Twenty twenty six roll call.

Vice President Stephen Englum.

Here.

Commissioner Willie Adams.

Present.

Commissioner Rich Lee.

Here.

Commissioner Ken McNeely.

Here.

Item two is approval of minutes for the June twenty third, twenty twenty six port commission meeting.

Commission Commissioners, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Opposed.

Motion passes unanimously.

The meetings of the June twenty-third, twenty twenty-six meeting are adopted.

Item three is public comment on executive session.

Is there any public comment in the room for executive session?

Yes, sir.

Uh good afternoon, Commissioners, executive director.

My name is Tim Bacon.

I'm Vice President of Development with Brookfield Properties, and I oversee our Pure Seventy project.

We've been doing a lot of work with port staff to find the right strategic and meaningful path forward for Pier 70, and I think we are uh finding that sweet spot and are very excited to start to have those next steps and conversations with all of you.

So look forward to being back with you all very soon.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

Is there any public comment on the phone?

For callers on the line, please style star three to make public comment and audio prompts will signal when your line is open.

Comments will be limited to three minutes per person.

Please style star three if you wish to make public comment.

Okay, Commissioners, may I have a motion to go into closed session?

Motion to go into closed session.

Do we have a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

We are now in closed session.

SF Gov TV.

San Francisco Government Television.

San Francisco government television.

Second.

All in favor.

I suppose passes unanimously.

We are now an open session.

Item six is the land acknowledgement.

The San Francisco Port Commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Rama Tishalone, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula.

We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramadan community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples.

Please silence all cell phones and sound producing devices.

Each member of the public may speak for up to three minutes per agenda item unless a shorter time is set by the port commission.

Comments must relate to the current agenda item.

Public comment will be taken in person first, then remotely.

To comment remotely, dial 1 415 655 000 1.

Enter access code 2662.

126 3009 pound pound.

Then press star three to raise your hand.

An audio prompts will signal when it's your turn to speak.

If watching on SFGov TV, note the broadcast delay.

To avoid missing your turn, dial in when your item is announced, mute your device, and listen from your telephone.

Item eight is public comment on items not listed on the agenda.

Okay.

Is there any public comment in the room for items not listed on the agenda?

Is there any public comment on the phone?

We have no callers, thank you.

All right.

Public comment is closed.

Next item, please.

Item 9A is the election of port commission officers.

For callers who wish to make public comment on this item, please dial star three to raise your hand to comment.

Okay.

I call for nominations of port commission president.

I nominee Steve Emblem for Port Commission President.

I second.

Are there any other nominations?

Are there any other nominations?

Are there any other nominations?

Move to close nominations.

Okay.

Is there any public comment in the room for Commission President nominations?

Is there any public comment on the phone?

No public comment.

Thank you.

Okay.

There are no callers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Public comment is closed.

On the nomination of do this for myself, Stephen Englum for comment Commission President.

All in favor?

I.

Aye.

All opposed.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

The elected president.

I'll just say thank you for your trust, and um I look forward to serving you and continue to serve the Commission, and I feel very honored by this uh nomination.

Appreciate it.

I call for nominations of Port Commission Vice President.

I nominate Ken McNeely.

Vice President.

Second.

Are there any other nominations?

Are there any other nominations?

Are there any other nominations?

Hearing no other nominations, nominations are now closed.

Is there any public comment in the room for Commission Vice President?

Is there any public comment on the phone?

No public comment.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Public comment is closed.

On the nomination of Kim McNeely for Commission Vice President.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

All right.

Congratulations, Vice President.

Thank you.

Thank you for making any comments.

Sure.

I uh appreciate your support and I look forward to continuing to serve.

Next item.

Item 9B is the executive director's report.

For callers who wish to make public comment on this item, please dial star three to raise your hand to comment.

Good afternoon, President Englum, Vice President McNeely, Commissioner Adams, and Commissioner Lee, Port Staff and members of the public.

Let me be the first off the Commission to congratulate our new officers.

Very glad to continue working with you both as we move things forward.

On behalf of the entire port staff, welcome to the waterfront.

We look forward to partnering with you as we continue to steward and strengthen San Francisco's 7.5 mile shoreline.

Commissioner Lee is an entrepreneur with nearly a decade of experience building independent food and beverage businesses in San Francisco.

In 2017, he founded Spro Coffee Lab with his wife Lisa Otanis, transforming a single coffee trailer into a thriving specialty coffee brand with multiple locations across the city.

He's also the co-founder and CEO of the Wild Fox, a Japanese-inspired cafe in the financial district, and is launching Inca coffee roasters, bringing specialty coffee roasting back to San Francisco.

Every business he's built reflects a deep commitment to the city.

He's creating local jobs, investing in neighborhoods, and strengthening San Francisco's vibrant small business community.

As a small business owner and father raising his family here, Commissioner Lee brings a strong commitment to the city's inclusive and welcoming spirit, and we look forward to welcoming his leadership on making the waterfront a place for families and a better place for small businesses to thrive.

I would also like to congratulate Commissioner Willie Adams on his reappointment to the Port Commission.

As our longest serving support commissioner, his leadership has helped guide the port through some of its most challenging times.

Commissioner Adams, you have been a steadfast champion of our staff, especially our frontline employees, and a tireless advocate for the waterfront.

Your understanding of the working waterfront and the port's history has been hugely valuable as we work to evolve the port while staying true to its roots.

Your leadership is marked by determination, integrity, and genuine care for both the people of this organization and the people of San Francisco and beyond.

Thank you for your continued service.

Finally, I want to thank our outcome.

I want to recognize and thank our outgoing Commissioners, Gail Gilman and Stephen Lee, whose terms concluded on June 30th.

We're deeply grateful for their years of dedicated service to the port and the city.

President Gail Gilman provided thoughtful, steady leadership and was unwavering in her commitment to an inclusive waterfront, strong governance, and ensuring the port continued to make a meaningful difference in people's lives.

Commissioner Stephen Lee was a passionate advocate for our small businesses, fishing community, and waterfront stakeholders.

He consistently challenged us to deliver responsive, effective public service, and to ensure the waterfront remained welcoming for residents, workers, and visitors alike.

Commissioners Adams and Lee, your new terms begin at an exciting and pivotal moment for the port.

Over the next several years, we will undertake the largest infrastructure investment in the port's history through the Embarcadero Seawall program while continuing to advance economic development, support our working waterfront, expand public access, and strengthen the waterfront as one of San Francisco's premier civic destinations.

These opportunities and the challenges ahead will require the same qualities that have long defined this organization.

Strong partnerships, thoughtful leadership, creativity, and unwavering commitment to serving the people of San Francisco.

I look forward to working with all our Commissioners as we build on that legacy together.

Now to move on in the report.

We had a lively July 4th here in San Francisco.

We had lots of people coming in.

I know there's been lots of concern raise about some of the things that didn't go right, but I really want to say that I'm thrilled for the report really showed out.

And I want to specifically thank and recognize the many port employees who worked throughout the Fourth of July holiday to keep our waterfront safe and clean for the thousands of residents, tens of thousands of residents and visitors who celebrated in our city.

Thank you to our maintenance, security, maritime, and real estate and development events teams for your outstanding work over the holiday weekend and your dedication throughout the year.

Your dedication helped showcase our waterfront at its very best.

We were also proud to partner with the mayor's office and city departments on this year's Independence Day celebration.

It was another reminder of how our waterfront brings people together, and we're looking forward to continuing work with our sister agencies in City Hall to make sure we make every event in the future even better than that one.

So thank you all very much for a happy celebration of our nation's 250th birthday.

Earlier this month, the Port also was honored to help welcome attendees of the National Association of the Deaf Conference to San Francisco.

Working with our waterfront tenants, including Pier 39 and the ferry building, we installed wayfinding signage and helped raise awareness throughout the waterfront to ensure visitors from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community felt welcomed and supported.

This effort reflects San Francisco's long-standing leadership and accessibility and inclusion, and I want to thank the many city departments and port staff who contributed to this successful collaboration.

I especially want to highlight the wayfinding signage.

This is something the Commission has really challenged us to do better on.

And we were really happy to work with the mayor's office with our tenants to really get these signs up to make sure that these attendees felt welcome and could make their way around the waterfront.

And it just is just part of what we want to do to make sure everybody feels welcome on the port.

I was super proud to be part of this, and I'm super proud the port really showed well that week.

Moving ahead to this past weekend, the port was proud to participate in one city day alongside Mayor Leary, Mayor Lurie, First Lady Becca Prauda, and thousands of volunteers committed to strengthening our neighborhoods.

Port staff hosted volunteer projects in districts three, six, and ten, demonstrating our commitment not only to the waterfront, but to communities throughout San Francisco.

Once City Day brought together residents from across the city to clean up trash, plant trees, beautify and green their parks and public spaces.

The first partner organized the event was city staff across every department.

There were over 170 events.

I think at last cat tally between four and five thousand volunteers and to see all that energy on one day.

And so, you know, it wasn't just a social hour, although there was a lot of community being built.

People really wanted to see things get more beautiful.

And it really is a reflection of the resurgence of San Francisco and to me a resurgence of our city civic pride.

So I really want to thank everybody at the port and around the city who who brought it all together for us.

Looking forward to doing something like it again very soon.

Ferry Building's 128th birthday also took place uh last Sunday.

Hudson Pacific celebrated the birthday with Ferryfest, which celebrated that anniversary of our iconic ferry building.

The event through thou through thousands of visitors to the ferry building and surrounding waterfront for a day filled with local artists, live music, exceptional food, culture, and community.

Kind of what the ferry building does every day.

But just turned up a little bit.

There was no better way to celebrate the historic gathering place than by bringing together these people and businesses and traditions that have made the ferry building a beloved institution for 128 years.

Commissioners, I'm returning to you with an update.

As you may recall, we had an informational item on April 14th about the next phase of the Big Art Loop Port side and expanding those art opportunities on our waterfront.

Today I'm excited to follow up and to say the expansion is underway.

Between now and the end of the year, several new large-scale sculptures will be installed from Pier 9 to Bayview Gateway, creating an engaging waterfront experience for residents and visitors while supporting local artists and activating public spaces.

I want to thank our real estate and development planning and environment and maintenance teams for your creativity in bringing this exciting program to life.

It's funny, every time I come to a port commission meeting, I pass Coralie, the statue that's right or the structure that's right beside Pier 1.

