Saving San Francisco’s Landmark Businesses

Sam’s Grill & Seafood Restaurant got its start as an oyster stall on a San Francisco pier in 1867, on the heels of the Gold Rush. But will it survive the technology boom? Managing partner Peter Quartaroli says he worries the eatery will be forced to move if his rent goes up when his lease expires in 2017. The Financial District restaurant is a relic, with a row of private, curtain-draped booths and walls lined with 115 hat hooks, one for each patron. “There’s something about the longevity of businesses that helps establish an identity in the city,” Quartaroli says. “And 148 years later, we’re still standing, and I think it’s important to keep that history.”

The city is trying to preserve that legacy. San Francisco lawmakers are placing a measure on the November ballot that would treat decades-old haunts such as Sam’s as landmarks to help save them from runaway commercial rents and evictions. “Because of what’s happening with the real estate market in San Francisco, a lot of businesses that have been successful are struggling to stay,” says David Campos, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors who drafted the proposal. If approved by voters, Campos’s measure would establish a Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund, which would get $3 million annually to distribute grants of as much as $50,000 a year to qualifying businesses; it would also give as much as $22,500 a year to landlords who extend leases of at least 10 years to those tenants.