Historic SF Flower Market ready for 'next phase'
Article and Photos Courtesy of San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Flower Market is spending its final months in its longtime home as it prepares to move to a smaller space — with fewer vendors — elsewhere in The City.
If all goes according to plan, the San Francisco Flower Market will relocate from its longtime location in the South of Market neighborhood to a new home in Potrero Hill on Dec. 27. The outgrowth of a long running effort to redevelop its current site, the move has drawn controversy over the years. In December, the San Francisco Flower Market’s new digs at 901 16th St. will house two-thirds of its current vendors in its 125,000-square-foot space.
The market’s history in The City dates back to 1912, when Bay Area farmers would cut their product and bring it to Lotta’s Fountain at Market and Kearny streets. It has occupied the location at 6th and Brannan streets since 1956. The location, which includes two warehouses and a parking lot featuring storefronts, spans some 1.5 million square feet.
Jeanne Boes, the SF Flower Market’s general manager and chief operating officer, told The Examiner that the 100-year-old institution was initially slated to return to the SoMa neighborhood after developer Kilroy Realty Group turned the land into a mixed-use development. But she said market organizers realized that changes coming to the neighborhood would challenge their operations.
“It’s very hard to do what we do, because everything comes in on vehicles and everything goes out on vehicles,” Boes said. “We don’t just come to work and sit and then go home. It’s a constant flow of people and goods.”
Boes said the vendors’ need to constantly move product has necessitated the market’s departure. Officials worked with the market and Kilroy management to renegotiate a deal involving a one-move option, eventually settling for the 16th Street site in Potrero Hill, which previously was the location of subsequently scrapped housing plans.
Willy Neve, one of the market’s oldest florists, said he started working with flowers when the market called the intersection of Fifth and Howard streets home. Neve lauded the market’s longtime location for its accessibility, as it is close to the Bay Bridge, Interstate 280 and Highway 101. The market’s easy connections to San Francisco International Airport allows vendors to supply flowers from around the world.
Of the 40 wholesale flower vendors currently in the market, 27 will move to the new Potrero Hill location. Boes said that the 13 vendors who aren’t moving decided to retire, citing old age or the new location’s size not being conducive to their operations.
The Potrero Hill space includes 160 parking spaces, as well as modern amenities such as air conditioning. Boes told The Examiner that existing vendors were in the process of moving into the new location. Once they’ve made the move, Boes said, spaces will open for a waitlist of applicants.
Neve said the new site’s layout would bring the market’s members “all together, not spread out like we are now.”
Having already toured the Potrero Hill property, wholesaler and floral designer Raul Dueñas told The Examiner that he was excited for the move, lauding the 16th Street space’s architecture, functionality and design.
An employee of Rafa Wholesaler, Dueñas said he had seen the company become one of the market’s three biggest wholesalers.
“It’s just a part of history, that we’re gonna leave that legacy behind here,” Dueñas said. “Everybody’s ready for a new era. Everything evolves in life. We’re ready for that.”
Albert Filipelli, a third-generation wholesale florist specializing in wreaths and garlands, said that he would be moving into the warehouse along with the vendors for the first time in his career, thanks in part to the move. The San Francisco Flower Market’s current location consists of two warehouses, storefronts in a parking lot, and an annex building that was bought in the mid-1980s, which extends all the way to Fifth Street. Filipelli has been working in the parking lot at the current location. After initially doing so alongside his father, he took over their company and now oversees wreathmaking for clients that include Grace Cathedral.
“It’ll be a nice change to be in there amongst everybody,” Filipelli said.
As one of five wholesale-owned flower markets left in the country, San Francisco Flower Market officials said they are determined to make the most of their time left at the space while looking ahead to a new chapter. More than 4,000 companies are registered badgeholders with the market’s vendors, allowing them to make wholesale purchases or take advantage of exclusive offers during the market’s trading hours. The property is also open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., which Boes said allows guests to “make it an experience for them — but it also helps the market because the product that’s not bought, they can buy up.”
Louie Figone, a dahlia grower from Half Moon Bay, said he starts his mornings by loading up a truckful of plants that are then sold at the market. Though being in the floral business has its ups and downs, Figone said, the connections he’s forged with customers at the market has made being in the industry worthwhile.
“Customers want to buy local, and they want to talk to the grower,” he said.
With time winding down, Boes said that the Flower Market is already ruminating on a Potrero Hill kickoff event that would act as a welcome to the new neighborhood. Before that, organizers said, they also want to host a final SoMa open house in December, which will allow workers and customers to bid farewell to its longtime home in between operating hours.
“Everyone can come back and say goodbye, have a good cry,” she said. “Then, we’ll move onto our next phase.”