There's always people around it.

And so to see a new set of of these uh large uh oversized installations brightening different parts of the waterfront to give different people that moment of of whimsy and excitement.

Um I'm just really excited to see that.

So glad to see that moving forward.

Um Commissioners, in closing, I I want to say, and as you know, earlier today I was sworn in as executive director.

I wanted to thank you all for coming.

I want to thank all of Port staff for their support.

Um it's really an exciting moment.

Um as I mentioned earlier, you know, I think there's a lot of good things stepping off from the port, including the things on today's agenda.

Um so I'm proud to be here today before you, and I'm excited to continue this work with all of you.

That concludes my report.

Thanks very much.

Uh thank you, Mike.

Is there any public comment in the room for the executive director's report?

Jenica, are there any callers?

We have no callers, thank you.

Okay.

Okay, there are no callers.

Uh public comment is closed.

Um Commissioners, uh, any comment on the director's report.

Yes.

Ken?

I'll start.

Umgratulations, uh, director.

Um it um I uh I really excited about your appointment, and I really think that it uh acknowledges uh from the mayor and this administration uh the support and uh for you and the and this and the team here and the direction that the that the port is headed.

Um it is exciting, and I think that uh with your leadership uh and at the helm uh we will continue on this uh this great path.

And I think that um it's uh it's a great honor to have you continue in this in this role.

Um Commissioner Lee, uh welcome to the commission.

Um I'm glad to see the continuation of uh uh small business expertise uh on the on the commission, and I welcome you and uh happy to have you join as a colleague.

Um Director Martin, I think that uh the the work that that you and the staff continue to do to really have your finger on the pulse of the community uh is exciting.

Um it is um it is clear through the efforts and the attendance at many of these events that uh the waterfront has a unique place in San Francisco uh and around the world indeed.

And um the celebration around the fourth was fantastic.

Uh and I really love the continuation of an expansion of the local artist program where we continue to showcase uh local artists and artisans and um and activate uh across the the waterfront, and I think that's a real benefit to to our communities and uh like you.

I enjoy seeing others, enjoying the art that we've uh provided.

So continue that work and thank you very much for your your your efforts.

Okay, Commissioner Adams.

First of all, Mike Martin.

I remember when um Elaine Forbes brought you here.

You're with the Office of Economic Development.

And you came here, you were very quiet, and when there was a problem, they always wanted to call on you, but you just sat there, you were very quiet.

But I will say something that I always noticed about you.

You were the number two, you always showed Elaine when she was the director, respect.

Some men don't show that kind of respect.

They go around and be very demissive.

You were a class act, you showed respect, and you were her number two.

And I've got to see you grow.

You were you had the intelligence, you were a problem solver.

And I don't know if you know this, but I wrote this down.

But you are now the eighth director of the Port of San Francisco since 1969, when the city turned over from the state and under the Burton Act.

And then Merriam E.

Wolf, 1970, 1976.

Edward David, 1976, 1983.

Number three, Ramon Cordona, 1983, 1986.

Roger P.

Peters, 1986, 1990, Dennis Bowie, 1990, 2003, Monique Moyer, 2004, 2016, Elaine Forbes, 2016, 2025.

Mike Martin, today, July 14, 2026.

Your name now is Esther Stone.

And I just want to tell you this one thing.

Your crown has already been paid for.

All you have to do is put it on.

They came before you.

And Mike, you know the history of this great port.

The opening of the port, 1863.

It was under the California legislature.

19, 1849, the Gold Brush, Telegraph Hill, Clark's Port.

This was the busiest port on the West Coast.

And this port has transformed from a shipping port to a waterfront destination.

Now it's your turn.

You have it, you run with it.

Uh I saw your patience during the process.

I know times you were frustrated.

I will just say this for me, and I I won't speak for the rest of the commissioners, but you were always my number one, always for me.

That's the way I voted.

I wore that.

I'm straight up about how I feel about things.

I knew you were the best person for this job.

And the mayor showed that by picking you to be our executive director.

You were head and shoulders above everybody else.

I never changed lanes, never changed teams.

I was totally behind you a hundred percent.

Congratulations, and I look forward to working with you now as the eighth president.

I mean the eighth executive director of the port of San Francisco.

I know that you are going to take it to heights and soar.

And guess what?

When you finally pass that baton off to the next person, because somebody will come behind you.

You will have made it, you will have made it a lot better.

Thank you.

Thanks, Commissioner Adams.

Uh Commissioner Lee, are you sure?

Nothing you want to say?

I just want to now that now you've gotten warmed up.

Uh I just want to thank you, uh, Director Uh Martin.

I'm looking forward to working with you.

And alongside my colleagues, the fellow commissioners.

Great.

Thanks, Commissioner Lee.

All right.

Um, first I want to congratulate you, Mike on your um appointment as executive director.

I also want to recognize and thank uh our outgoing Commission President Gail Gilman for her extraordinary leadership during the search.

Um Gail invested an enormous amount of time, energy, and thoughtful leadership to ensure that we conducted a thorough, inclusive and rigorous process.

Um on behalf of the commission, I'd like to uh thank her for her uh dedication and service.

Um also I'd like to thank um uh all my fellow commissioners.

Um we uh did a good job together, and um over the past two years I've had an opportunity to work with you, Mike, and your role as deputy director, and more recently as acting director.

And every time I've worked with you, I've seen steady leadership, integrity, and sound judgment, solid knowledge of what we're talking about, and I really appreciate all the the things you've taught me in the past uh year and a half or almost two years.

Also want to um recognize the extraordinary caliber of the search.

We um we worked uh in partnership with the uh city uh Office of Human Resources.

Um we engaged exceptional leaders from around the world.

People were interested in our port, and we learned a lot from the search.

So I uh you know it's one thing that I take away, like the excitement of working with you, but also learning about uh what other uh leaders at other ports around the world uh have been doing.

So I I would just say you should feel particularly good because you beat a really amazing uh uh field of incredible leaders.

So uh we're really lucky to have you.

Um, and the good news is you're assuming um this role of position of strength.

Uh, we're financially strong, we're organizationally strong, uh, we have our strategically well positioned, and I really think that you know, it's sort of a uh two uh a simultaneous, like you know, maintaining uh uh stability, but also building off this position of strength to achieve all that we can do.

And so I'm I'm really excited to work with you on that.

Um, I would say uh over the past month um, I think now's the the appropriate time to talk about it, like many San Francisco since I was deeply saddened by the events surrounding the Giants Pride Night.

Um, the Port of San Francisco is a proud steward of uh of a waterfront that welcomes everyone.

As a public trust, our commitment to equity, belonging, and inclusion is fundamental to who we are.

Um I also want to recognize the San Francisco Giants' remarkable history of leadership from their partnership with Until There's a Cure beginning in 1994 through decades of HIV and AIDS advocacy to becoming the first major league baseball team to uh to wear pride colors on the field in 2021.

The Giants have helped define San Francisco's values.

That legacy matters.

Umracle Park sits on port property, and the Giants are one of our most important partners.

Uh, because of that history, I believe our community is looking to the Giants to reaffirm their leadership and help define what inclusive leadership looks like in 2026 and into the next decade.

Um over the past couple weeks, I've appreciated the opportunity to begin a constructive dialogue with the Giants leadership.

I'm encouraged by uh their reaff reaffirmation of the organization's long-standing commitments to the LGBTQ community and their desire to continue to make the waterfront welcoming for everyone.

I believe that dialogue is an important first step.

As Mayor Daniel Lurie has said, this is a time to lean in to educate, engage, and lead.

I share his confidence that together we can build on San Francisco's long tradition of inclusion.

Uh this conversation extends beyond San Francisco.

Unfortunately, recent events in involving LGBTQ cruise passengers being denied entry uh to Turkey and Egypt remind us that the work of advancing dignity, belong belonging and inclusion remains a global challenge.

As one of the world's great public waterfronts, we have an opportunity and I believe a responsibility to lead by example.

Accordingly, I would like staff to return to this commission with recommendations on how we can build upon the port's equity work by partnering with our tenants, our labor partners, community organizations, and the giants to strengthen inclusion across the waterfront.

If we do this well, the Giants can help define the next decade of inclusive leadership in Major League Baseball.

And the Port of San Francisco can demonstrate what inclusive public leadership looks like for a waterfront communities and ports around the world.

I believe that this is leadership.

This is a leadership opportunity worthy of San Francisco.

Thank you.

That's the end of my comments.

Okay.

Um please.

Next item is 10A, which requests approval to launch phase one of the Port of San Francisco's Blue Economy Initiative.

This is resolution 2638.

For callers who wish to make public comment on this item, please style star three to raise your hand to comment.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

My name is Boris Delapine.

I'm the port's government affairs manager.

Um the item that's before you today builds on the informational presentation you heard on June 9th.

Uh at that meeting, staff, along with our consultant Jennifer States, walked you through our Blue Economy Roadmap report.

We discussed the Port's history of sustainable initiatives and how this work is an extension of that environmental stewardship.

We provided a market landscape assessment, an analysis of peer blue economy programs, and a set of recommendations for a phased implementation of a Blue Economy Initiative at the Port of San Francisco.

Today we're excited to return to you with a formal request, approval of the Blue Economy Initiative, backed by a leasing incentive program designed to attract Blue Economy ventures to our waterfront.

This is a milestone moment for the port, and approving the resolution before you officially launches phase one of the port's Blue Economy ecosystem, opening the door for a new generation of sustainable maritime industry on San Francisco's waterfront.

As you'll recall, when we're talking about the Blue Economy, we are referring specifically to the sustainable use of ocean, or in our case, bay and coastal resources to deliver economic, environmental, and community benefits.

With this initiative, we want to launch a blue economy program to strengthen the port's portfolio, to support San Francisco's economy, and to draw innovation-driven tenants to our waterfront.

We want to partner with government, industry, academia, our port tenants, and community nonprofits to bring new energy activity and economic opportunity to the waterfront.

And finally, we want to champion innovation and fuel the growth of a sustainable business ecosystem ecosystem, positioning San Francisco at the forefront of the Blue Economy.

If you'll recall, the report we presented last month identified seven priority sectors where the port can play a catalytic role.

They are sustainable seafood, ecotourism, clean energy, bay health, digital transformation, including AI, workforce development, and cross-sector innovation through partnerships with venture capital and philanthropy.

These seven focus areas were selected because they reflect what the port already does.

