protests, on Sept. 11, a majority of the San Francisco Flower Growers Association voted to sell their half of the Flower Mart to Kilroy Realty Corp. The price, according to opponents, was $26.6 million.

Kilroy, which plans to construct a 655,000-sqaure-foot tech campus on the site, has promised to include flower sellers in any future space. But many fear they will be excluded, at worst, and left without a home for years of construction, at best.

As it stands, many long-term leases at the site expire at the end of the year, and no guarantees beyond vague promises have been given to the tenants, McCann said. Thus far, no communications have been made to tenants by Kilroy, McCann added.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit was filed Sept. 11 by David Repetto, a shareholder of the SFFGA, alleging that the association’s board of directors breached its fiduciary duties by secretly brokering the sale and merger of the SFFGA to Kilroy. It is asking for the court to invalidate the board’s actions.

Before the vote to sell, the SFFGA filed a proposal in 2013 for a 160-foot office building on the site and have until January to file a development proposal.

Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents the district, has also introduced legislation that would postpone construction of offices on land zoned for light industry and distribution until a full-fledged rezoning of the area is complete, a process still several years away.

Next steps for moving the ballot measure ahead include circulation of the petition to San Francisco voters in order to qualify for the ballot.

To read more, please see article by Jonah Owen Lamb from Sept 30, 2014 www.sfexaminer.com

BEWARE where you click during the holidays!

Friday, November 19th, 2010

A Google search for b brooks fine flowers reveals a sponsored add (see below) with a link to Proflowers;  There they lurk, clothed in our fine reputation,  shady and deceptive, hiding behind our name attempting to divert customers from us to themselves.  So go ahead – click on that ad – it costs them money…just do not buy anything from them unless that is your intention.   Let this be a warning to everyone that the bad guys are out there prowling.  When you click on a link, any link, be sure the web address that you land on is the one you want.

What can we do to protect ourselves and stop Proflowers sleazy business strategies?  Well, stay tuned and follow our story:  Protecting Our Brand In the meantime, maybe some smart IP lawyers, judges and politicians will comment on this.

Also – WE HAVE NEITHER RELATIONSHIP NOR AGREEMENT WITH PROFLOWERS!