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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.<\/p>\n
That time, however, is coming to an end.<\/p>\n
Navarro\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1965, Navarro\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school is not just about karate and martial arts. It\u2019s a community,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cIt helps children and adults against drugs and crime. I have seen members move from being \u2018C\u2019 students to \u2018A\u2019 students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navarro explained that he and his family business are victims of San Francisco\u2019s commercial rental policy, which doesn\u2019t include rent control protections. Thus, the building\u2019s owner was able to raise the rent from $1,800 to $6,500.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t blame the building\u2019s owner because she is not breaking any laws, but at the same time, we cannot afford to pay that type of rent,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cWe 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<\/p>\n
The building\u2019s current owner, Alice Tse, purchased the property in Nov. 2014.<\/p>\n
When Tse increased the rent she said she did not want to involve attorneys, preferring instead to buy her tenants out.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s tenancy.<\/p>\n
District 9 Supervisor David Campos has intervened on behalf of the Navarro family, but his attempts haven\u2019t been successful in convincing Tse.<\/p>\n
Protecting legacy business<\/strong><\/p>\n Campos is sponsoring a ballot initiative with supervisors John Avalos, Eric Mar, and Jane Kim to create a \u201cLegacy Business Historic Preservation Fund,\u201d 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\u2019 landlords with grants.<\/p>\n In March, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the nation\u2019s 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\u2019s history or culture.<\/p>\n [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\u2019s only appropriate that we also help our treasured legacy businesses.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2013District 9 David Campos[\/su_pullquote]<\/p>\n 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\u2019s number of full-time employees. Businesses are eligible for an annual grant of $500 per employee, with a cap at 100 employees.<\/p>\n The second part is a rent stabilization fund, which provides incentives for the building\u2019s 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\u2014capped at 5,000 square feet\u2014if he or she provides a lease of 10 or more years to the legacy business.<\/p>\n The fiscal impact of the first year would be approximately $2.1 to $3.7 million, said Campos.<\/p>\n 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 \u201castronomical rent increases.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line is this. We helped companies like Twitter be in San Francisco,\u201d Campos said. \u201cAnd if we can do that for those large corporate players, it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n At the hearing, Supervisor Katy Tang lobbied for legislation that would also protect newer businesses in addition to legacy ones.<\/p>\n Navarro\u2019s daughter Rubie argued that the new businesses would not be able to exist and continue to survive without the legacy businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cIf my father\u2019s business of over 50 years cannot be safe, then whose business in San Francisco is safe from rent extortion?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Navarro\u2019s Academy of Martial Arts & Bodybuilding Gym, has had its rent increased 300% and will be forced out on Sept. 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":27872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[6201,6203,6207,6205,6199,3631],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-27866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-alice-tse","tag-carlos-navarro","tag-gentrifaction","tag-legacy-business-historic-preservation-fund","tag-navarros-academy-of-martial-arts-bodybuilding-gym","tag-proposition-j","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n