Supervisors advance $29M certificates for Concourse Garage and consider targeted transfer-tax cut for high‑value deals

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Sept. 3 passed an ordinance on first reading authorizing the issuance of certificates of participation, on a tax-exempt or taxable basis, for an aggregate principal amount of $29,000,000 to fund all or part of the acquisition of the Concourse Garage. The ordinance authorizes related documents, commercial paper notes in advance of delivery, and the form of a preliminary official statement.

Separately, supervisors considered an ordinance to reduce certain real property transfer tax rates for high-value transactions where the transferred property met specified criteria, including a minimum share of rent-restricted affordable units constructed with union labor and a stated debt/equity investment benchmark. Clerk-read language included reductions from 5.5% to 3% and from 6% to 3% under the described conditions; the ordinance as read also affirmed the CEQA determination. Supervisor Safaie supported the measure as a targeted financing tool to unlock stalled construction using pension-backed projects and to advance affordable housing production.

The certificate-of-participation ordinance passed on first reading; the transfer-tax ordinance was taken on first reading after on‑the‑record discussion. The meeting record does not include a detailed vote tally for these first-read actions beyond the clerk’s notation that items were taken "same house, same call." Implementation steps for the Concourse Garage financing will require execution of trust and lease documents and subsequent sale notices as listed in the ordinance text.

The transcript does not specify exact implementation dates or the department assigned to oversee the financing steps beyond the ordinance language authorizing the form and execution of required documents.