A San Francisco business owner blames the city's high crime rate for his inability to refinance a loan needed to keep his company going.
Mark Sackett, an entrepreneur who owns a building in the South of Market (SoMa) section of the city, says 30 lenders have declined to help him refinance. Several have told him that they "are not making commercial real estate loans in San Francisco due to the state of the city."
"I'm just done with San Francisco and the bulls*** here," Sackett told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's out of control."
San Francisco police last month announced a new campaign to crack down on retail theft, the Los Angeles Times reported. A $15.3-million state grant to combat organized retail crime backed the initiative that involves deploying "blitz enforcement operations" that will involve teams of officers patrolling popular city shopping areas.
But that could be too little, too late for some business owners.
Sackett, whose company, The Box SF, includes an antiques shop and events venue, told the Chronicle that he's been unable to refinance a $2.5 million mortgage due in February. He blames widespread drug use, violence, and filthy streets in the neighborhood for his inability to address his loan.
He said he has reached out to city officials and they have ignored him.
"They don't even return my calls. They care about bike lanes, nonprofits, safe injection sites," he said. "They have just ignored small business."
Sackett's building is scheduled to be auctioned on Jan. 24 "at a massive loss," and he expects all his businesses will be forced to close, the Chronicle reported.
The owner added that antiques dating back to the 1800s could be sold off in an estate auction.
With a drug sobering center next to his building, Sackett said people smoke fentanyl at his building's loading dock.
He also told the Chronicle that his employees used pepper spray on four people trying to break in. Last year, someone attacked him with a knife.
His building currently has a broken window, which will cost about $4,000 to replace.
Not even a mural commissioned through a city grant and planters have improved the area, which still sees needles and feces strewn around.
Matt Dorsey, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, blames the COVID pandemic for negatively affecting the neighborhood.
"This is a neighborhood that was disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, especially in terms of the number of shelter-in-place hotels here, and the myriad public safety challenges attributable to open-air drug markets and public drug use," Dorsey said, the Chronicle reported.
"I'm optimistic that the neighborhood is beginning to see some progress. But for too many businesses like Mark's, we're just not recovering fast enough."