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For decades, Carlos Navarro has dedicated himself to his craft and his community, teaching martial arts out of his gymnasium while providing a recreational space for those who needed it most.

That time, however, is coming to an end.

Navarro’s Academy of Martial Arts & Bodybuilding Gym, which has been in business for 50 years (43 of them at its current location at 3470 Mission St.), will be forced out on Sept. 20 due to a massive rent increase.

Founded in 1965, Navarro’s Academy has been heavily involved in the community, with a body of work that includes partnerships with Senator Dianne Feinstein, former mayors Willie Brown, Joseph Alioto, George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk.

“The school is not just about karate and martial arts. It’s a community,” Navarro said. “It helps children and adults against drugs and crime. I have seen members move from being ‘C’ students to ‘A’ students.”

Navarro explained that he and his family business are victims of San Francisco’s commercial rental policy, which doesn’t include rent control protections. Thus, the building’s owner was able to raise the rent from $1,800 to $6,500.

“I don’t blame the building’s owner because she is not breaking any laws, but at the same time, we cannot afford to pay that type of rent,” Navarro said. “We do not charge high prices because we want to be able to give back to the community and lead our youth on the right path for the future

The building’s current owner, Alice Tse, purchased the property in Nov. 2014.

When Tse increased the rent she said she did not want to involve attorneys, preferring instead to buy her tenants out.

But Navarro said he received a letter from her attorney the very next day, and a visit from the attorney the day after that. Navarro has hired his own attorney and is preparing to ask for an extension on the gym’s tenancy.

District 9 Supervisor David Campos has intervened on behalf of the Navarro family, but his attempts haven’t been successful in convincing Tse.

Protecting legacy business

Campos is sponsoring a ballot initiative with supervisors John Avalos, Eric Mar, and Jane Kim to create a “Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund,” which will appear on the November ballot as Proposition J. Proposition J is aimed at helping businesses with more than 30 years of existence stay in San Francisco by providing the businesses and the businesses’ landlords with grants.

In March, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the nation’s first legacy business registry. To be included on the registry businesses must be 30 years or older, have been nominated by the mayor or a member of the Board of Supervisors and be able to prove that they have impacted their neighborhood’s history or culture.

[su_pullquote align=”left”]The bottom line is this. We helped companies like Twitter be in San Francisco. And if we can do that for those large corporate players, it’s only appropriate that we also help our treasured legacy businesses.

–District 9 David Campos[/su_pullquote]

The preservation fund creates incentives to preserve businesses on the registry. The fund has two parts. The first part is creating a historic legacy business preservation account that will provide annual grants to legacy businesses based on the business’s number of full-time employees. Businesses are eligible for an annual grant of $500 per employee, with a cap at 100 employees.

The second part is a rent stabilization fund, which provides incentives for the building’s owners. Approximately 75 percent of legacy businesses rent their properties, and the fund would offer the owners incentives to provide the businesses with long-term leases. The owner would be eligible, for example, for an annual grant of about $4.50 per square foot—capped at 5,000 square feet—if he or she provides a lease of 10 or more years to the legacy business.

The fiscal impact of the first year would be approximately $2.1 to $3.7 million, said Campos.

At a July hearing, Campos addressed the importance of the legacy business registration, citing that the city is losing the character of some of its neighborhoods and that one of the reasons that it is changing is because longstanding, successful businesses are closing due to “astronomical rent increases.”

“The bottom line is this. We helped companies like Twitter be in San Francisco,” Campos said. “And if we can do that for those large corporate players, it’s only appropriate that we also help our treasured legacy businesses and nonprofits that have given character to our neighborhoods, that we give them a fighting chance to stay in San Francisco.”

At the hearing, Supervisor Katy Tang lobbied for legislation that would also protect newer businesses in addition to legacy ones.

Navarro’s daughter Rubie argued that the new businesses would not be able to exist and continue to survive without the legacy businesses.

“If my father’s business of over 50 years cannot be safe, then whose business in San Francisco is safe from rent extortion?” she said.