A few weeks ago, we heard that the San Francisco Port Authority had red-tagged Pier 38 — putting up warnings that the space was unsafe. This is a big deal because Pier 38 is something of a tech hub. It’s home to tenants including Dogpatch Labs, Polaris Ventures, Automattic, True Ventures, 99 Designs, EGG HAUS, and more.
While Robert Scoble grabbed some pictures showing just how serious these notices were — it’s never good to see a big red sign with the word “UNSAFE” on the door to your business — Polaris’ Ryan Spoon downplayed the warnings. Here’s what he said to us at the time:
Over the last few days, Pier 38 has undergone a management change (we have always been sub-tenants). The City of San Francisco has notified Pier 38 building management of specific code violations. We are in close contact with building management and the port authority – and we have been informed that normal operations should continue at this time. Meanwhile, the pier is as vibrant and active as ever: home to Dogpatch Labs, Polaris Ventures, Automattic, True Ventures, 99 Designs and many more. We’re working to better understand what the management change and ports plans mean for us all.
Fast forward to last week. The Port Authority put up new signs indicating that all tenants had to vacate the property within 30 days. But some tenants were trying to negotiate ways to extend this window, and there was hope they could do that. But today, after a meeting between the Port Authority and the Pier 38 tenants, that hope has died. Everyone must be out by September 30.
Again, this is awful news for the tech community that has thrived in the space which resides right on the water in the city. An important part of WordPress operates out of here. And the Dogpatch space Polaris set up gave a first home to startups like Instagram.
Reached for comment, Spoon confirms the decision today and writes:
The Port Authority of San Francisco notified all Pier 38 tenants, including us, that we must move out by September 30th. This is obviously unfortunate for the Pier and for the Dogpatch Labs – which has hosted over 250 entrepreneurs and 100+ companies like Instagram, Formspring, TaskRabbit, Recurly, Yardsellr, LOLapps, Appjet, etc. In total, these companies have raised over $100m in seed and venture funding. We are actively working on finding a great new Dogpatch Labs home and hope to be settled and taking applications by end of Q3.