They align with what the port strategic plan and waterfront plan call for, or they represent where the blue economy market is actually growing.

Building on successful Blue Economy programs led by the ports of San Diego, all to see in Los Angeles, Maritime Blue in Washington State.

Our initiative will be implemented in three phases.

You'll approve phase one today, where we'll launch the initiative.

In phase two, we'll work to expand the program and grow the ecosystem.

While in the third phase, we want to build out a brick and mortar facility on our waterfront.

As discussed last month, phase one of the program is all about establishing proof of concept.

Here we want to build the intake process, the legal templates, the establish the regulatory relationships, and the internal support program that will that we will need to grow this program.

Our milestones for the first two years are to build the internal framework grounded in the Port of San Diego model, with the goal of establishing at least three transactions before the end of 2027.

It's taken our port nearly a decade, it's taken other ports nearly a decade to build their programs like this.

We're planning for the long haul here, but we're also hoping that we can get there faster.

The resolution that's before you asks you to take action on four fronts.

One, endorse the initiative, two, direction to staff to establish the program, three, adopting leasing incentives with a delegated leasing authority of 250,000, and four ongoing reporting requirements.

First, the resolution asks the Commission to formally endorse the Blue Economy Initiative Roadmap that we presented to you last month, and to direct staff to move forward with implementation following the phased approach and the seven priority areas that we outlined.

Next, the resolution authorizes and adopts the Blue Economy Leasing Incentive Program, a three-tiered leasing structure designed to recruit Blue Economy tenants to the waterfront.

Tier one of that program is a space incentive, where we want to offer and provide 25 percent off new leases or licenses capped at $25,000 per transaction to Blue Economy companies that are seeking land-based leases or licenses.

Tier 2 is a space plus water incentive with up to 50 percent off a new lease that incorporates Bay access to a land lease.

That incentive is capped at $50,000.

Applicants can receive either Tier 1 or 2, not both.

And finally, we understand that tenant improvements can be a barrier for entry to some new firms.

So we're proposing an additional tenant improvement incentive of 25K for those Tier 1 firms and 50K for space plus water access leases that is separate from the other discounts.

So the resolution delegates authority to the executive director to execute these incentives up to 250K.

Once we reach 250K, we'll return to you to discuss the potential for additional funding and to study where we are.

And then finally, the resolution requires that staff come back to the Commission to report on progress at six months, again at one year, so that you have regular visibility and that we can, you know, course correct if things are going right or wrong or whatever.

But uh taken together, this gives staff commission endorsement of the roadmap, a functioning incentive structure to attract tenants, clear delegated authority with a defined ceiling, and an accountability checkpoint.

So in closing, our next steps are to hit the ground running.

We want to approve this resolution today, convene our internal working group this week.

We want to launch a website that has uh an in-tank form, and then uh continue the outreach that we have already been doing externally and the education that we have been doing at community meetings, and then the return to the Commission with status updates.

Uh I do want to recognize a lot of individuals who helped us organize this initiative, including President Ingblum, uh Kirsten Southey, Rich Berman, Rebecca Benicini are deputy directors, but most importantly, members of the of San Francisco's existing Blue Economy ecosystem that have been working here, and I hope that this initiative can be something that convenes us all together.

And we're excited to see where this path takes us, and uh and thank you for your time.

Okay.

Thank you, Bars, for a presentation.

Uh Commissioners, is our motion?

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Okay, great.

Um.

Let's see.

Is there any public comment in the room for item 10a?

Uh please uh form a line and come to up to the podium.

Thank you for all the uh interest.

Good afternoon, President and Commissioners.

My name is Pamela Wellner, and I run Amplify Eco, a communications and strategic partnership consultancy focused on clean energy and sustainability.

I have spent more than 30 years working in this sector, partnering with public agencies, scientists, and community advocates to help ambitious environmental initiatives to find the support and the audiences they need to succeed.

I'm speaking today in strong support of resolution 2638 and the launch of phase one of the Blue Port the Port's Blue Economy Initiative.

The San Francisco Waterfront is a place where necessity and innovation meet.

This port was the first in California to offer cruise ships, shore power.

It helped bring the world's first commercially hydrogen fuel cell ferry into service.

It converted its regional ferry fleet to renewable diesel, and it piloted living seawalls to protect the shoreline itself.

This initiative is a natural extension of that track record.

What I find most promising is the practical design of this proposal.

The leasing incentives are tiered, capped, and time-bound.

Staff will report back to the Commission at six months and again at one year.

This is exactly the kind of accountable framework that allows a public agency to take real risks on early stage innovation without losing sight of its public trust obligations.

The Bay Area's marine economy already contributes more than $50 billion a year to this region.

Early stage companies working on sustainable seafood, ecotourism, clean energy, and bay health deserve a place to test their ideas against real-world conditions.

The port has seven and a half million seven and a half miles of waterfront to offer them.

In my 30 years in this field, I've learned that the initiatives that are the lasting ones are the ones grounded in place in partnership and in patient deliberate work.

This is one of those.

Here on this working waterfront, the initiative will support repairing ecological damage that in turn can be the force that sustains our lives, our economy, and the earth.

I urge the Commission to approve 2638 and move phase one forward.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

My name is Jameson Buffmeyer, co-founder of Bowie Fish and co-owner of a commercial salmon troller out of Hyde Street Harbor.

At the June hearing, this commission emphasized bringing the fishing community along and marrying San Francisco's technology with its maritime and fishing industries.

I'm here to tell you that that marriage exists.

It's just been living abroad.

My co-founder and I are a San Francisco fishermen who, after growing tired of losing gear outside the Golden Gate, uh built a product to help fishermen do better.

Our low cost GPS floats help operators recover ghost gear and reduce whale entanglement risk in Mexico, Canada, and later this month in Costa Rica.

Uh combined, we've delivered more than 270 units to the market and collected more than a million GPS payloads.

And we've done this from a humble garage in Russian Hill.

So this resolution would provide critical resources to startups like ours, including access to a real world test bed and a path toward the real estate necessary to scale up and bring our inventory to the United States currently in Canada.

Perhaps more importantly, it's validation of the importance of this work to the SF port.

And today's vote is one of hope and a belief that we can build an abundant fishing pier that can feed its people an economy without sacrificing the environment.

Sorry.

At my startup, we believe that fishermen whales scientists and regulators can work together to solve the most pressing problems and achieve a more abundant and sustainable future.

And when we pivot from solving bureaucratic challenges to building new products and services, we can reopen our fisheries.

So I urge you to vote yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

My name is John Hurwitz, and I am the founder of Sound Maritime Solutions, a San Francisco-based maritime autonomy and technology company.

My work focuses on helping organizations advance uncrewed and autonomous maritime systems, aka robot boats, from prototype to sustained operations at sea.

I strongly support the launch of the port's Blue Economy Initiative.

Maritime technology companies, the biggest barriers are often not ideas or engineering.

They're access to the water, suitable operating space, permitting logistics, and the ability to conduct testing in real marine environments.

The port is uniquely positioned to reduce those barriers and connect San Francisco's strong technology ecosystem with its working waterfront.

I believe this initiative can help make San Francisco a national center for marine robotics, ocean technology, and sustainable marine operations.

I appreciate the work of the port staff.

I encourage the commission to approve this initiative.

Thank you.

Thanks, John.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

My name is Mike Blakely.

I'm a partner and the chief strategy officer for the Bay Area Ocean Cluster.

We are a public benefit organization here in the Bay Area supporting growth of the regional blue economy.

We have a couple of different programs, an education program where we link students to career pathways and to blue economy jobs here in the Bay Area.

We're currently partnered with the City College of San Francisco in this effort for summer internships.

We also have a research initiative where we created a directory of blue economy companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

That directory is already up to almost 300 companies, and we're sure there are more.

It's open source and available to the public.

And we're also now currently working on a needs assessment for an ocean cluster here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So this is very timely, and as you can imagine, we are very supportive of this.

And we think the San Francisco Bay Area has its unique qualities that deserve its own ocean cluster.

And this is a huge step forward for the region.

So we're very pleased to see this happening, and we hope that you approve it.

A couple of things that we would note is we hope that this effort will be inclusive.

Obviously, um staff might be limited in bandwidth, but organizations like ours and others in the ecosystem stand ready and willing to support this effort.

And the second piece is we understand that this is just phase one of the initiative, and there's been a small amount of money put forward for that.

Um to the extent that you can partner with other organizations like or ours and others to bring more resources into this effort and the blue economy more broadly.

I think you have a lot of willing uh partners for that as well.

So again, thank you for the time.

Uh, thank you for this initiative.

We hope that you approve it, and we're ready to work with you.

Thanks.

Thanks, Mike.

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Alison Beach, and I'm speaking in support of this initiative.

I work as the Blue Acceleration Advisor for the World Ocean Council, the International Alliance of Ocean Businesses and Innovation Leadership, working to build a resilient, sustainable and regenerative blue economy.

Our work includes supporting the innovation initiatives in the Port of Barcelona and the Smart Ocean Smart Industries Initiatives.

Um currently uh with my role, I support the World Ocean Council's work with the Continuum, which is a NOAA-funded consortium of Blue Tech Accelerators Accelerators and Industry Partners that includes Seaworthy, Tampa Bay Wave, Braid Theory, which is out of Alta C in LA, uh, Ocean Exchange, and St.

St.

Pete Innovation District.

Um the continuum sits in the same ecosystem as Start Blue in the Port of San Diego, and Alta C is on our board.

So when I hear the port looking at Altussea and Start Blue as models for this initiative, I can say with confidence that this effort is off to a great start.

I also work out of 90, just down the way on California Street, which is a climate tech co-working space with a small but mighty ocean cluster, and with people working on everything from seaweed to wave energy right here in San Francisco.

So before this role, I did my master's at the Yale School of the Environment, where I researched ocean innovation clusters and circularity with the Iceland Ocean Cluster in Reykjavik and the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology, where I studied in-depth how other countries and regions built innovation hubs that ultimately supported local economies and workforces.

And what struck me is how far ahead so many of these places already are, and how desperate efforts in the Bay Area have been.

And given how much San Francisco already leads in so many other sectors, I believe that we could move quickly.

Thanks, Allison.

Good afternoon commissioners.

My name's uh Tal McGowan, uh co-founder at Bowie Fish.

And I'm speaking about um in support of this initiative.

