Since earlier this year, the future of the San Francisco Flower Mart has been unclear. Kilroy Realty, the developers who bought the land where the Flower Mart is located earlier this year had an agreement that they would keep Flower Mart around one way or another. And according to Curbed, Kilroy revealed their creative plans to protect the floral shopping center at a press conference yesterday morning.
The company would like to construct an underground market of flowers that the current vendors could move into and remain open for business inside, while the new office building above them is built. Kilroy has committed $80 million to build the underground flower warehouse and is offering current Flower Mart businesses five-year leases at their current rental rates in the new subterranean space.
The new, deeper Flower Mart is set to be completed in 2018 and would only be 20,000 square feet smaller with a small area for flower sales at ground level as well. Although this all sounds good, not everyone is happy and people like former Mayor Art Agnos promise to block the plan with a ballot measure in the future, leaving lovers of the Flower Mart only tentatively optimistic.
[Via: Curbed, photo by dutchybaby]
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