Displaced Embarcadero Businesses Find New Homes

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - To make room for the America's Cup, some 80 Port of San Francisco tenants, including the iconic Teatro ZinZanni and Bauer's Intelligent Transportation, were told to pack their bags.

Finding new homes for those two businesses in particular presented a challenge, according to staff from the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

But on Tuesday, a costumed performance troupe and Mayor Ed Lee stood together in a parking lot on the city's waterfront with the leaders of those businesses to announce that both have secured properties and will preserve precious jobs.

"They were worried from the beginning, as they should have been and as I would have been if I were a small business owner," Lee said at the news conference at 50 Broadway.

The location at the foot of Broadway will be transformed from a parking lot to the new home for Teatro ZinZanni, which has been located at Pier 27 since its founding in 2000 and employs more than 100 Bay Area residents.

Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, who represents the district that includes the property, said that relocation was vital for the city's economic health.

"Not only is Teatro ZinZanni a unique and popular attraction for San Francisco residents and visitors, they are a key employer of local artists and a wonderful and consistent supporter of many local charities," Chiu said in a statement issued today.

Flanked by about a dozen of the show's costumed performers, the nonprofit dinner cabaret's founder, Norman Langill, said that he was thrilled to move into the new space, which he noted was the gate to the city and the beginning of the Barbary Coast during the Gold Rush of the late 1840s.

Langill said the he and the company thanked the mayor and the staff at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, as well as the Port of San Francisco, "for their patient work through the last 11 months."

Teatro ZinZanni and Bauer's were among the 80 businesses on port property that were told that they would need to move to make way for the 2013 yacht race.

Bauer's will relocate to space at Pier 50, which is a few blocks south of AT&T Park, and Bauer's founder and CEO Gary Bauer said he was delighted by the pending move.

"We really think it's a great opportunity," Bauer said.

The transportation company was founded in 1989 and employs more than 200 people in operating and maintaining its bus and shuttle fleets. Bauer's was recognized in 2009 with a "Green Highway" award from the United Motorcoach Association for its green practices and industry leadership.

"We need to make sure that we're going to leave a good legacy for the city," Lee said today of the efforts to preserve the valued organizations.

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