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Show THE DAILY HERALD, (www.HarkThcHerald.com), Page C4 Prova, Utah, Sunday, April 16, 2000 "2 "Encourage your children to read a newspaper every day. It can help make 'their wishes come true' Brandy, recording artist, actress THE DAILY HERALD (J www.heraldextra.com PAUL SAKlMAThe It all starts Press. Associated talks outside one of the offices in the High-tec- h universe: John Jenson, a broker for Grubb South Market Area of San Francisco. The city has become the epicenter of dotcom companies. & Ellis, ... San Francisco office spaces snapped up in dotcom frenzy By CHRISTINE Associated Press Writer - here, causing wrenching change in a city known for its diversity and bohemian char- acter At least 500 Internet-relatecompanies with roughly 40,000 employees have set up in San Francisco, most squeezing into SOMA, a trendy former industrial district south of Market street. "This is what I call the new Gold Rush," said "Fire & Gold" author Charles Frachhia, an authority on San Francisco history. "The clothes are different. But I could close my eyes and see the parallel. Here we have young kids from all over the country coming here to get d ncn. , Landlords have seized this moment, evicting longtime ten- ants and even demanding stock in startups along with million-dolla- deposits. r Warehouse space with exposed brick and beams is renting for more than luxurious suites in some Financial District skyscrapers. "It's crazy," real estate bro ker John Jenson says as he ri,, siauuii waguu u;f Miuca ma vuivu mrougn Dustiing aowniown traffic on a weekday afternoon. "Everyone wants to be here." Jenson, a Grubb & Ellis Co.' broker who knows the SOMA district like the back of his Palm Pilot, has been working overtime to appease new executives whose business plans depend on securing space where their companies can grow exponentially. Executives like Keyur Patel, chief strategist" for Brience Inc. He and his three partners who hope to create software that helps big companies deliver broadband content over the Internet just got a $200 million investment to turn their idea into a business. But they needed space for 40 people immediately. And since they wanted to recruit engineers and estab- lish their company's reputation as a key Internet player, it had to be in SOMA. "Get me a building in one week," Patel, 29. told Jenson. "We told him it has to look condicool and be in move-ition," he recalled. "We were being ridiculous." Days later, after a stream of faxes, emails, bank wires and it; - California in general has seen real estate prices skyrocket. Silicon Valley, sprawling southward from San Francisco, has seen office space disappear as commutes well, and once-eashave turned into daylong rush-hour- HANI.EY In a SAN FRANCISCO land grab reminiscent of the Gold Rush, dot-cocompanies are snapping up every available square foot of office space with newspapers. y No wonder why hot programmers who can pick their companies and name their salaries want to live and work in San Francisco, where the nightlife is abundant and much livelier than San Jose. But there's a sense that these affluent newcomers are spoiling the very things they came for. "The beauty and charm of the city is not just in its geographical location and natural, wonders," said Andrew Hoyem, the publisher of Arion Press the nation's last fully functional type foundry. He was served an eviction notice ordering his company out by June. "It's about mixture, variety and that's rapidly becoming lost,' Hoyem said. Its becom- '& jng j0hnny-one-note.- " In the early 1990s, cyberpi- lured , to were oneers Multimedia Gulch, a gritty pocket of brick and timber jowrises, factories and warehouses, by the austere atmosphere, the proximity to high ways leading south to Silicon Valley, and the relatively Cheap Ji vine cogf . DUt With average rents increasing as much as 15 percent each month, startups are , ' HOME J FURNKfCS MflaAUftin J WKEUNy7 kfXBASKETBALl BRYON if! rjV - nl f Vb MM l T (&- V A U 1"" mm ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS OFF k LOWEST MARKED PRICE! J pushing into surrounding neighborhoods and relocating across the Bay to Oakland or San Mateo County to the south. Some are even reluctantly looking across Market Street to the button-dowFinancial District, where engineers with body piercings now share elevators with corporate lawyers. Even here, landlords are tailoring buildings for the J n m nil n-i- i SOFALOVESEAT SET PROJECTION TV mm Internet generation, ripping out ceilings and carpets and exposing pipes, wood beams and brick walls. The former Chevron Building will be named after NBC Internet Inc., which is filling eight floors with 750 employees and a "Zen room." "Appearance is very important," said Aanal Udayi, a web designer with Gigabaud, which like most Internet companies, is spending big to establish its brand. "It's not tangible. It resides in the human psyche their mindset," she said. Some critics say image is all these Internet companies are about, and question whether the city is foolish for banking its future on what they feel is a tenuous industry already feellegal consultations, Jenson ing a shakeout as .Nasdaq a stocks tumble. delivered the hippest digs foot low-ris17,000-squar- e And in a rising chorus of disbrick building 14 other outfits content, artists, had been hoping to get. residents, longtime tenants But it didn't come cheap. and the homeless are staging With a vacancy rate of less protests over the pace of the than 1 percent in the heart of gentrification, arguing that the a part of town known New Economy is irrevocably SOMA as Multimedia Gulch they changing San Francisco's charwere happy to pay $68 a acter, narrowing its diversity and spoiling its vitality. square foot. And to close the deal, Patel "Enough is enough," Debra even gave the landlord, Tiffany Walker of the Coalition for Gin, a piece of the company. It Jobs, Arts and Housing, said was "a lot of stock, says Gin, during a protest on the steps of who studied the business plans the Mission Armory, a home of all 15 bidders before going less shelter undergoing a $50 million conversion into office with Brience. Awash with $16 billion in space. "It's time to say 'Not here, a third of venture capital the nation's seed money for not now, not like this,"' she Northern said. new business - uafmrnp I .. own. m Itii n-'- n VASIIERDRYER SET top-lev- n mmt MM QGFRIGERATQR WOW. Hi 4 nil e fixed-incom- : UPHOLSTERED CHAIR e -- v H'.i- ' -f fotol sunday itsptd e ri is i M mtk, rktHf aptmst itcnsories skwi it tne ai pwdnx intk fwtwy vnmaty BUDGET & CLEARANCE 207 North 100 West Si CTIIltPii!! qo Ml 0pen,..'ta 10:00 pm B22-- 8 wboe itcaUe. PROVO 87. h..aliyilihBkr.llH4l'UrilldMIMfaMhnHhriridKII1H ALSO VISIT OUR BUDGET & CLEARANCE CENTER IN WEST JORDAN AT 9010 S. REDWOOD RD. 567-220- 0 |