City Survey<\/a> results showing that trips downtown for dining, shopping, and work all increased between 2023 and 2026. City officials and business leaders said they want to see this revitalization include the Tenderloin.<\/p>\nA joint press release from Mahmood\u2019s office and the MMBA said the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation, Proper Hotel Group and Chris Larsen committed $500,000 in initial seed funding toward this revitalization effort.<\/p>\n
Fernando Pujals, executive director of the Mid-Market Business Association, said that the pilot project will lean into the neighborhood\u2019s \u201ccreative infrastructure and its history\u201d as a theater and arts district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look back at the turn of the century, post earthquake and fire, some of the first buildings that were still standing or built, were theaters along Market Street,\u201d Pujals said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261014_TenderloinTheater_GC-5-KQED-cc711cd2.jpg\")
The Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco on Oct. 14, 2026.\u00a0(Gina Castro\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Pujals said that there are 15,000 live performance seats between the ACT\u2019s Strand\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theater, the Golden Gate Theater, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the Orpheum and the Warfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district brings in a million visitors a year, Mahmood said, but the city is \u201csquandering\u201d the potential economic impact of these visits by not \u201cfully investing in the theater arts district.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initial seed funding aims to change this, by turning vacant storefronts into cultural spaces or workshops, adding interactive lighting to streets, installing more street art and putting on more pop-up shows, according to the press release. It also said their goal is to create \u201ca district that stays active before, between and after performances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pujals said they\u2019ve already started investing in some of this \u201cconnective tissue\u201d through their busker program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the goals of the pilot is to find ways to get new businesses into ground floor storefronts, which Pujals said has been a challenge \u2014 \u201ccosts are high.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Pujals, many of the ground floor spaces have large floor plans, making them impractical for small businesses. Some spaces that have been empty for a while can come with additional expenses required to bring the building up to code, while other properties are \u201cleveraged extensively\u201d so landlords need to collect high rents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mahmood said that getting tenants into these spaces and investing in the arts will not only increase foot traffic but will also improve safety in the Tenderloin. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s kind of two birds with one stone, the more foot traffic and activation you create, the less public safety elements and risks exist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Mahmood, this kind of investment has worked in other places like Boston, Denver and even in the city\u2019s UN Civic Center Plaza.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261014_TenderloinTheater_GC-4-KQED-1f68b596.jpg\")
The Taylor Street Theater in San Francisco on Oct. 14, 2026.\u00a0(Gina Castro\/KQED)<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years ago, UN Plaza was also a hub for the open-air drug market,\u201d Mahmood said. \u201cThrough coordinated public safety enforcement, combined with turning that into a skate park and then chess tables and an open gym, we\u2019ve transformed UN Plaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Market Street may not be getting a skate park, but Pujals said that there are already new stores on the way, including Mi Cocina, slated for a grand opening later this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This Saturday, Oct. 17, the city and its partners will be putting on the Market Street Arts &\u00a0<\/p>\n
Theater Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mahmood said the festival will demonstrate \u201cwhat this quarter could look like if every theater was activated at the same time\u201d with shows happening every day of the week \u2014 \u201cJust like Broadway in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first step involves a pilot project on the 900 block of Market Street, with plans like turning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-497109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497109","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=497109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n