San Francisco PACE-SF Initiative

Growing San Francisco’s artisan design/manufacturing small business sector and creating local jobs.

The San Francisco PACE-SF Initiative is a set of local economic development activities focused on building the capacity of San Francisco’s artisan design/manufacturing sector and enriching the urban communities in which this sector continues to thrive in San Francisco, which include largely the disadvantaged communities in the historically industrial neighborhoods of the Eastern Neighborhoods. Pacific Community Ventures has a long history of working with and investing in manufacturing companies, in the Bay Area and in other parts of the State, as the manufacturing sector has proven to provide high quality jobs to a wide range of Californians. PCV is proud to be able to invest in our home city of San Francisco and in the artisan manufacturing sector it sustains as the non-profit fiscal sponsor of the San Francisco PACE-SF Initiative.

For more information on the San Francisco PACE-SF Initiative, contact Executive Director Kate Sofis at ksofis@urbaninnovationsf.org, or call 415-987-7004.

Current activities under this initiative are:

PACE-SF

The PACE-SF Community Benefit District

The San Francisco PACE-SF Community Benefits District (PACE-SF) is focused on economic-development in the primarily commercial/industrial parts of the Eastern Neighborhoods. The communities included in this initiative are the Northeast Mission, Showplace Square/Lower Potrero, and the Central Waterfront/Dogpatch. Economically, these communities are home to San Francisco’s artisan manufacturing and general production/distribution/repair (“PDR”) business sectors.

The communities that are the target of the PACE-SF Initiative are in transition, both economically and socially. These neighborhoods and San Francisco as a whole have seen a major economic shift over the past decade, as the mass-produced manufacturing and heavy industrial sectors have moved left the Bay Area. At the same time, the neighborhoods of the PACE-SF Initiative hold great promise to become a model for economic innovation and urban community for San Francisco. This district of San Francisco has some of the best infrastructure assets in the City. Large, flexible, and well-constructed historic industrial buildings with reasonable rents have helped cultivate an eclectic mix of artisanal design/manufacturing businesses across such industries as: product and industrial design; architecture and interior design; furniture and cabinet making; fine arts, theater, and dance; green construction; consumer products; and food and food processing. Housing is now integrated into many of the commercial blocks, leading to the emergence of true mixed-use neighborhoods. These communities hold the potential to support thriving local businesses that provide well-paying jobs to local residents from all walks of life. The PACE-SF communities are also entirely within San Francisco’s Enterprise Zone, reflecting the importance the City has placed on targeting economic development resources into these communities.

The PACE-SF will establish a local special assessments district - created and controlled by local property owners, small businesses, and residents - to support the economic and overall development of the neighborhoods within the District. Key planned programs of the PACE-SF include:

• Providing a “small business concierge” service designed to support local businesses
• Branding and marketing the neighborhoods and San Francisco more generally as a place for artisanal design/manufacturing
• Providing a platform through which the small businesses in these neighborhoods can have a unified voice around shared needs
• Presenting a coherent external identity on behalf of the communities for the purpose of economic development and neighborhood vitality
• Building liaisons with local workforce training programs and generally fostering the creation of jobs for local residents

To learn more about the San Francisco PACE-SF CBD, go to www.PACE-SF.org.

SFMade.org

SFMADE is a grassroots association established to promote San Francisco-based companies that manufacture consumer products within the San Francisco county limits. Business owners who actually make what they sell right here in San Francisco do so at greater expense, but do so for a variety of personal lifestyle and business branding reasons. SFMADE celebrates local, artisanal manufacturing and endorses the concept of “geographic ingredient branding” as an integral part of a product's value proposition and brand essence. SFMADE believes the history and values that make San Francisco such a special place – especially the celebration of diversity, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit – likewise differentiate SFMADE companies, their employees and their products.

The PACE-SF Initiative is collaborating with Rickshaw Bags and SFMade Founder Mark Dwight to promote the SFMADE brand and to grow this new and powerful association of local artisanal manufacturers.

To learn more about SFMade, go to www.sfmade.org.