Staff Correspondence - #26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Exhibit 21:City Council Questions to Applicant from September 17, 2024 Hearing While Related would consider a for-sale component on the project were Related purchasing the project site in fee simple, for the salient reasons described above, Related Bristol has not proposed any for-sale homes at this time. Following receipt of the Applicant’s response, the City has added the following additional information for the City Council’s consideration: The Ad Hoc Committee discussed the challenges that the project presented because the property will continue to be owned by the underlying owners, not Related. These challenges impacted negotiations related to the open space, the value of the land and ultimately the amount of the community benefit payment and recordation of the DA against the property. 3. Will the new grocery store be a Vons store or one of similar quality that is associated with union labor? Applicant’s response: Pursuant to the Development Agreement, Related has committed to include a full-scale grocer of at least 35,000 square feet within the first two phases of the project. Related understands that the full-scale grocer is important to the immediate community and we are committed to including one in the Project. We are prepared and committed to engage with Vons, the existing onsite grocer, to extend their existing lease as soon as the project is approved. We are grateful that Vons has expressed early interest in the new project and has supported our project in writing and verbally in the past, most recently at the th City Council hearing on September 17. As construction of the full-scale grocer retail space nears completion, Related will solicit interest from various grocer operators, including the Albertsons Corporation which owns Vons. Related welcomes a Vons, Albertson, Ralphs, or a similar operator, and will solicit their respective interests once there is an actual space and design for them to consider. While Related welcomes the interest of union grocers, Related, as the Ground Lessor, is not involved nor can we dictate whether or not such grocer operator is union or non-union, or which grocer brand they wish to operate. If the project’s grocer was required to be union, and such a union grocer wasn’t interested or we were unable to reach a mutually agreeable lease, the Project would not be able to fulfill our obligation to the Community to include a full-scale grocer and the Project would risk being in legal default of the Development Agreement. This exact scenario occurred on another project in San Francisco more than twenty years ago and the developer ultimately sued the City and won. We want to structure Related Bristol for success and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The build-out of this project will occur over a decade and no one can predict what the state of the rapidly-changing grocery landscape will look like when the new store is ready to be occupied. Page 3 of 3