Our Legal Hassles
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 37° 48.560 W 122° 24.617
10S E 551909 N 4184824
This Historical Marker is one of many mounted on building walls along the upper level of Pier 39 on the San Francisco Embarcadero.
Waymark Code: WMJGEQ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/15/2013
Views: 8
Our Legal Hassles.
In 1975, when Pier 39 was nothing more than a graveyard for old refrigerators, the Port of San Francisco drew up a lease for Warren Simmons which would be executed if Simmons acquired the horde of permits necessary to actually build on the property.
The lease is almost an exact copy of another 1975 Port lease, this one given to Gerald Hines (Houston developer) for the development of Pier 45. Hines, foreseeing the permit problems, withdrew his proposal for Pier 45.
Simmons forged on, however. The Pier 39 lease was sent to the City Attorney's office and the City Property Manager for review and received no objections.
Three years later, when the refrigerator and auto graveyard had become an apparently successful complex of shops and restaurants, some people in high places decided that was the time to ask questions about the lease.
Pier 39 had been open only four months when we were hit by a barrage of investigations and lawsuits.
After twelve months of bitter negotiations and an incredible $5 million in expenses (legal fees and increased construction interest payments) Mayor Dianne Feinstein was compelled to intervene. Perhaps noting how much time and money the City Attorney's office had expended up to that point, she held a 5 hour negotiating session in her office where she prevailed upon all parties to settle before it went to court.