Daily Digest: Steph Curry's S.F. building buy; Korean market to fill vacant JCPenney - San Francisco Business Times (2024)

Good morning, Bay Area. In state news, the cost of building a controversial 45-mile tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to help move water across California has risen 25% in four years to $20.1 billion, according to new estimates. On Wall Street, shares of GameStop (NYSE: GME) dropped 26% in the wake of their rise earlier in the week. Menlo Park-based Robinhood, on the other hand, saw its shares (Nasdaq: HOOD) go up more than 10% after Bank of America upgraded its stock, citing a rise in retail trading. Here in the city, Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, will give the commencement address at the University of San Francisco this morning from inside St. Ignatius Church. Meanwhile outside the church, at least three dozen tents remain on USF's main lawn as part of the student protest encampment the university has allowed to remain through today's event. And speaking of special events, thank you to all of the CEOs who came out last night for the San Francisco Business Times "Most Admired CEOs" dinner. You are all truly bosses. Here's the rest of your morning intel before closing the curtain on the workweek.

Steph Curry buys San Francisco building

Warriors star Steph Curry is behind an $8.5 million purchase of a San Francisco property at 600 20th St., the Chronicle reports, noting that the site has been pitched for redevelopment into a new, five-story mixed-use building that will serve as the new headquarters for Thirty Ink, Curry’s off-court business enterprise. A representative of the company said it plans to vacate its current Howard Street location in the SoMa neighborhood. The new Dogpatch building is walking distance to Chase Center in Mission Bay.

Korean market to take over vacant JCPenney in Serramonte

A large Korean grocery store is taking over a 75,000-square-foot vacant JCPenney store at Serramonte Center in Daly City later this year, according to an announcement from the mall’s landlord. The store, named Jagalchi, will offer a “one-stop space where you can enjoy delicious food cooked in authentic Korean style, shop and experience Korean food culture,” the announcement stated.

Major strike grips UC system

United Auto Workers 4811 — the union representing 48,000 graduate student teaching assistants, researchers and other academic workers across the University of California’s 10 campuses — has voted to authorize a strike, alleging that its workers’ rights have been violated at several universities by actions against pro-Palestinian protests, union leaders announced. The walkouts were approved by 79% of the 19,780 members who voted. Meanwhile, UC officials have rejected the premise of the strike, calling it illegal. “UAW’s decision to strike over nonlabor issues violates the no-strike clause of their contracts with UC and sets a dangerous and far-reaching precedent that social, political and cultural issues — no matter how valid — that are not labor-related can support a labor strike,” Melissa Matella, associate vice president of Systemwide Labor Relations, said in a statement.

Bidding to start in June for "Western White House"

The Bay Area's "Western White House," a residence at 401 El Cerrito Ave. in Hillsborough designed as a White House replica, is heading to auction via Concierge Auctions' online marketplace in cooperation with Alex Buljan and Pierre Buljan of Compass. Listed for $36.9 million, bidding is estimated to start between $10 million and $17 million and the auction is set to open on June 13 and culminate on June 25. Constructed in 1930, the more than 24,000-square-foot residence was envisioned by George Hearst and designed by architect Julia Morgan.

M&A Watch

GrubMarket acquired Butter, a food distribution SaaS company that had raised around $12 million from Gradient Ventures, Outbound Ventures, Uncommon Capital, CoFound Partners, Notation Capital, Collide Capital, Quint Capital, RSLP Ventures, Amino Capital and Jack Altman.

Funding Watch

Vercel, a San Francisco-based cloud development service, raised $250 million in Series E funding at a $3.25 billion valuation led by insider Accel. VCs keep cutting giant checks for most any company in the AI game, and Vercel plays both sides by offering its own text-to-code solution and also counting OpenAI and Perplexity as customers. Other investors include CRV, GV, Notable Capital, Bedrock, Geodesic Capital, Tiger Global, 8VC and SV Angel. Vercel has now raised a total of $560 million.

Layoff Watch

S.F.-based AI coding assistant Replit has laid off 30 employees, or 20% of its staff, the Information reports. This comes as the company has left its office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood for a new one in Foster City.

Indeed is laying off 87 employees assigned to the Foster City office beginning on July 12.

Final thought …

Homelessness remains a major issue in San Francisco, and even with big city-led efforts to reduce the number of people experiencing it, a preliminary release of the biennial point-in-time homeless count on Thursday revealed a mixed bag of results. The count showed that there has been a 13% decrease in the number of people living on the streets or in tents in the city since 2022, but the measure of overall homelessness, including people living in shelters, cars, RVs and tents, has risen to 8,323, a 7% rise over the same period. Fewer tents, more people going homeless.