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Neil Mehta , the VC behind the accomplishment of a bowed stringed instrument of property on San Francisco ’s tony Fillmore Street , made wave earlier this hebdomad for reportedly throw long - established local restaurant to the curbing to impart in more high - goal retailer . The San Francisco Chronicle verbalise , for example , to the proprietor of Ten - Ichi , a neighborhood sushi restaurant for almost 50 year that now has to repeal its infinite next month . “ This is the opponent of what San Francisco does to long - full term , bequest business tenants , ” the eating place owner recite the mercantile establishment . “ This guy [ Mehta ] isdisplacing us . ”
Sources close to the low - fly Mehta paint a very different picture , however . They say that Mehta ’s very focus is on bringing a riches of restaurants to the area , and that he ’s even plan a kind of “ Y Combinator for eating house , ” enjoin one source .
According to this person , Mehta has a pretty grand vision for turn the roughly four - plus blocks he has quiet acquire over the last twelvemonth into an oasis where ambitious restaurant owners can afford to place up store , San Franciscans can detect a wealthiness of dining and shopping choices , and a 111 - year - sometime picture theater on the street is restored to its former gloriole and “ not turned into an Equinox . ”
reach for comment in the beginning this week , Mehta – who reportedly purchased a $ 17.6 million , 117 - class - old , 9,000 - square - foundation dwelling in 2022 just occlusion from his freshly acquired commercial properties – decline to talk on the disk , tell he does not speak with newsperson except on behalf of his portfolio company .
Up and to the right
Some of Mehta ’s plans were first report by The Information earlier this year in apiecethat for the most part delved into how Mehta , who is far less illustrious than many VCs , has so much money to invest in the first place .
It ’s been a riotous but steady rise for the 40 - yr - old . A graduate of the London School of Economics , Mehta was reportedly a star investor for an offshoot of the quantitative hedge fund D.E. Shaw before using his reputation and mesh to co - found his venture firm , Greenoaks Capital , back in 2010 .
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The San Francisco outfit , which raised its first institutional cap in 2015 , has since invested in some of the tech industriousness ’s buzziest privately held companies , including Stripe , Databricks , Rippling , and Canva – all of them now valued in the many billions of dollars by their backer .
Greenoaks is also an early investor in Wiz , a lesser - known cybersecurity startup until recently , when it reportedly turn down a$23 billionacquisition offer from Google . ( Wiz , it is deserving noting , was founded just four long time ago . )
Now Mehta is pouring some of those profits into Pacific Heights , the San Francisco neighbourhood where he for the most part grew up , via a $ 100 million nonprofit that he has established to fuel his shopping spree . The ostensible architectural plan is not only to remake Fillmore as a go - to dining destination but , as part of that process , tackle some of the violent tapeline that many draw a bead on restaurant owners face , as well as provide them lower rip – and even charge them a percent of revenue instead of rent in some cases – so that it ’s easier for these businesses to prosper .
Mehta , harmonise to friends , does n’t see his spring up holding conglomerate as yet another fiscal bet . They insist that his primary interest is in ensuring that his San Francisco neighborhood full rally from the pandemic , when harmonise to the commercial real estate services fellowship CBRE , roughly half the store on Fillmore Street for good closed . He ’s a “ adult believer in cities , ” says one source .
The moves are probable to cement his hazard either way .
For one thing , Mehta is mostly debar what are called “ pattern retailers , ” meaning party that have 11 or more locations around the human beings . While some are already in the mental process of find conditional manipulation permits , these take up to 12 month , which is why many stores on the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - run along street appear vacant currently . ( Other neighborhoods in San Francisco havebannedchain stores altogether . )
Why this matters : Mehta should benefit from100 changesto San Francisco ’s planning code that were overtake in December and that streamline the permitting outgrowth for independent businesses .
give his fiscal muscle , Mehta can afford to be selective about the businesses he wants to assist stand up , too , compared with the edifice ’ former , individual owners , who perhaps could less afford to be choosy about who pays the split .
Mehta is n’t buying his buildingson the tawdry . For exemplar , he get the street ’s dramatic art and an next retail building for $ 11 million , compare with the $ 4.8 million their late owner paid in 2008 . He paid $ 9.7 million for a separate , 7,300 - hearty - foot building , or $ 1,329 per square foot . Still , it ’s loose to see how all of the pieces – buying the buildings , leasing at below - market rates to minimise turnover – could make a more vibrant conniption that increases the note value of Mehta ’s properties over fourth dimension .
Alex Sagues , a senior frailty Chief Executive who leads CBRE ’s urban retail team in San Francisco , says many shopping districts succeed when map out cautiously . “ You do n’t want two coffee shops side by side , ” say Sagues . “ But you take a bakeshop and put in a coffee shop class next to it , and business organization can go up . ” Similarly , he says , “ every winery in Sonoma makes it more of a draw . ”
As for the high - end food that could soon be have everywhere on Fillmore Street , there ’s less of a jeopardy for cannibalization than one might imagine , says Sagues . “ People go for a specific experience . You ’re not testify up , then deciding between Mixt [ a salad restaurant ] or [ the three - Michelin - star restaurant ] Atelier Crenn . ” The more denseness a territorial dominion boasts , the more people issue forth , he adds .
Mehta ’s movement may already be bear upon the market .
Though Pacific Heights has long been among the most expensive and assay - after neighborhoods in San Francisco , home economic value dipped during the pandemic . Now , according to Redfin , the intermediate habitation terms in Pacific Heights is rising quickly again , reaching$2.25 millionin July . That ’s up 28.6 % class over yr .
