Why so secret?
Rick Smith
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/cliff-house-lease-process-18401893.php
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, October 06, 2023 3:20 PM
What will S.F.’s restored Cliff House look like? Inside the secret process to decide its future
Last year, as speculation swirled in San Francisco about what restaurant would take over the city’s treasured Cliff House, a secret government panel was debating that very question.
The panel was made up of National Park Service employees and unidentified “technical advisers.” Behind closed doors, the panel reviewed bids from possible Cliff House tenants in a process shrouded in secrecy due to federal regulations. Its members signed confidentiality agreements, according to an agency leasing manual. They were barred from speaking to anyone else about their work, including management or staff of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which oversees the Cliff House. They only mailed or faxed documents to avoid “improper disclosure.”
The panel eventually gave a recommendation to National Park Service Director Chuck Sams, who made the final (but still secret) decision in late 2022. Then, last month, after nearly a year of lease negotiations, the agency announced the new tenant for the striking cliffside property overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Sutro Lands End Partners, LLC, led by San Francisco attorney Alexander Leff with the help of local restaurant operators Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group, is now taking on the ambitious task of restoring one of San Francisco’s most beloved landmarks. It’s a coveted property — the lease anticipates gross annual revenue could surpass $18 million — but a daunting project.
“The place is full of memories for me, for San Franciscans, and for those who come to our city from all over the world because they love San Francisco,” Leff wrote in an email to the Chronicle. “Our responsibility is to create a place that honors those memories, while encouraging new ones to be made.”
A new operator is set to reopen San Francisco's Cliff House in late 2024.
Michael Macor/The Chronicle
How did the government pick Sutro Lands End Partners?
While much about the leasing process remains confidential, hints about what led up to last month’s announcement are hidden in a federal document.
According to a National Park Service leasing manual, the agency must convene an “evaluation panel” of at least three federal employees, possibly aided by outside technical advisers. Together, they rate each proposal. Their work is highly confidential and carefully governed. Any notes they take will be later destroyed, unless they’re necessary to inform the group’s final recommendation.
The park service declined to say who or even how many people were panelists. The agency also would not say how many Cliff House bids they considered, citing federal regulation, only that there were “multiple” proposals.
Neither would the park service say what stood out about Sutro Lands End Partners’ proposal, citing confidentiality. But the agency was certainly under pressure to work with a Bay Area operator, as it has since 1973, rather than a large national corporation (notwithstanding some online excitement about the persistent rumor that Taco Bell would open a restaurant there). Julian Espinoza, National Park Service public affairs specialist, said the agency received community feedback that local ties were important.
Rick Smith
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