A little help

City-backed loans offer Third Street businesses a shot at survival.

By Deborah Giattina

AT FIRST GLANCE, the stretch of Third Street between Jerrold Street and the Bayview Opera House, on Third at Oakdale, doesn't look like prime commercial real estate. Many of the storefronts are shuttered. Those actually open for business could definitely use some sprucing up.

But as we point out elsewhere in this issue, the forces of development are headed down the Third Street light-rail line.

And before Starbucks gets the memo that the Bayview is the next hot spot for chain stores, the Mayor's Office of Community Development is giving matching grants and loans to help the merchants of Third Street make over their facades with fresh paint and new and improved signage.

Overall, the MOCD is spending $1 million on the upgrade, with half of the funds coming in the form of low-interest loans from Wells Fargo Bank.

The improvement plan is timed to coincide with the imminent operation of the light-rail line, which, by early next year, will connect the long-underserved neighborhood to downtown, and the erection of new housing.

"We realize that there are going to be other businesses looking to locate on that corridor now that the transportation improvements are there," says Albert Lerma, director of the MOCD's Small Business Loans program, at his office at 25 Van Ness Ave. "Our first push is to retain the existing businesses." According to Lerma, the program currently has 10 businesses in the pipeline, including Wendy and Daughters cheesecake shop (4942 Third St. 415-822-4959), G. Mazzei and Sons' Hardware (5166 Third St. 415-822-2655), and the cluster of shops owned by John Aghedo: Osa's Market (4900 Third St. 415-822-0745), the 99 Cents Store next door (4910 Third St. 415-822-7713) – where everything really is that cheap – and the Bayview Barber College (4912 Third St. 415-822-3300).

With Asian Neighborhood Design working on the plans, the MOCD will provide $5,000 in matching grants to help businesses repair or replace doors, awnings, and exterior lighting. Those without the capital to meet the MOCD grants can apply for a loan.

"One of the things we're asking is that these businesses have upwards of two to three years left on their leases," says Lerma. "We don't want somebody to invest in a storefront and then their lease runs out and next month they're out there on the street."

Monika Hudson, director of the Bayview Business Resource Center (3801 Third St., Ste. 616. 415-647-3728), isn't dead set against chain stores. In fact, she says her organization can help neighborhood landowners on the same block come together to lease space to larger retailers.

At the same time, it's the BBRC's mission to help local residents both maintain and start their own businesses. "Some of the small businesses on Third Street have no more than a handshake [lease] deal," she says.

Bayview residents can also come to the BBRC, which works closely with the MOCD to help businesses gain approval for city loans, to get the skills and tools they need to operate a business. Part of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, which serves the whole city, the BBRC has a computer lab, business classes, and a conference room. Entrepreneurs like seamstresses and tailors, who often operate out of their home, can make use of services like Federal Express drop-offs and pickups and voice mail. Currently, the center is working to set up the San Francisco Center for Traditional Midwifery (6301 Third St., second fl. 415-468-2650), which will provide prenatal care to neighborhood women, who in the past have had difficulty accessing health care facilities in other parts of the city.

Dwayne Robinson, executive director of the Bayview Barber College for the past eight years, is in the application process for a facade improvement and is working with the BBRC to help his business roll with the times. Though most of the college's clients are African American, he trains his students to cut all types of hair. If he meets approval through the Resource Center, he'll be eligible for more loans to make improvements on the interior of his business, and perhaps invest in more supplies and newer equipment.

Looking toward the future and the inevitable influx of wealthier residents, Robinson, a bright and enthusiastic young man who backed Newsom and worked on a committee to provide input during the early stages of the light-rail project, agrees with Hudson that a little bit of corporate business might be good for the community. Nevertheless, he sees as an ideal the kind of neighborhood activism that kept the Inner Sunset's Ninth Avenue and Irving Street commercial corridor bustling with art galleries and cafés. "They fought like hell," he says, "to keep corporate America out."