Um I grew up in a small rural town in Australia, and my first job out of high school was working as a commercial fisherman.

I then went on to study fisheries biology, moved to the States, and living in San Francisco about 20 years now.

My first job out of college, I worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service as a fisheries observer, and my home port was here in San Francisco.

I got to fish on a variety of fishing vessels from large trollers to small skiffs.

And that's a the ground fish industry was in a state of despair.

We had the Magnus and Stevens Act, which was there to protect fish species, and some were endangered at that point.

Um a lot of vessel buybacks, uh very reduced catch limits, and basically the industry was really struggling.

Fast forward 20 years to today, 20 years or so.

Um a lot of those same fish spaces are fully recovered, showing the resilience of our beautiful productive ocean we have here off the California coast.

But sadly, it seems like the commercial fishing industry hasn't, right?

So and fishermen seem to be you know really struggling here in many parts of California.

Um a big part about driving closet buoy fish is like we really believe that sustainable fishing and fishermen can exist together, and we we want to build technology that helps support that.

Um, you know, we're in full support of this initiative at Bowie Fish.

We uh this will allow us to have a warehouse space close to our customers, the commercial fishermen iterate quickly on design and feedback from fishermen, our customers work with regulators and everyone else in between.

So we're in full support of this, and yeah, thank you for the opportunity.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

I'm Ellen Jonk, co-chair of the Maritime Commerce Advisory Committee for the Port with uh Marina Secetano of the Inland Boatman's Union.

Congratulations, Mr.

Englum, on your election as president of the commission.

Thank you all.

I think this is terrific, and I'm glad you're in that position.

Great, you'll be a great leader as you have already shown that you can be a great leader.

We'll get into that in a minute.

I have to say, Mike, congratulations to you on your appointment as executive director.

I'm proud to uh welcome you in this position.

I was legislative staff to Milton Marks in 1969, and working with uh Uncle Milte, uh John Burton, Nick Petris, uh Jean McIntyre, Bill Porter, Gordon Cologne, many of those names you see on legislation that have to do with protecting San Francisco Bay and keeping the health of the environment.

So I'm proud to continue my career in that stead and look forward to to working with you.

On this blue economy initiative, thank you for your leadership, as I mentioned, being a pioneer for this initiative.

I heard you last January, I was given an update on the activities of the Maritime Commerce Committee, and uh I was talking about the maritime preservation policy, and you challenged me and said, uh how about maritime projection or something along those lines instead of preservation.

So here we are.

The the um maritime commerce committee, we want to help you.

And I we haven't put this totally together yet as far as what our role is going to be.

But I want to work with acting Deputy Director Dominic and the rest of the team, maritime staff, and uh I was thinking uh we could be a forum for one thing, hosting presentations and definitely having it agendized so we can keep track of what is happening.

One of the things I think most valuable about this and the work that I do helping port tenants and several project sponsors around the bay and throughout the state of California and getting their environmental gold stars for any projects is this you know, digital technology.

We have to work very hard in monitoring the marine mammals that come in and out of the port and along the California coastline.

You know, we have very high acoustical standards, we can't go beyond certain thresholds.

Better, you know, technology to support the the the work that we have to do to be in environmental compliance.

The other thing that I thought was terrific, I think blue and gold has a um new cameras that can be be part of this as well.

So I think my um you know conclusion is uh we want to help and um I'm here and l let me know what we can do.

Thank you.

Thank you for your um You bet enthusiasm.

Okay.

Um we're gonna public comment is closed.

Uh we have some uh comment on the phone.

Okay, go ahead, caller.

We have two colors.

Let's open the line.

Caller, you can go ahead.

Hello, this is Martha Belangefield with S Flu Tech.

Thank you very much for doing oh, hello.

Thank you very much for pulling this together.

I've been watching past sessions of the commissioners.

I saw them start to tow the line.

I recognize the new board coming in and seeing the sheer number of individuals taking.

I can tell that there's some strong interest, and I'm glad to see this going.

I'm going to pick up on the uh the sailing in the maritime aspect.

As a sailor, one of the first things I did looking out on the water, I said, it's pretty clean, isn't it?

No, it's not.

And that was a surprise.

I think that we really need to get this students recognize the importance of the water, the water that is to the left of us and to the right of us.

So whereas blue tech can be all sorts of things.

A very important point I have found in uh working with the group is that there's so little awareness about the ocean shell.

We need to get individuals down to the water, rope them in and get them to see it and to touch it.

I'm gonna hop over to being a sailor on a boat.

I'm glad to hear that there's more and more legacy.

It was in 1918 forty-eight.

Someone discovered some gold nuggets.

Somebody decided they needed to make some heavy duty camp with uh copper rivets.

Then the world came to San Francisco on boat.

So we've got an incredibly strong maritime tradition.

I want to see any kind of blue tech forward looking, also had fruits in the past.

Let's get some wooden folks in there as well as sailors and get individuals down to the water in addition to all of the great technology that I know is going to be coming forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Martha.

Thank you.

We'll take the next caller.

Uh good afternoon, uh commissioners and directors, uh, and congratulations to the new electees.

Uh my name is Jim Hancock.

I'm the president of the San Francisco Sailing Science Center.

We are a California nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to education in the area of science and the blue blue economy.

Um I hope to point out or remind people, I think probably everybody knows this from school, but that 71% of our planet is ocean.

And that it is incumbent on our generation to be good stewards of that resource.

Um I don't know that we have been so far.

Um I'm very happy to see this initiative 2638.

And uh just want to put in my voice to say that I support it and uh hope that it passes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Are there any other colours?

No other colors, thank you.

Okay.

Public comment is closed.

Uh now we'll transition to Commissioners' discussion.

Um Commissioner Adams, would you like to start us off?

Yeah, I supported boards.

Did you talk to Long Shore?

Did you talk to local Tim?

Because uh Ellen and uh Marina doesn't speak for long shore.

Maritime advisory commissioner.

Did you talk to local?

Did you talk to Mike?

Well the Johnny's Dominic, did you guys talk to local Tim?

We have not yet, but we are just starting our initial.

I appreciate the talk.

I appreciate you talked out to Mike.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, uh Commissioner McNeil.

Oh yes, thank you.

Uh first let me start by uh thinking and congratulating uh you uh uh President England on your leadership on this particular issue.

I've I've not seen this much energy around a particular topic since I've been on the commission, so it's exciting to see the energy from the community uh represent itself as well.

Um said, one of the speakers said this is where necessity and innovation meet.

And I thought that was really a really appropriate uh as I've been reflecting on the blue economy issues.

I thought about, you know, we we have the the the beauty and abundance of the waterfront, you know, married with uh the San Francisco Bay Area leadership and technology, and it's a natural marriage of the two uh coming together.

And um I really I support what we're doing here.

I think that this is a real opportunity.

Um I appreciate the work Boris you and the team are doing and your outreach to the community, uh uh President Englum, uh your your leadership on this, and I look forward to um uh continued updates on this.

I think you have put together, I think as someone else had, our very uh um uh accountable framework that's manageable that allows us to kind of measure.

Uh I'd like to see kind of measurable results on how we're doing on this, so I really appreciate the work and the construct that you've put together around this.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Lee.

I don't have any comment for you.

Okay.

Um Boris, thank you so much for your leadership on this.

I know um uh I I feel very um uh very uh I cut a lot of uh uh there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of passion, there's a lot of um smarts in that line, and I'm really humbled by uh sort of the the energy about this, and I appreciate especially Ellen's comments.

Uh you know, I I think it I just sort of it hit me.

I was like, you know, what we have here and the whole structure of having a commission is like we can come with some ideas, and we all have our collective uh backgrounds and experiences, but to come and have a constructive dialogue on behalf of our city is a really powerful um responsibility, and I think that what has been talked about today here is is a really incredible platform.

And I think uh we talk a lot about what a beautiful postcard San Francisco is, but really what I really think of you know, borrowing analogy from our our tech sector that's so famous in our our areas, like we're it's really an operating system for these economies.

So, yes, we want it to continue to be this wonderful postcard that we're all proud of, but it's also I mean it always has traditionally been an economic engine.

And what I'm really excited about with this um uh initiative is that we can join the other ports around the world that are already doing this, we can support our local businesses that are already doing this.

Um I I would say a couple of things occurred to me, and Ellen kind of gave a little bit of a clue.

Um, is that we just like we have our our advisory committees for neighborhoods, maybe we do work with the maritime advisory group to really make sure that we have some sort of uh group, and and I was even thinking maybe um, you know, we think broadly about creating some sort of um uh advisory board uh beyond San Francisco, you know, because I think the thing about the neighborhood advisors is it's deeply local.

But I think even in in our initial research with our uh consultants, we've uncovered some really great leadership around the world, and maybe we could figure out some sort of advisory committee to help with the oversight and sort of the connection making that's really the next step.

And then just one other thought I wanted to just throw out there is that we are part of the uh San Francisco Bay community.

There's a lot of other ports in in our region.

I don't want us to only think about ports outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, but really talk with Oakland, Richmond, Redwood City, um, other ports, like how can we work together on this?

Because this is something that I think we're gonna be more successful if we work in partnership with our uh Bay Area port um sister or sister ports to make sure that you know, as we you know uh rising tides, uh it's gonna help everybody.

So thank you for your leadership, Bars.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um so do we have a motion and a second?

So moved.

Okay.

Motion all in favor.

Okay.

Motion passes unanimously.

Resolution 2638 is adopted.

Next item, please.

Next item is 11A, which is an informational presentation to consider and possible action to approve.

One, up to a nine-month extension to the lease disposition and development agreement, the LDDA with TZK Broadway LLC, a California limited liability company.

Two, revise terms to the form lease and exhibit to the LDDA that, among other things, lower rent in early lease years, and defer obligation to pay a portion of rent during certain years to account for down market and insufficient cash flow.

And three, a hotel development incentive agreement, all in connection with the proposed development and operation of a 164 guest room hotel, a dinner theater space, and 14,000 square foot public open space on Seawall Lots 323, 324, and portions of unimproved Vallejo and Davis Street on the west side of the embargo dero at Vallejo.

This is resolution 2639.

For callers who wish to make public comment on this item, please dial star three to raise your hand to comment.

Good afternoon, Vice President Steven Eplum and Commissioners.

And also good afternoon to Mike Matin.

Um congratulations on being appointed as the executive director.

My name is uh Ricky Chidani.

