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by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA<\/a><\/strong> AUGUST 28, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Valencia-2-scaled-e1724829945603.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter<\/strong>, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n Valencia Street has long been a go-to place for San Franciscans seeking shops, music venues, restaurants, and bars \u2014 and a hot real estate location for businesses wanting to capitalize on that foot traffic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet there\u2019s one block of Valencia, between 16th and 17th streets, where six storefronts sit empty, a spot of blight in an otherwise boisterous stretch. A couple of sites have been vacant for months, others for years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The former Blu Dot<\/a> at 560 Valencia St. has been empty since the summer of 2022, and Chezchez<\/a> at 584 Valencia St. since early 2023. Arinell Pizza<\/a> at 509 Valencia St. has been shuttered since late 2022, and West of Pecos<\/a> at 550 Valencia St. since late 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also Five and Diamond<\/a>\u2019s space at 510 Valencia St., empty since January, and former Los Amigos<\/a>\u2019 space at 530 Valencia St., empty since June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the block that we are focusing the most on right now. It\u2019s the block I am putting most of my time and energy in as president,\u201d said Manny Yekutiel, the head of the Valencia Merchants Association, whose namesake cafe is at Valencia and 16th. \u201cIt\u2019s also a block that I feel pretty optimistic about. It\u2019s got a lot of amazing bones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the area has gone through a rough patch, its future looks bright: Mission Local has learned that several new storefronts will be opening on the block in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former West of Pecos space will become a northern Indian restaurant as soon as this week. The name of the restaurant: Apna Chulha, the name for a clay oven in Urdu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Down the block at 584 Valencia, near 17th Street, Slanted Door will make a return home after more than two decades away from its birthplace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe called it the Slanted Door because the door at 584 Valencia was actually slanted,\u201d said Anh Duong, a marketing representative for the restaurant. \u201cExcited to go back to our original location. That\u2019s where executive chef and founder Charles Phan maxed out all of his family\u2019s credit cards to open his first restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The San Francisco Standard<\/em> was first to report<\/a> the reopening. Slanted Door is expected to open next spring. That building, along with 582 and 580 Valencia, is still owned by the Phan family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Near 16th Street, the former Arinell Pizza will be taken over by Panchitas, the popular Salvadoran late-night spot around the corner at 3091 16th St., according to a building permit filed on June 3. The permit notes the creation of an \u201caccessible path of travel\u201d between the two locations, but the exact plans are unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 560 Valencia St., meanwhile, the owner of the old Blu Dot\u2019s space is looking for pop-ups to come in, before a cannabis dispensary already approved at the location opens next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Raw Sugar Factory<\/a>, which also operates Krua Thai at the same location at 525 Valencia St., will be fully relocating across the street to 530 Valencia St. \u2014 formerly Los Amigos \u2014 by the end of next month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, for all the good news, Yekutiel said that a post-pandemic drop in tourism is hitting Valencia harder than most commercial corridors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cValencia, statistically, is one of the corridors that has recovered slowest,\u201d Yekutiel said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ted Egan, the city\u2019s chief economist, confirmed<\/a> the slow recovery last June. At the time, he said it was the corridor\u2019s focus on family apparel, which he called the \u201csingle weakest\u201d industry in the city. That, plus an exodus of young people who drink and dine out and are often the lifeblood of the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those trends, Yekutiel said, have caused \u201cthe heart and soul of Valencia Street\u201d to experience more empty storefronts than would be ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mission Local spoke to employees, managers, brokers and city representatives about what may have caused the spaces to sit empty. The reasons they offer are more numerous than the number of vacant businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To a large degree, Valencia Street\u2019s situation mirrors San Francisco\u2019s as a whole. \u201cThere\u2019s a scarcity of tenants in San Francisco. That\u2019s the problem,\u201d said David Noravian, an investment sales broker and the founder of Beckett Capital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Noravian said San Francisco\u2019s street conditions have received hypercritical press, especially during the pandemic, which may have hurt the ability of corridors like Valencia to draw new merchants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Danielle Benoit, an employee at Therapy Stores<\/a> at 545 Valencia St., agreed that a decrease in tourists is hurting business. This year, however, Benoit said more people have been out and about, and sales are reflecting that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome feel a little lost with their business right now,\u201d said Benoit. \u201cBut people are coming back. It\u2019s so important to support small businesses. It means so much to us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Michelle Reynolds, the spokesperson for the Office of Small Business, said leasing activity throughout the city is reaching pre-pandemic levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, in the first two quarters of this year there have been a total of 262 retail, industrial and flex leases \u2014 those that can be shorter than a year \u2014 across the city. In comparison, there were 316 during the same period in 2018 and 254 in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Scotty McDade, the bartender at Casanova, at 527 Valencia St., the area\u2019s problems come down to the bike lane. The center-running lane, which was installed last summer and has become the b\u00eate noire<\/a> of Valencia merchants, has made traffic on the street \u201ca nightmare,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe traffic build-up on 16th and Valencia is awful,\u201d he said. \u201cAny car turning east on 16th Street has to wait for all foot traffic, and that\u2019s usually the first car in line. So only one or two cars get through per light cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since its inception in summer 2023, the center bike lane pilot program has been a sore spot, with at least seven merchants filing claims against the city<\/a> in the first quarter of the year. At the time, the owners said business was down 30 to 50 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Data released<\/a> by the San Francisco controller\u2019s office last December showed a drop of six percent in sales-tax receipts in the second quarter of 2023, just a month into the construction of the bike lane. The office released<\/a> numbers early this year that showed sales-tax revenue from the stretch between 15th and 23th streets \u2014 where the bike lane runs \u2014 was up by 3.2 percent compared to the same period in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diana Portillo has been working in the area for three years, most recently at Often Wander<\/a> at 593 Valencia St. She has seen many places go out of business, and thinks the bike lane is a scapegoat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to blame the bike lane because it\u2019s new,\u201d said Portillo. \u201cI\u2019ve heard the rent is really expensive here, so it could also be the economy that we\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evidently, however, it\u2019s not scaring off newcomers. The corridor saw the addition of Italian restaurant Barberio<\/a> at 557 Valencia last September, just six months after the previous occupant, Ancora, shut down. Stonemill Matcha<\/a> also reopened late last year at 561 Valencia barely four months after initially closing its doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This recovery in the block is something that Yekutiel celebrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not concerned about the long-term economic health of Valencia Street,\u201d he said. \u201cValencia Street will continue to be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n oscar.palma@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oscar is a reporter with interest in environmental and community journalism, and how these may intersect. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.More by Oscar Palma<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Slanted Door returns, Panchitas expands, new Indian restaurant Apna Chulha opens \u2014 the block is looking up by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA AUGUST 28, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up Valencia Street has long been a go-to place for… Continue reading <\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"August](\"https:\/\/cdn.broadstreetads.com\/assets\/b5a545b4-b7f3-4017-9d44-77ff67af60a0.gif\")
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