March deadline may make Mills mall moot

Port of San Francisco has opportunity to seek better project for piers

A huge part of the history of the environmental movement in the Bay Area has consisted of stopping gigantic and foolish projects proposed for the edge of the Bay. Hopes are rising that the Mills Corporation's proposed 19-acre mall, office park, and "marine recreation" area at San Francisco Piers 27 - 31 will soon enter this landfill-bin of history.

In early January Mills revealed a series of major financial problems. It announced restatements of earnings for the past five years, the firing of more than a dozen company executives, and the write-off of $71 million in pre-development costs for 10 proposed malls around the world, including the troubled San Francisco project. A financial analyst who worked as chief financial officer for Mills in the 1990s told the Washington Post that the company's finances looked like "a train wreck".

In a letter to city and port officials Mills CEO Lawrence Siegel said that the failure of the proposed mall to win needed support at the Board of Supervisors had raised "substantial questions as to whether the project can proceed". Siegel also asserted that "Mills is, however, not walking away from the Piers, and we fully expect to preserve our rights and to maximize the value of the project . . . . We are engaged in discussions to formulate an alternate future for the Piers project, either as presently planned or under an alternate approach by Mills and/or others."

Mills' exclusive negotiation rights for Piers 27 - 31, however, are scheduled to expire on March 31 unless the San Francisco Port Commission votes before then to extend them.

Projects, like Mills', that receive public funding of more than a million dollars, are subject to review by the Board of Supervisors under the city's Fiscal Feasibility Ordinance. In October the Supervisors, led by Board President Aaron Peskin, conducted this review. After hearing from a broad coalition of organizations opposed to Mills' project, including the Sierra Club, the Supervisors voted 9 - 1 to reject the financial viability of the Mills plan. Under the ordinance Mills has the opportunity to submit a revised proposal to the Supervisors.

Instead, however, Mills has asked the Port Commission to allow it to drop the $2.1 million in rent credits from the development agreement. In return for giving up this cash, Mills would remove its project from further scrutiny by the Supervisors. In mid-January, after Mills' financial difficulties had become public, the commission postponed any decision on the rent credits.

WhatYouCanDo

Contact Port Commission President Ann Lazarus at:

Ann.Lazarus@sfport.com
(415)274-0406
fax: (415)274-0528.

Urge the Commission not to extend the Mills Corporation's exclusive negotiation rights to Piers 27 - 31, but to let them expire on March 31.