I'm a Water Front Development Project Manager with a real estate and development division of the port.

Uh I'm we'll be making this remark on these items along with my spot uh staff team, as well as before concluding my presentation.

Moving on.

I will be covering this item that I listed on this agenda.

The presentation will follow this.

And the next three slides on this will be update on the project background, which is going to cover the next three slides.

One would be the site location to give you orientation.

The second will be the scope of development that we're talking about.

And then kind of like a brief history of the transaction history where we've been.

COVID 19 pandemic and other factors that I will touch on later have led to the in to the cost increase in this development.

So continue with the background, uh transaction history.

As I indicated back in 2019, we approved the LDDA, COVID-19 cost delay.

We have to amend the LDDA three times.

The last one was in last year, around September, where we gave them to September this year to find financing and to give TZK to negotiate with us and its lender and investors so that this development could be moved forward.

We've made substantial progress.

We've no do a due diligence.

We work with our consultant, maybe Saifu, as well as our attorney, keeping us right to come up with what we'll be presenting to you.

As a result, they receive preliminary commitment from their senior lender who is saying, hey, for this deal to work, these are the things you need to do.

The deal you put together back in 2019 does not work now because the economy has changed, and this is the new situation.

So here are the challenges that I pointed out in terms of the financing, because that's what has delayed this project since 2002 to the present time.

After COVID uh 19 delay, we've gone past it.

There's the issue of general cost increase, starting with labor material as well as financing cost increases.

San Francisco Hotel is still trying to recover, as we all know.

Demand is picking up.

The recent events that we have, including the World Cup FIFA, have drawn more people to the city and the waterfront is doing great.

So we are beginning to see a pickup in the demand, and we think the lender will be on board this time that we're almost out of the wood.

The project cost, because of all this preceding factor that I pointed out, have left the funding gap of approximately approximately 40 million that we included in a staff report.

So to close that funding gap here is the updated capital stack that TZK submitted to us.

But because of the negotiation we have and the promise to reduce to restructure the port lease to provide more funding for them, as well as the incentive agreement from the city that will provide uh additional cash flow, the lender is willing to increase their loan from 60 million to 90 million.

So currently we are looking at a total uh funding sources of 182 million.

However, this total development uh fund or this project R82 is based on approval of these three documents that we will be asking you to consider to approve.

First is the proposed fourth amendment to the LDDA that is going to give TZK more time beyond the September through maybe two months, three months, four months, depending on how they are able to wrap themselves with their lender to close escrow and start construction.

So we want to give them that flexibility.

Uh and so they are asking for a total of nine months uh that we would be giving them an increment of three months each to move the project forward.

The second is the reverse lease term that I will go into in detail.

And the purpose of that again is to help TZK um meet its lender's requirement.

And the third agreement is the proposed incentive agreement that the port will enter into on behalf of the city that essentially will take money that the project generates that it called transit occupancy tax that is paid to the city, will use portion of that to give back to the project so they so that the financing will work for them.

So it's almost like a uh uh net neutral in the end because the fund given back to them is generated by them.

Uh so here are the key details of the fourth amendment.

Uh like I said, it's providing three months of extension up to nine months.

They will have to pay $25,000 fee for in time they exercise that three month extension, and it's going to subject to meeting some conditions, including our executive director, you know, saying that okay, they are make make making progress on what they plan to do, and those conditions are met as a result, we could get the extension.

Where they are equally asking for an extension of the existing fee that they will have paid to the city because it's better for them to pay this when they close escrow where they have additional cash to conserve the current cash that they have to continue to move the project forward.

The amount being deferred is carrying simple interest of 5%, and then we will update the schedule of performance on the LDDA, kind of like saying you need to do this by social time, associated time, and then you need to start construction within this period that we're giving you the LDA.

The next is the key terms of the form of lease.

Uh this lease hasn't been executed, that's why we're calling it form of lease, but the lender need to know what this lease will look like in making their funding.

So the lender have seen it and they're saying we need to make this revisions.

So key among them is that for the first seven years, the rent is gonna is going to be flat.

Uh it's going to start from $500,000 a year for the first four years, then it's going to ramp up to $600,000 and $700K.

Uh then from year eight going forward is going to be a function of a percentage of the hotel gross revenue.

And it will vary from 2% of the hotel gross revenue to 4.5% through uh at the end of the term of the lease.

The with this this the uh the amount that is allowed to defer, if the hotel revenue falls below 60 million, is projected.

This is a worst-case scenario, by the way, that if the revenue falls below 60 million, but if you do fall below to 60 million, the lender want to make sure that the data service is being made.

So we agree to allow portion of the port rent to be deferred to meet that to meet that service.

But however, during that period, which were limiting only to eight to fifteen years of the lease, port rent will never drop below 700,000 dollars.

Can I can I enter for just a moment for clarification on the um the hotel gross revenue, the 60 million partial abatement.

That's that's after the seven-year period.

That's not during the uh the the initial seven where there's a flat, where there's a flat rent.

Exactly.

That's correct.

And it's only limited to that period between eight and fifteen years.

Okay.

And moreover, that abatement also is equally limited to just only two years within that range.

So it is we put a whole lot of guarrail so that uh so that the port is protected.

So continuing the amount that is deferred, will uh the rent that is not paid and deferred will be carrying the same simple percent interest.

The purpose of all of this is to shift to make cash flow available to get the lenders in during the initial years of the hotel.

It's not being forgiven, it's just been shifted.

Because at the end of the lease, we are still getting almost approximately the amount of revenue that we thought the part would be receiving.

Um we are also participating in the project up site if they do very well.

Uh after the developer achieved his initial uh internal return, the poll will be participating in the project up site.

Next is the incentive agreement, which I indicated that the city the port will enter into on behalf of the city.

So is the financial assistance the city will be providing.

We estimated this to be roughly $38 million in their present value, which is the sum of the value of the revenue or the disbursement we made to them over that 20-year period.

The disbursement were projected to start from roughly 2.7 million the first year, which is the amount of transcendent occupancy tasks that we generate, and it will grow with the revenue of the hotel.

Uh this uh incentive assistance is limited to 89% of the of that of that taxes because the rest of the portion goes, I believe, to some other program that is dedicated for the city.

Uh part will include this program in this budget because it is subject to appropriation.

So every year there will be a budget request to the mayor.

We will include an appropriation for this 2.7 or whatever the amount to be that we're going to be disbursing to the developer, assuming two things.

They make that payment to the city, and the Board of Supervisors uh uh authorizes the request.

And the incentive will be reduced if the developer does not meet certain timeline requirements as detailed in the staff report.

So next step is uh seek approval from the Board of Supervisors, as I mean that you authorize and approve this request before you today.

Uh we will be going to the Borough Sufficient to uh request their request to approve the lease and the incentive agreement.

And thereafter, TZK will start working with his lender and start moving and eventually pool building permit.

So I'm gonna show a couple of renderings of this site, which our new commissioner might not have seen.

Uh this is the site uh lay out by the architect.

And here is an elevation of the building.

It's a four-story building.

That Gezimo is what will cover the spiegel tent that Seattle's in Zani will be operating under.

And here is uh a view of the building at night.

And here is another view, uh kind of like showing the area view of the hotel after it's been built at the corner of Broadway and Emma Cadero.

Uh here is the mini park that we talked about where there could be an overflow of event, like people doing wedding reception or other activity that could spill over.

The same thing with the theaters in Zani, you know, they could have some event outside, closer to their theater space.

And I'm now going to turn it over to Anderson.

Uh thank you, Ricky.

Uh congratulations, uh, Mr.

President and Vice President.

Darius Anderson with Kenwood Investments, and we've been the developer from the very beginning.

Um, you know, this has been a process that's been uh you know a little over 11 years in the making uh when we were originally approached by TZK about finding a site for them.

And you know, I think it's been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and I want to say a special thanks to Mike, uh to Ricky, who's been absolutely amazing to Scott and all the rest of the uh port staff.

Um you know, this has been a long process, but I want I want to sort of recount that we had this thing completely financed and ready to go before COVID.

And COVID slowed us, the investors pulled out, um, and we had to restart from the scratch.

And it was the patience of the port staff of you as commissioners that really allowed us to get back.

Um I want to say thank you to the men and women of organized labor who've been with us every step of the way.

I want to thank Norm and all the folks at TZK and the theater group that have been with us every single step of the way.

We're very excited to get going.

This is sort of the needed ingredient on the financing that we needed to be able to go ahead and have a market rate deal to go ahead and get the necessary debt that is able to go ahead and get us to that 184 million dollars.

So, on behalf of the investor group, I want to say thank you to you, commissioners, and more importantly to the staff.

And I'd be remiss, I want to point this out and also um to say to you on the last vote.

I am one of Gavin Newsom's five um fish and game commissioners, and I've been all over the state debating uh the marine protected areas.

And California has the most extensive marine protected areas in the world, and right now we're debating some expansions that are right in our backyard, and with what you did today, you enhance uh the ability for us to operate at the state level, and I just want to say on behalf is uh not on behalf of the commission, because I'm not here to speak on their behalf, but as a person as a commissioner, I want to say thank you for what you just did.

So I'm happy to answer any questions about the project, and we're glad to be here.

Thank you.

That's uh conclude before I conclude uh presentation.

I just wanted to point out that the representative of Teatro Designs here, Mr.

Noma Langio.

Uh they've been waiting patiently.

They're still here.

They want to, you know, they want their space to be ready so that they could start operating again.

So on this conclude staff presentation, uh, we look forward to uh answering questions you may have about this.

Okay, uh thanks.

Uh Scott, Ricky, Daris, thank you.

Um I think they may want that representative to speak.

Oh, is there what sorry?

Can you help me with the process for another speaker?

So he'll speak, I believe, during public comment on this item.

Okay, so it should call him up during public comment.

Okay.

All right.

Um thank you, Scott and Ricky for the presentations.

Commissioners, is there a motion?

So is there any public comment in the room for item 11A?

Uh sir.

Or if if there's more than one, just make a make a line and come up to the podium.

Hi, I'm Norm Langel with Teatro Zanzani.

Uh we started in San Francisco in the year 2002, and then we left in 2012.

Thank you so much.

Ricky, you're so good.

Um I particularly like when I I heard in the speech earlier by Director Martin when he valued the role of Whimsy in the goals of the port.

And that's exactly what we're all about.

And San Francisco historically, culturally, is all about whimsy.

