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Committee recommends amended approval for SFMTA Transportation Management Center lease at 1455 Market
Summary
The committee recommended approval, with amendments, of a 10‑year lease for a consolidated SFMTA Transportation Management Center at 1455 Market Street and required the Real Estate Department and SFMTA to report in three months on plans to reduce existing leased space. The budget analyst raised concerns about increased annual occupancy costs and recommended Board review of renewal options.
The Budget and Finance Committee recommended approval of a 10‑year lease for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to occupy roughly 39,573 square feet at 1455 Market Street, but added a requirement that the Real Estate Department and SFMTA report back in three months with plans to reduce or relinquish existing city or leased spaces.
John Updike, Acting Director of Real Estate, said a Jacobs Engineering site assessment identified 1455 Market as the top choice because the building offers high resiliency—existing emergency power and significant cooling—and because a portion of the floor plan already suits control‑center functions. “The best rated property from that study was 1455 Market Street,” Updike said.
Patty De Veil, an SFMTA project manager, described the operational case: SFMTA’s command and control functions are currently dispersed across five locations (131 Lenox, Division Street power control, 1 South Van Ness, 505 Seventh Street and 25 Van Ness) and integration into one resilient center would improve real‑time coordination, redundancy and incident response. She said the proposed facility reuses existing infrastructure, adds operational consoles, a situation room and space for public information and coordination functions.
The budget analyst warned of substantially higher occupancy costs. Over the initial 10‑year lease term rent would total about $13.51 million, operating costs about $2.67 million and tenant improvements to be performed by the MTA roughly $9.49 million (landlord to pay ~$1.7M), producing a total 10‑year cost of about $16.18 million. The analyst said SFMTA’s current space costs (~$256,237 for 16,524 sq ft) would increase to about $1.57 million in year one if the lease is approved, a more than five‑fold increase.
Given the agency’s projected fiscal shortfall, the analyst could not recommend unconditional approval of the lease; he recommended that the renewal options be subject to Board approval. The committee adopted that recommendation and added an amendment requiring real estate and SFMTA to come back in three months with a plan showing which existing spaces can be released or repurposed prior to exercising long‑term renewal options.
On the amended motion the committee approved the recommendation with a divided roll call (some supervisors voted no on the motion as presented but the amended motion passed). The committee also asked that renewal‑option authority be left to Board review rather than automatic exercise by SFMTA.
Next steps include SFMTA and Real Estate reporting back to the committee within three months on consolidation plans and staffing/operational implications, and final Board consideration of the lease and any required appropriations.
