Furber connected with SF New Deal, the nonprofit that runs it, after seeing it mentioned on Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s Instagram<\/a> account. She went from an intro conversation to signing a lease within a whirlwind few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n She has committed to three months at the shopping center but has the option to extend.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes the fear out of taking the leap of opening a store,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel very optimistic that it will give me the information I need to make a decision about whether having a city store is the right thing for me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Her landlord, BXP, has partnered with several other Vacant to Vibrant tenants at the sprawling Embarcadero Center complex in the past, including Devil\u2019s Teeth Bakery and Whack Donuts. As San Francisco\u2019s largest office landlord, BXP has said<\/a> that it cares more about energizing the area for its corporate tenants than it does about charging market-rate rent for retail space right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Devil\u2019s Teeth and Whack Donuts are Vacant to Vibrant success stories, signing on to stay in the building after their pop-up leases expired. Since the program launched in 2023, it has shepherded more than 30 small businesses into spaces downtown. Of those, 23 are currently open, and 10 have signed long-term leases. SF New Deal brought the concept to the Inner Sunset this summer<\/a> and is fundraising to expand to other neighborhoods. The model\u2019s success has spurred a copycat initiative (opens in new tab)<\/a> in downtown Los Angeles.\u00a0 (opens in new tab)<\/a><\/p>\n Since the initiative\u2019s debut, \u201crents are changing, and the available spaces are changing,\u201d said SF New Deal\u2019s executive director, Simon Bertrang. Instead of launching nearly a dozen pop-ups at once<\/a>, like it did originally, the program plans to roll out new business openings sporadically as it plays matchmaker between property owners and entrepreneurs. Small businesses \u201care rewriting the story\u201d of downtown, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition to Vacant to Vibrant, San Francisco\u2019s battle against vacant commercial spaces includes \u201cstorefront opportunity grants\u201d (opens in new tab)<\/a> dispensed through the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Downtown Business Fund (opens in new tab)<\/a>, which is spearheaded by a Lurie-aligned nonprofit.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n For Furber, not having to worry about permits or leasing allows her to focus on executing her vision for the shop. She wants it to embody a French kitchen aesthetic, selling products one would need to host a tr\u00e8s chic dinner party, from hand-dyed napkins and serving dishes to a midcentury modern sofa draped in yellow wool. \u201cWe\u2019ll have everything you need for entertaining.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She has started spreading the news to customers that they\u2019ll be able to choose between the Concord store and the SF location.<\/p>\n \u201cConcord feels like Mars when you\u2019re living in Marin,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing more accessible is a big part of the appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During two weeks of frenzied treasure hunting through the south of France in June, Laurie Cain Furber filled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[32135,36210,143,145,144,9913,1969,4823],"class_list":["post-493549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-boom-loop","tag-cool-factory","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pop-ups","tag-retail","tag-small-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Five](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791812415_465_-S3840x3840-FPNG.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791812416_170_-S3840x2880-FPNG.png\"\/)
Laurie Cain Furber will open her store inside One Embarcadero Center. | Source: Courtesy of Laurie Cain Furber<\/p>\n![\"Seven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791812417_439_-S3840x5120-FPNG.png\"\/)
Elsie Green will have made-to-order furniture and | Source: Courtesy of Elsie Green<\/p>\n