And I have to say, working and all up and down the coast here over the years, that San Francisco is such a unique city on the West Coast, and how it values arts and culture at the highest political level.

I don't see that in other cities.

And the fact that you know that vitality fear citizens allowing them to get together in groups to have common experiences together, how important it is, even in the age of AI that we're in.

It's still important for human beings to have eye contact, articulate gestulation.

And uh I really appreciate that.

So thank you so much for dying to come back.

We're so happy, Darius, and everybody and Ricky and everybody at the port.

We've come together to make this happen.

It's been almost 12 years.

That's a long time to be happy and excited about something.

So I'm happy and excited.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Norman.

Hi, my name is Beaver Bauer.

Um, I'm a costume designer, a theater performer.

I hitchhiked here in 1970, and I've been living somewhere in San Francisco ever since, and working in the arts from the angels of light to every theater here, and also a teaters and zonny.

And I also want to speak, as Norm did, to the real vitality of having a real jewel and a real beautiful entertainment venue on the port and on the water.

And it's just so essential.

I can't begin to say Zinzani had happy employees.

Something pretty rare.

Nobody wanted to leave.

And I think we left happy audiences spilling out into the night after the show is over.

And they came one by one and curious, what is it going to be?

And oh no, am I sitting next to somebody?

Or whatever it could be, but by the end that was one, it was like church.

It was like everyone became one.

And I think that that energy only goes upward and outward and brings people in.

And so I certainly cannot advise anyone on how to make money or how to raise money.

Uh I I don't know how.

But I think that this is the best thing to generate something more ephemeral in that and powerful and uplifting.

And I think the world really needs joy and giddiness, poetry, romance, and to get up and dance with each other when our beautiful woman sings a song from a moon on a swing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Alan Johnk, and I think I'm speaking as a long-term 60-year resident of San Francisco and a neighbor.

And I said to Jay uh and Darius, when I saw them uh in the lobby today, I said, I'm so glad you're back.

Um it's with a long, a long time that uh corner has been very forlorn uh uh for so many years and even before eleven years ago, uh we needed something like this.

I think that the design uh is is wonderful, and I thank you and Mike and the whole team for and Ricky, great job and Scott uh for putting putting this together.

Uh the neighborhood and the city needs to see this uh edifice and and new uh renewed establishment.

So thanks for approving it.

Good afternoon, Commissioner Cynthia Gomez, research analyst, you know here local two, we're the hotel workers union, and we are happy to support this project.

We have come and deliver the message to every meeting that this project comes with a guarantee that the project will eventually lead to good union jobs for the uh for the people who work there.

Those projects lead to a pathway to the middle class.

They will provide respect and dignity on the job and a pathway to fight for a living wage and retirement with dignity.

Those are things that we believe are model agreements that every single hotel developer should provide when they come to the city, and this project provides one.

We have come to every meeting urging you to do what you need to do to allow this project to come to fruition, and we're happy to continue to urge that today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, uh I am Joe Torrell from Seattle.

I was here once 12, 13 years ago when we brought T.

H.

O.

Zanzani here.

Mr.

Norman Langell went to Seattle over 30 years ago and expected to run three months with this wonderful idea he had, the tent and everything that went along with it 30 years later, plus he was still there.

And I'm telling you, it was an asset to the city of Seattle.

And it'll be an asset to the city of San Francisco, I'll tell you, man, there is nothing like it.

I went because I was told you gotta go to this.

I fought it for a long time because I didn't think that this was for me.

I went once and never stopped going.

I went so many times they put me to work.

So I truly enjoy, and I can't tell you enough when you got good entertainment and good people running things, you got good people coming, you got the whole city behind you.

It's an asset.

You make money, you make friends.

There's no end to it.

This little idea with the hotel and the t and the tent right there in front of it.

I wish I had some finances involved in that, I'll tell you, because it's gonna be great.

I'll be happy to see it.

I come down from Seattle on numerous occasions to see the last show.

And I tell you not, it it was great to see a full house night after night here with great entertainers, great people.

When I worked at the tent in Seattle, I met an enormous amount of wonderful entertainers.

People, the patrons had come pretty soon.

They they knew me as a godfather that was working there, and they would come back in the door in the front door to greet me instead of me greeting them.

Hey, the godfather studio.

We brought our family.

And there's nothing better to be in a show when people come up to you afterwards and thank you and say, hey, listen, this is the greatest thing.

I can't wait to bring my friends, my relatives.

They came to me, but I was the owner.

For years I told Mr.

Lanzo I I don't want to tell them any lies.

He said, don't tell them no lies.

Tell them you're the owner.

So I mean, we have a great time.

And to see it down here in San Francisco, you guys will have a great time.

I'm I'm telling you, it will be an asset, just like Mr.

Willie Adams here is an asset to your panel.

I tell you, I've known Willie for a long time.

I work on the waterfront in Seattle for 55 years.

He's trying to catch up to me, never gonna do it.

But he is an asset to the waterfront in San Francisco.

He was our uh executive officer for the international can't beat the guy, and I hear him talk about Mike here, and when he talked to us, everybody listened.

So I think everybody listened here.

You did a great job.

He's a great asset to you.

And you could also have T.H.O.

Zenzani.

I back it 100%.

There's nothing better.

Think about it.

All right, thank you, Joe.

Uh are there any callers?

We have no callers, thank you.

Okay.

Um we'll transition to um Commissioner uh discussions.

Uh Commissioner Lee.

Any questions or comments?

No questions.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner.

Yes.

Uh yes.

Um great uh presentation, great hearing from everyone.

I mean, this is uh this is without a doubt um uh a wonderful project, uh perfect for the waterfront.

Um, unfortunately it's taken a lot of time to kind of get it restarted.

Uh but I I we certainly understand the financial constraints uh that occurred around uh the pandemic and the opportunity now to kind of look at refinancing.

So I I think the the deal as it's been proposed uh is reasonable.

I I think the opportunity to bring this beautiful, a beautiful hotel that's gonna provide accommodations and also job opportunities for folks in our community, uh tied together with a beautiful public space and the whimsy that was um that was acknowledged as uh a perfect um a perfect project for that corner uh and uh you have my supports.

This is uh kind of a complicated uh I've been here since the beginning and I I appreciate the resilience in this.

Jay, I see you had an over there.

And and and the and the reason I'm saying this, I think this is gonna give San Francisco an opportunity because I know that you had to close in Seattle, and you had to close in Chicago, and so opening this one here in San Francisco is going to be a challenge.

And I know Mike is up to the challenge, first day in the job, but I I think about that, and I just want to be full transparency, because I know it was a long run, and I know eventually I think the one in Seattle closed in January.

Is that about right?

Yeah.

And when did the one in Chicago close?

February.

February, yeah.

This is gonna be a challenge.

But I think we're up for it.

I mean, it's been 11 years.

I'm all in.

But I just want everything to be out there.

This is this is a complicated thing.

And I when I moved here in 2003, I used to go all the time.

It was down there where the James R.

Herman Cruz terminal was at Pier 27.

I used to go down there all the time.

I used to see Willie Brown down there all the time, a lot of different people down there.

And I appreciate it, you know, coming forth and saying that you had to regroup.

I think COVID has made everybody almost, any projects almost had to regroup because of COVID.

And I think we're on the on the right track.

And I think this could be um a unity type project that we're reventing ourselves and making this happen.

And I'm hoping that this will that's if any place it should happen, should be San Francisco, and I'm hoping that we can make it here, and it provides uh a shining star for maybe Seattle opening back up, Chicago opening back up.

Business is tough.

Business is tough.

They said uh before COVID, we had about 2,000 restaurants in San Francisco, probably got less than half of that now.

It's our business.

And Jay, I know that I've watched you aged a lot, a lot of balls up in the air and stuff like that.

But you have been as solid from day one as you are today, and I appreciate that.

But I know that you're under a lot of stress.

And anything I think that we can do to help, we want to see this succeed.

And thank you for providing that.

Hopefully we can do that again for our people in San Francisco.

But for Seattle and Chicago and people from all over the world that got the opportunity to enjoy that because I did, and it was a treasure.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you for the presentation.

And I know that this is an approval with to go to the board of supervisors.

But can I ask a question?

The building permit, that's with the city building permit department.

Is that correct?

No, the building permit is within the port.

Within the port.

Yes.

Okay.

So I guess my comment would be: is there anything we can do to um you know make sure that we are sort of, you know, we're not waiting sequentially for the building permit to be reviewed.

All that can be it can is there some way that we can proactively make a special effort to make sure that we're we're up and ready once the financing is all the close happens.

And as I I see the June, July is a very rapid start, but just would hate for us not to have looked at it before June and and we don't have some permitting surprise afterwards.

You've gone through the permitting review.

I summarified that we're ready to put a building permit almost two years ago.

Okay.

Now that they've made some slight revisions to the inside of the building, is going to require some cursory review about our uh permitting desk on our engineering division.

So I don't think they're going to go through so much like starting from ground zero.

It's just a question of submitting the updated drawing and then we review it and go from there.

Great.

Well, I would just say it might be good just to, you know, with with the project sponsor, just sort of make sure that uh if everybody's willing to go through a proactive process, it feels like it would be a uh a prudent thing, just make sure there's no surprises and uh once we are ready to pull the permit.

We will absolutely do that.

All right, so we have a motion.

Um uh sorry I will get faster at this.

Um it's uh 2639.

Okay, so uh 2639.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, motion passes unanimously.

Resolution 2639 is adopted.

Next item, please.

Next item is 12A, which is an informational presentation on fisherman's wharf, waterside improvements.

For callers who wish to make public comments on this item, please style star three to raise your hand to comment.

We'll give it just a good afternoon, President Engblum, Vice President McNeely, uh congratulations.

Um Commissioners, Executive Director Martin, congratulations, uh port staff, General Public.

My name is Dominic Moreno, I'm the acting maritime director for the port.

Um, and I'm here to build on the great things that have already happened today and provide an informational presentation on the fisherman's wharf waterside improvements.

Um over the past five years, um the port has been the port has been working to uh double and triple down on our fishing fleet and uh more specifically uh on the fisherman's wharf uh area.

Um as you remember, we had a uh global pandemic.

We had a uh a giant Pier 45 fire.

Um these were giant setbacks for the industry.

And um I think in the past five years we've had a lot of high visibility um projects that have um been brought um to fruition by the port, uh including the installation of J9, which has um has provided a new platform for off-the-boat fish sales um up at the outer lagoon.

