Event:2024/07/02 CAST

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CAST community intro Meeting - 2 July 2024 6pm-7pm

Foreclosure deadline is August 7 - 5 weeks from now!

Participants: 12 people in Omni basement + 21 people on Zoom, including Ken, Shreya and Tyese from CAST

  • Shreya - want to introduce what CAST is as an org, and role in partnership with the Omni. There will be more opportunities to connect, just fyi this is just our first time connecting in this way.
  1. begin by active listening
  2. make space, take space
  3. engage tension, dont indulge drama
  4. appreciate, respect, and learn from the circle
  • Shreya - CAST is a community centered real estate organization for artists and cultural workers in the bay area.
  • Tyese - no formal agreement to partner at this time, only here to stave off foreclosure. not the arbiters here. At this moment we are commited to being available for weekly drop hours until this process ends.
  • Ken - did my first site visit on jan 22, since then been on a sprint. Not here for ownership or to run things, but there are phases to work in, and phase right now is staving off foreclosure. As of today, Community Bank of the Bay was just purchased, and are going to review by their parent bank. Fastest they have ever done a loan was 45 days, hopefully they can embrace the 30 day window we need. Another option (?) is a recoverable grant, which is a grant that they want returned. This doesn't require board approval or finance team at the foundation, so can go through faster. Submitting that proposal tomorrow morning. This is just for the purchase price to Mulberry ($870k). But with the bank we are pitching a $1.3 million loan to also fund TIs (tenant improvements/any rehabilitating work needed to be done to the site). Another person interested was introduced by Patrik (actually Theresa), but in that case its a 10 year runway of borrowing (recoverable grant would only be 1yr - stopgap measure! Bank loan would be approximately 5 years). Majority of other candidates we talked to wanted ownership, but we are not interested in that. There's a possibility of shifting focus if we can't secure the funds. Not the topic today, but may have to do that later on.
  • Ken - Another option for the community to pay back the loan is through the Creative Cities Fund. This fund is a 1% federally insured savings account with Community Bank of the Bay, bank will lend back to Omni at 3% (Mulberry loan was 5.5%). Can start this tomorrow. (contributors put in money, held for 5 years, with 1% return. Omni can access that money dollar for dollar at 3% interest).
  • John J - how much is roof going to cost?
    • Ken - dont have a vendor assessment, but we ballparked $400k for the roof, bathroom. Earmarked $100,000 for on site manager. I can get more specific numbers for you, but all this done by contractors
  • Eddy - wondering if we could make a plan to install solar on the roof
    • Ken - all of those things would come into play once we have building secured
  • John J - I'm from wood st commons, was an encampment for 5 years. We are working on affordable housing project, and one of the key components in interviewing developers, is when money used to get people employed, first we go to community, of course with professionals leading the way. Just wondering, when you are looking to do improvements, are you wanting to get unhoused involved? Omni is a hub where people get food and support. a lot of times we don't involve the people living around us when we could
    • Ken - rule of thumb on how we operate, is that if you are not licensed and insured to do the work, you don't. After that, we are not workplace development, but when we are doing construction, all our vendors are local, value system, also practically. But with roof repair, we'd go to a contractor. But its on all you to decide what you do beyond that.
    • (omni member) - when you are talking about finishing stuff, I have a lot of knowledge there because my dad is a contractor, wondering since its not structural, can volunteers get involved in that?
    • Ken - initially, the budget we are forecasting is really modest, just to do necessary repairs make the space ready to operate. That question is more about how you operate further down the road. How do you want to operate this space? Maybe 30% done by folks in omni?... we dont have a position on that, but certain things that must be done by professionals for insurance reasons. But absolutely, a lot of our projects we work with have volunteers. This question you asked should be for whoever is leading this space.
  • (omni member) - I'm a veteran teacher at skyline high school, and my personal goals are to try and create standard driven activities that could make this a field trip venue, and there is money connecting into STEAM and science, which absolutely Omni Commons does. Willing to volunteer my time for the academic elements.
    • Ken - my quick reaction is I agree, but that's more a question back to you. What is the space that's imagined, how does that benefit individuals and the community?
    • Ramy - sorry I didnt catch name of former teacher, but on building and operations side, I think its a great revenue stream, Omni is great resource. In past in CCL have had issues with insurance and children coming in space. We would want to figure that out upstream if that's an intention
    • Ken - part of idea of having a onsite manager is to support this, permits etc. Our goal in this transition is to help in problem solving, like in cases like this
  • Philip - do you know how soon you will get responses from financers? Because we need to know when to go with other options
    • Ken - good question. In the next 7 days, if we dont have a move toward paperwork from foundation or the bank, Id open up the gates. This will come down to the wire even if we have the green light. Ultimately we just want to see this place preserved. We can help with whoever else would be coming in, or step aside. But yea lets commit to Tuesday 6PM next week for us to give back an update to you all.
  • Mark - Im a designer, so naturally thinking about building improvements. Do you have a process in place for how decisions are made?
    • Ken - structural design work, I think should be a community decision. But the immediate tenant improvement phase, is to get necessities closed up.
    • Mark - ;ike for example, does fixing a bathroom mean replacing the toilet? Or replacing the floors and walls, etc.?
    • Ken - I had an early conversation with Peter Mui about this, once we secure the building, we can reimagine everything. But getting to a place where we can identify how people enter the building, when it opens and closes, will require some swift decisions. Not forever decisions. Example, early on, is we will fix the door. Been here 4 times now, and its always been a struggle. We will make some changes but they are not forever. Nice long list, clearly it will involve more than the immediate borrowing
  • Starbuck - what do you think are the chances that the building will not be foreclosed and auctioned off?
    • Ken - the window we are rushing is to pull it off before it goes to auction.
    • Starbuck - like should i be calling my friends that you all are going to hate to try and fund this?
    • William - those calls can be made outside of CAST. But also with CAST, you can direct them to that savings account
    • Starbuck - that sounds cool, but the quiet part of that, is then that money goes to someone else?
    • Ken - no, it doesn't. The money is dollar for dollar
    • Starbuck - what happens to the money if we end up foreclosed on?
    • Ken - if the money was wired in, itd get wired back out in 24 hours. There are also ways to take out money early with a penalty. Traditional bank, very cut and dry contract.
    • William - also options for partial funding.
  • Paige - would CAST help us if the funding doesnt come in, and we end up wanting to sell the building before foreclosure?
    • Ken - no thats not what we do.
    • Paige - what if it was to an arts org?
    • Ken - we would not get in the way - willing to step away from the LOI if necessary.
    • Ken - if you keep the building and keep doing what you are doing now, you will run into the same issues again
  • Ken - examples of things we'd require are things like food safety, how its stored, gas capped off. basic agreements and understandings. Its very basic.
  • Starbuck - for me, when Im talking to people towards contributing to fund, they always say they need to see a lot more paperwork, and they need to talk to people who will say this is binding. Is there some way I can get access to a lot of that paperwork, like loan documents and things.
    • Ken - we dont have it, they/their lawyer should contact Nathan W. LaBudde SVP, Relationship Manager, Community Bank of the Bay 510.433.8457 P | 510.763.1413 F   415.595.1761 M  nlabudde@bankcbb.com  www.bankcbb.com  180 Grand Ave Suite 1550 | Oakland | CA | 94612. He is the underwriter. I ask to use your discretion, but he can provide all that info on the fund. If they have questions on the building, they can reach out to me kikeda@cast-sf.org
  • Shreya - one thing I want to reiterate, we are committed to holding space like this going forwards for Q&A. We will schedule offline, and come back probably next week with another hour long meeting.


End of Meeting

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