Committee advances LDDA and 55-year lease to rehabilitate Geneva Car Barn arts center

The San Francisco Budget & Finance Committee on Oct. 8 advanced a lease disposition and development agreement (LDDA), a 55-year lease and related access license to support rehabilitation of the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse as a community arts and job-training center.

Supervisor John Avalos framed the item as the culmination of a decade-long community effort to restore the historic MTA-era Car Barn and to provide arts education and job training for underserved youth in southern San Francisco. Nicole Averlin of the Recreation and Parks Department presented project details, saying the reuse would include a 99-seat black-box theater, audio-visual studios, a 70-seat cafe anticipated to employ students, a 300-person event space and mission-driven retail and community meeting spaces.

Averlin corrected a budget figure during her presentation: "The project budget right now is... $23,900,000," she said, and described an almost $17,000,000 construction budget, roughly $6,000,000 in soft costs and a construction contingency. She outlined potential funding sources including an $838,000 city allocation for design work, anticipated federal historic preservation and new market tax-credit financing, and participation in new-market tax-credit pipelines. Averlin said the city and the Friends of Geneva Car Barn would co‑fundraise but emphasized the city was "under no obligation" to provide additional funds under the LDDA.

Budget analyst Mr. Rose reported an alternate estimated cost of $24,285,660 and said $857,572 in funding had been secured so far, leaving $23,428,088 to be raised before construction. Mr. Rose recommended amending the resolution to require Rec and Park and the Friends to report back to the Board of Supervisors in February and again by June 30, 2016, on funds secured and fundraising plans.

Supervisor Avalos moved to adopt the budget analyst recommendation, remove a vague final resolve clause from the resolution at the clerk's request, and to accept the item as amended; the committee took the motion without objection and asked for the amended legislation to be provided by 9 a.m. the following day.

The LDDA includes requirements for conformance with Secretary of the Interior standards for historic rehabilitation, prevailing wage and workforce hiring plans, remediation of environmental conditions and SFMTA commitments tied to access and staging. Averlin noted the project had qualified for a community plan CEQA exemption under the Balboa Park Station final environmental report.

Next steps: The resolution, as amended, will be placed on the Oct. 21 Board of Supervisors agenda for final action and the department and Friends are expected to report back on fundraising progress as recommended by the budget analyst.