We've also in most recent uh demoed the Aliotos restaurant providing one of the newest plazas in the city for public engagement.

There's a lot of resilience planning that has been happening along our short line for seismic and flood protection as well.

And at the same time that we've been investing in waterside improvements to support operations, we're looking at uh how else we can uh work with our fleet uh to make you know more thoughtful investments for their benefit.

Um today is an opportunity to share and build from that important work that's been happening.

Um I just wanted to play set a little bit and while many of the commissioners are familiar, Commissioner Lee.

I just want to just you know, high high level stuff, I hope.

Um and just to deepen the acknowledgement.

Um so long before Fisherman's Wharf area was a bustling tourist attraction, um, it was part of the ancestral homeland of the Yalamu tribe of the Ramatush uh Alone peoples.

Um fast forward to the 1900s, the fishing uh fleet moved from the end of Vallejo Street um wharf to uh its current location now.

Um the 1920s brought crab stands uh as you know young Americans flew off to war and uh and brought back um and brought back from Europe a lot of recipes and and uh and tradition.

Um the 60s saw a development of Taylor Street with uh with long-term leases provided for restaurants that became a staple to my and and a lot of other San Franciscans um holiday experience celebrations where you know many of us have sat around the large tables um on Taylor Street celebrating um graduations, birthdays, etc.

Uh 1770s, uh excuse me, 1970s we saw the opening of Pier 39 and a uh an investment in um you know tourism.

Um the F line stretches up in the 2010s, and um post-pandemic, we start investing a little bit more heavily in the little embarkadero with um with clean, safe, and vibrant um expectations.

Um this is a uh an image of the um chain of economics up at the wharf.

Um I I we added this um as a reference to the significance uh the role the wharf plays in that ecosystem or operating system plays uh up for the San Francisco.

Um and you can see how the fish moves through that process.

Um it's really meant as an opportunity to show um where the port participates uh financially in this ecosystem.

Um to the right you can see that the huge impact that the um the pandemic had on our uh on our revenue from 2019 to 2025, we're down 35 percent 33 percentage up at uh up at the wharf on revenue.

Um so this is an opportunity uh again to um take a fresh look make some clear investment um and this is just a uh an image showing some of the the work that's been going on.

Um we'll dig deeper into much of this, but to highlight you have the inner lagoon to the bottom right, you can see where the fuel dock improvement is and obviously Pier 45, which is the long pier that heads out.

Speaking of Pier 45, so though West or the Golden Gate side of Pier 45 is in deep need of uh repair and investment to continue to keep the commercial fishing industry and the processing industry alive and well here in San Francisco.

We've uh we're gonna be conducting a uh a $35 million apron repair project.

Um this will be phased so as to not completely impact uh the industry um and to provide uh a sequencing so that portions of the of the wharf, portions of the apron will be offline, but not the entire thing.

And so we've been working closely with the processors as well as the fleet to uh to make sure that this makes sense for them as well as make sense for us.

We hope to come to uh start this in 2027 with a hopeful completion date of 2030.

Uh also happening at Pier 45.

Um we are deep into a project to um to uh uh uh remove and then replace uh the industrial ice machine uh for a sex set for a successful uh commercial harbor, um in my opinion, you need uh at least three things.

Um good facilities, the docks, uh access to ice, and access to fuel.

And so those are the those are the three um legs of the stool for a successful harbor.

Um we are focused on all of those.

Pier 47, this is um where SCOMA's uh restaurant lives and is uh has been identified uh some needed repairs, uh specifically the timber fi the timber piles that support the Pier 47 facility will be a focus of a project um approximately 95 of them need um to be replaced, and um we hope to have most of that work done uh I think the timeline maybe some but most of it will be done by the fall of 2026.

Dominique, is this 95 out of how many?

Hundreds of that's close enough.

Yeah, yeah.

But these are the most severe that have been identified through our rapid structural assessments, uh, as well as deeper dives into the infrastructures.

I think you showed me some of them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um yeah, I mean to from for perspective, they're like about five like four or five feet apart and you know, Pier 47 is large.

So let's see.

Um just to kind of just to uh frame this port staff and staff from the Harbmaster's office have been working very closely with the fleet to make sure that any movements of vessels, relocation of vessels is done in a way that's thoughtful and um with an attempt to minimize impact on the operational side of their business line.

Um but you can see some of the improvements that we've done up in the Indo Lagoon include uh the replacement of 10 boat ladders.

Um I'll add that we've also worked closely with the fishermen uh the fishers to uh re um design ladders so that we can improve not only access but safety, especially on the front row where we've been inviting public to walk to climb down uh from Jefferson Street onto the charter boats.

Um we've done some electrical improvements and run new conduit uh specifically at J3, um serving those berths and improving um you know the the any hazards or risks uh from connecting to the infrastructure.

Um we hope to have more improvements done uh later this year.

Uh 25 light fixtures have been replaced.

These are the gooseneck uh lights, the um the decorative lights that are up there.

Uh we've done that this year.

And then 32 more lights will be replaced repainted, refreshed, and um re-bulbed uh this summer.

Um throughout the inner and outer lagoon, we've done a uh a massive survey of all of the piles, the the timber piles that are used uh to berth uh the vessels.

Many of the fishermen will tie off to these or even use them for maneuvering uh in close quarters.

Um and over the years these have been there they have degraded um and we've identified 15 that were needing to be replaced immediately, um and we'll be we'll be getting that done this summer as well.

Um along with the security camera upgrades that we're working on.

Um I know that our security division has worked closely with uh the tenants up at Fisherman's Wharf and enhanced enforcement for non-permitted vending has um increased and I think increased um the uh the experience up at the wharf as well.

Um to add on this, which isn't on the list, um we're also gonna be re-looking at uh um operational changes to better manage trash.

Um some of this has already started uh at the Pier 45 kind of trash area, but also in the water.

And um and the the geography of uh Fisherman's Wharf, the wind pushes in and comes with it a lot of debris.

Um in the past, we have pre-pandemic, we had uh uh port staff on boats that would go around and kind of pick up some of this extra debris.

Um we will re-implement that process project or excuse me, process, as well as um install a um an in-water trash uh capture device.

Um they're like I don't think it's like a Roomba, but it's probably similar.

Um it may be stationary and it will just kind of sit there and collect, and then we can go and remove uh as it gets full.

Um in addition to those improvements, um if you've been up uh to the wharf recently, you've noticed that the um the old smokehouse has been uh demolished.

It is now um one of the newest lookout and vantage points of the inner lagoon, um, a beautiful addition to the area, and is being used functionally on the weekends uh to serve the pop-up fish market.

So originally Papa Fish Market was over by J9, they've relocated.

It's uh I think it's a it's a better location, it provides more space uh for operating the business.

Um and for the public who are who are attending the fish market to stay out of Al Scoma's way, AlScoma Way and the vehicle traffic that um that uses that.

Uh moving on to the fuel dock.

So a little bit of history on this one.

Um like right after the pandemic started, uh we identified a SEEP up at Fisherman's Wharf Hyde Street Harbor on J 10.

This was a um a result of a very small leak from the uh petroleum infrastructure uh that served the fuel dock.

We immediately closed that operation and started remediation with multiple uh agencies.

Um we are now the remediation has happened.

Um the Kapro's lot is back in uh operation.

Um we have been re-entering into negotiation with Pilot Thomas to re-operationalize the fuel dock.

We hope that uh we'll be back online providing uh fuel to both commercial and potentially wreck recreational boaters um by the spring of 2027 dredging.

Um so with the J9 project that was extremely successful, part of that project included dredging the outer lagoon, the outer lagoon uh is the one adjacent or inside of Pier 47.

Um we have funding and um anticipate dredging the inner lagoon as well as the fairway approach alongside Pier 45.

Um and my hope is that we will get that done um in early excuse me, this the in-water work window of 2027.

Uh let's see here.

Other investments um supporting the overall district.

We talked a little bit about the inner lagoon lighting.

Um if you've been up there recently, you'll notice uh a great installation of interpretive materials, um talking about the history, talking about um some of the species that are are um fished uh through San Francisco, um the pop-up fish market, like I said, which is now um on the in lagoon overlook and and we're also improving parking management for the entire district.

Um all that to be said, in conclusion, the ports coordinated investment fishermen's wharf for stabilizing critical maritime infrastructure while also enhancing the broader district experience for workers, visitors, and the fishing community.

Waterside improvements, including pile repair, apron rehabilitation, and upgrade utilities.

Uh we'll strengthen day-to-day operations and support long-term industry resilience.

At the same time, new public spaces, lighting, and interpretive materials will enrich the neighborhood's cultural and historical identity.

Together, these efforts position fishermen's wharf for a more vibrant, secure, and economically sustainable future.

And with that, thank you.

I'm joined by Rebecca Benacini.

Do you have any questions, comments?

President England, may I add a few points?

Is that okay?

Yes.

So I just wanted to give a little context for this item.

As part of fishermen's work forward, as we embarked on that effort, you know, we realized that we did not want to sort of deal with the landside challenges of Taylor Street and the other issues and not really deal double down or not really invest in what makes fishermen's work fisherman's wharf, the fishing industry.

And so we really wanted to make sure that we listened to our tenants and our partners about what were what were those operational improvements that were needed.

And I'm really proud to say we're moving on a bunch of them.

A number of them are sort of long twitch items, as you saw in this in this rundown that Dominic really outlined really well.

But I thought it was important to bring this forward because we're about to be in a moment well very a lot of excitement with opening the plaza at the former Alliato site, hopefully at the end of August.

We're about to also embark on um sort of more rigorous and more uh impactful community engagement about the big long-term project where we're really going to try to create a seismically and resilient uh and flood resistant shoreline.

But I didn't want to lose this piece because I want I want not only everyone to know we're doing it, but I want you to know and sort of stay on top of us because this is the promise we've made to our partners uh in the fishing industry and in the working waterfront.

And and we need that we need both sides, both sides of this to really advance to really succeed.

So we really I'm glad that this came forward today.

It really is timely, um, and we sort of welcome your feedback and input from there.

So thanks very much.

Thanks, Mike.

Um thank you, Dominic, uh, for the presentation and Rebecca for all the work behind the scenes on this.

Um Commissioner Oh, sorry, is there any public comment in the room on item 12A?

No.

I just wanted to make it.

