Supervisors forward Bill Graham lease; unions press for hiring guarantees

John Aviles, chair of the Budget & Finance Committee, advanced a proposed 20‑year lease of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium at 99 Grove Street to BGCA Management LLC (an entity formed by concert promoter Another Planet) to the full Board of Supervisors without a committee recommendation. The lease before the committee requires the lessee to invest $10,000,000 of private capital, guarantees a base rent starting at $100,000 annually (increasing 2.5% per year), and contains upside participation provisions tied to naming rights and ticket thresholds.

City Administrator Ed Lee and Amy Brown, Deputy City Administrator and Director of Real Estate, told supervisors the agreement aims to reverse a history of operating losses under the city’s management and SMG’s operating contract. Brown said the ERA/AECOM analysis in the file projects that the private investment and a concert‑focused business model would convert ongoing deficits into positive net operating results and create jobs, estimating roughly 17,000 stagehand person‑hours with a net annual gain of about 13,000 person‑hours compared with recent years. The lease allows the city 50 rent‑free days per year (with the city covering lessee expenses for events on those days).

Labor speakers, led by SEIU Local 1877 representatives and other event‑operations staff, urged postponement and demanded explicit hiring guarantees, arguing the lease could lead to subcontracting and loss of health benefits and long‑standing jobs. Mary Anne Hohenstein of SEIU Local 1877 asked the supervisors to “postpone this lease to give us an opportunity to guarantee that our members will also continue to work at Bill Graham under Another Planet and that they will continue to have the standards … wages that you can raise a family on.” Several rank‑and‑file speakers described personal hardship tied to potential layoffs.

Supporters — including managers from local independent venues, Teamsters and Local 16 members, and neighborhood business owners — said Another Planet has reopened similar venues (the Fox Theater in Oakland), driven neighborhood revitalization, and that a long‑term lease with private capital would stop the city’s financial losses. Glenn Hartman, general manager of The Independent, and other union members working with Another Planet testified they expect increased bookings and more local spending.

Supervisors expressed divided views: some stressed fiscal urgency and the projected general‑fund savings in the budget analyst report, while others said they were uncomfortable moving forward without a clear, enforceable labor transition plan. The committee accepted a motion to forward the lease to the full board without recommendation and directed real estate staff to report back on labor negotiations and the status of implementation by late July.

The full Board will review the lease with the committee’s record and the requested follow‑ups; the committee’s action does not finalize the agreement.

Ending: The committee forwarded the lease to the full Board of Supervisors without recommendation and requested a report back from real estate on labor negotiations by July 30.