Alan Jonk, on behalf of the Maritime Commerce Advisory Committee.

In addition to everything, wonderful report from Dominic, the port is also investing their staff in supporting the tenants.

And you have some stalwart long-term tenants, 132-year-old company, Ren White Fleet, Blue and Gold Fleet, uh, of course, you you know, we mentioned uh SCOMAS as well, and Pier 39.

And the with the PGE remediation down there, which is uh, and I and I've been helping out, we've been helping, and the port staff has been helping the tenants get through the permit process and uh all and the lease issues and that have just been great.

So we don't often hear about how great the staff is for the for the division.

So I just wanted to bring that out, and we certainly celebrate them and our our committee.

In fact, the mayor time we're we're meeting on Thursday as well this week.

So I just wanted you to know that.

I think the remediation is going to be done, what, in another two years?

I think 2028.

2028, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, hi, Commissioners.

I'm Taryn Hoppe, uh local business owner and part of the CBD.

And I'm just here listening, and I just want to say it's so good to see some so much progress on uh an investment in the wharf that's really starting to happen in and real time and and seeing the the physical changes.

And so um uh just wanted to say we're you know, we're in it with everybody, and um we're really grateful that um things are things are happening.

So thank you.

Everyone.

Thank you.

All right, is there any public comment on the phone?

No colours on the phone, thank you.

Okay.

Um now we'll transition to Commissioner's discussion.

Commissioner Lee.

I don't have any colors.

Okay, Commissioner Adams.

Dominic Stella report, you and the staff.

I like the second paragraph in the executive summary.

He said in this memorandum, poor staff highlights several waterside projects that are underway in their terms that may be less visible to visitors, but are fundamental to supporting the backbone of the wharf, especially the fishers.

These waterside improvements range from target repairs to major facility upgrades, all which address infrastructure that fishers rely on daily.

And I like what you said at the bottom.

You said the projects have been shaped and refined through listening sessions, community meetings, one-on-one conversations with birth holders, and poor staff operation insights.

That's good.

Hi, I and it reflects in this report.

Thank you.

Thank you for sure.

Thanks, Commissioner.

Yeah, thank you.

A good report.

I had a question about dredging.

I mean, it's um, and uh I know we've been we've talked a lot um about dredging and it's the issues, the challenges that we have with it over the course of the year or so that I've been here.

And my recollection was that, or is that um it's um it's it's very expensive and there are very few um um companies that provide that service, and we're often not um front of line because of the size, I guess, that other ports um have bigger demands and uh sometimes hire the very limited number of suppliers that provide that.

Have we taught have we thought in in terms of I mean how do we increase um that um the um the the resources available for that by even making but being creative and thinking about how do we make an investment in some type of local um um organization that might might be able to help support us, not uh that we would own it, but have a better, closer relationship where we may be able to um have uh better control of our cost and timing?

It's it's a great question, Vice President.

I think um we spend a lot of time thinking about dredging.

In fact, we have recently um hired a dredge uh manager uh into Maritime that specifically focuses on those questions and concerns.

Um it's I think as in a as a div department, um we've really uh over the last year, year and a half, increased our competency around dredging, specifically, you know, our our strategy.

I think you're correct.

There are very few operators in the bay.

Um the opportunity maybe uh to bring smaller operators from out of the region up, uh, which is you know, some of our partners uh port partners around the bay do that.

Um there's uh I think it's it's a we're working on it.

Are there are there public-private partnerships or even maybe even publicly owned dredging operators?

So that the publicly owned dredging operator is is Army Corps of Engineering and there has to be you know, there has to be uh federal interest in in the location.

And all the others are private operators.

And all the other are private operators, that's correct.

Commissioner, if I if I may add, you know, you are right on that we're thinking hard about this.

Um and so a couple of things we're working on.

Um we actually did a uh hired a consultant to do a study on our cultation rates because we felt like if we could go out to the market next time with a really defined schedule to your point, and we could reach operators elsewhere who could plan around that, that would give us more confidence.

Um we're issuing, we're we're putting together a request for uh information from the from the industry to try to see what else is out there.

Um we've also had a good initial set of conversations with Rec Park about the SF Marina.

Um they hire uh separately there, and we want to see if our demands combined can create a little better of a market situation.

Um but you're absolutely right that the market is ripe for some kind of other entity that can respond to these demands better, especially in the Bay Area.

It seems like scale matters in this respect, um, and the ability to be able to negotiate something, a most favorite nation's clause, or something that would uh provide the opportunity to um I wasn't even aware that the marina may have a different one.

That seems like it opens opportunity of scale for us to negotiate something that might be more timely on our on our part and maybe even more cost sensitive.

So I'm gonna add that to new business, and we want to come back to you and give you another update because those those balls are in the air.

We haven't quite figured it out, but I uh our dredge manager can do a along with the help of our planning and environment can do a great great job summarizing if they're interested in dredging, but that's this occurred to me.

Yeah.

Dominic, I just want something that Kim was talking about.

We always use uh have you talked to the mayor at Mayorette, and then also the Department of Transportation.

And then I would think that uh Leader Pelosi, I know she's gonna be leaving at some point, but she this is her district, and I would think federally, right, and and lobbying on that effort, but I think Mayor Ed and also I think uh Congressman John Girl Mandy would be really good because he's big on that and the Coast Guard, and I think we use some of those Congresspeople and people in Washington, and I even think that our senators, even though they're both from down south.

And I think and some else came up, because I think if you got to remember during COVID, we was able to get 120 million dollars from the state during COVID.

Senator Burton and Boris, they I mean they did an excellent job.

I mean, I was driving Senator Burton around, but he was doing all the hollow and screaming.

But we've and I think there's money's out there for that.

So I think Ken raises a valid point.

And I think we just have to ask for it and find out where they are at and also I think uh the Federal Maritime Commission, I think, to try to get one of those commissioners out here and to tell them, and I think we try to get some of our needs met.

And um I'm good friends with uh Senator Cantwell, who's a ranking member, she was the chairwoman of commerce and transportation on Washington State.

These are things that she would be interested in hearing as she's trying to get for all these major ports, especially those on the West Coast.

So I would like to think that we could do that.

Thank you.

Um Thanks, Dominic, for the presentation.

Um I was intrigued by um your diagram on uh number four on page four.

Um I guess I had a question because uh I don't know enough, so I'm just gonna ask a possibly naive question.

But uh I wonder when you look at the port fishing industry chain of economics, would what would this diagram look like if you broadened out and because I understand there's a lot of interaction with the airport as well for for fish.

Is that is that true?

Yes, that's true.

Okay.

So with this diagram, would would it look significantly different if we sort of partnered with how the flow of fish happens when you broaden out and you think about the airport as well?

I mean, I think there's that you know the biggest difference to what you're talking about, uh President Englum, is the it the fish isn't coming necessarily across the dock.

Right.

But all the other pieces of that process are the same.

Um the fish may come in truck to the processors, but from that point on it it follows the same path.

Okay.

But there's i am I right in understanding that there's a lot of fish that comes through the airport and then gets trucked up to the the wharf for processing?

That's correct.

Okay.

So I guess I I I'm I make that point just because I I I'm really excited about what we talked about earlier, you know, the blue economy, and I guess uh every time we're looking at a project, I would love to have a lens on like what would your diagram look like if there was a uh sort of a blue economy lens on top of this.

Like is there an opportunity site?

Um I'm thinking of in water, but my mind also goes to there's a lot of news about um drone um invention, and I'm wondering like where where would the fishing industry benefit from uh kind of a a look at maybe maybe a special uh discussion with our blue economy, some some entrepreneurs about is there some drone way to uh create a better flow of fish from the airport to this dock so that we don't have so much congestion.

Um, just some innovative, like front uh kind of proactive way to talk about um is there is there some drone landing area here for fish that would would benefit everybody um uh or in water testing.

So I guess that's my comment about um you know, sort of look for opportunities for for these things that we're trying to incentivize, but look at it in partnership with the with our fishing partners and the tenants and and what is it that their pain points are and how can we then maybe we we sort of become the connector between some entrepreneurs.

I I was really excited to hear some of the fishing entrepreneurs that were here earlier today.

So obviously we have some people thinking about some really uh really cool things, and I wonder if we ask them that question, like is there something about this diagram that could be could be enhanced about by talking about it with our airport partners and the blue economy lens.

I think that's the wisdom of bringing the incubator to the waterfront.

Great.

Um and then my last comment, and it's a small comment, but um just important.

I I noticed on your fuel dock thing, you said you know, sort of future opportunities for other fuel types.

I feel like we should be more explicit about you know that um you know that this should be a fuel and charging dock in the future.

You know, so so I know that we've talked about that before, and and we so I think we should just sort of continue to exercise that muscle to say like it's also uh in the future it's gonna be charging so that people can hear that and get used to it, even though we can't deliver it today.

I just sort of figure out a way to sort of talk about that that's future-proofed.

Uh part of the the construction project that will repair the pipeline will add conduit uh that might benefit that type of charging in the future.

Great.

Thank you.

That's it for me.

All right, so we have a uh no other action is required on this item.

So thank you, everybody.

Um, any Jenica, next item.

Next item is new business, item thirteen.

Uh commissioners, I've noted a few items of new business.

I've noted uh coming back with recommendations based on our equity work to date, uh, and engagement with labor CBOs to look at how best to strengthen inclusion along the waterfront.

So we'll come back with that.

Um we will also uh follow up on the items we just spoke about as to dredging, um uh including uh uh the potential lobbying opportunities and the their own fish delivery.

I think we'll come back with an information item on dredging, because there's a lot of different pieces in the air, including working with the regulators that regulate how we dredge and where we dispose of those uh soils.

Um that is all I have uh noted.

Do we have other pieces of new business?

Okay.

Um no other new business, so could I get a motion to adjourn?

I'd like to adjourn in the memory of Nolan Xavier Wells, the young black man down in Mississippi, they don't know how he died, whether he he drowned, or whether it was foul play and it has captured the the attention of the nation and the world, and uh how a group of guys can all go out together to boat and somebody gets left behind.

But anyway, I just hope justice and the family can get the answers that they're looking for, because right now it's kind of dividing the country and people are on both sides, and there's the South and then there's Mississippi.

So anyway, we talked about justice, and so anyway, I'd like to adjourn it as memory.

Thank you for that suggestion.

Um, all in favor?

I.

Meeting is adjourned at 5 27 p.m.