[BTinSF]

Friday, February 27, 2009
Bay Area authorities team up for stimulus money
San Francisco Business Times - by Eric Young San Francisco Business Times

Bay Area authorities are rushing to put together a regional effort to maximize the amount of federal stimulus cash that flows to the area.

With details still emerging about the nation’s $787 billion stimulus package, local leaders and economic development officials are hazy on how much money they can expect, or how to apply for it.

But to make their best case for that money, several groups will work with the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, which has been tapped by the state to draw up a regional plan that shows where the Bay Area could best spend the money and what impact the cash would have.

The plan likely will emphasize projects that are ready to start within the next two years and focus on the region’s infrastructure needs, land use goals and economic development strategy.

The economic institute is a division of the Bay Area Council, which advocates public policy on behalf of major San Francisco area companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Gap Inc. and Oracle Corp.

The economic institute said it will work with groups like the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the East Bay’s Economic Development Alliance for Business to devise its plan. The full contingent of agencies was still being compiled this week, said Sean Randolph, the institute’s CEO. Other groups that might be tapped to help author the regional strategy are the Association of Bay Area Governments, local mayors, academics from Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley and local corporate executives, all of whom are on the economic institute’s board.

With billions of dollars in the balance, there is a sense of urgency to devise a compelling plan.

“If we don’t have one, it makes no sense,” said Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council. Without a cohesive plan, “we’ll lose out while fighting within our own fiefdoms.”

California officials estimate there are $44 billion worth of projects around the state that are ready to start, potentially generating 800,000 jobs. That includes $11.8 billion worth in energy and efficiency projects, $11 billion in road, transit and rail construction, $4 billion in health care investment and $8.5 billion in water and sewer projects.

Some of the stimulus money will be sent directly to states and cities via existing formulas. Such is the case, for example, with $66 million that California will get in rail modernization money. But other big pots of cash — like $4.5 billion for improved electrical grid investment — are discretionary. For large chunks of other money to be distributed through various federal agencies, it’s not clear yet how money will be apportioned. That’s the case for $8 billion in high speed rail funding, for instance. The Federal Railroad Administration will have a plan for disbursement by mid-April.

Given the confusing patchwork of rules that is emerging, some Bay Area elected officials are not waiting on the regional plan to make their case for stimulus cash. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, for example, is sending a delegation of his department heads to Washington D.C. this week. There they will meet with federal officials to learn how to apply for money and put in a good word for local projects. Newsom and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums have been among big-city mayors already making personal visits to the capital to underscore their quest for funds.

“We’re moving forward with our aggressive approach to getting stimulus investment in San Francisco,” said mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard.

That’s not to say San Francisco won’t work on the regional plan, Ballard said. “We view any statewide or regional efforts as complementary and we are happy to work with them.”

Although Bay Area cities and counties traditionally work independently when planning major investments in areas like land use and housing, there is hope that the region will rally around a unified plan for stimulus money.

“Clearly the regional effort will give a broader context to put us all on the same page,” said Bruce Kern, executive director of the Economic Development Alliance for Business, which advocates for businesses in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The Bay Area’s economic recovery plan will be submitted to the state Department of Business Transportation and Housing in Sacramento, which asked groups representing regions around the state to prepare similar documents. The plans go to the state capital because some of the federal stimulus money will flow through the bureaucracy there before reaching cities.

The Bay Area and other regions won’t have much time to put their plans together. Pressed by federal demands for quick action, the state wants first drafts of plans by April 1 and final drafts by June 1.

Submitting plans to Sacramento is not mandatory. But there are potentially major benefits for drawing up cohesive plans that spell out how the money will be used. Not only might the regional plans maximize the amount of federal stimulus cash, state officials said regions that submit plans will get “bonus points” for state housing funds stemming from Proposition 1C, a $2.9 billion bond approved by state voters in 2006.

Email Eric Young at eyoung@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4969
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/02/story2.html

[BTinSF]

Friday, February 27, 2009
Solar projects must break ground by 2011 to be eligible for stimulus dollars
San Francisco Business Times - by Lindsay Riddell San Francisco Business Times

Bay Area solar firms are scrambling to grab a major incentive included in the economic stimulus package, but only the quickest will qualify.

Solar industry executives say a grant provision in the federal package could offer a lifeline to solar projects stymied by the credit crunch. The new 30 percent grant is intended to make up for tax credits that were rendered useless when the market for tax equity imploded during the past few months. To qualify for the grant, solar projects must break ground by the end of 2010.

And that means that siting, financing, regulatory approvals, equipment supply and everything else must be in place to begin construction.

“This thing is not a panacea for renewable energy,” said R.J. Lyman, head of law firm Goodwin Procter’s clean technology practice in Boston. “What it is instead is an excellent kick-start for projects that would otherwise be able to move forward relatively quickly.”

The provision is likely to favor mid-sized solar photovoltaic projects — which use panels with semiconducting material that convert sunlight to electricity — over other kinds of renewable energy projects because solar panels can be installed quickly. And mid-sized projects in the tens of megawatts in size don’t have the regulatory and transmission hurdles to clear that larger-scale projects do.

The provisions are less likely to benefit utility-scale solar developers who are building massive projects in California’s deserts, especially if they haven’t made significant progress through the lengthy approvals process or secured financing, or need costly transmission lines built to deliver that power.

“Clearly, projects that are slotted to be in transmission-constrained areas are probably not going to come online in 2010,” said Mark McLanahan, vice president of San Francisco-based MMA Renewable Ventures, which arranges financing and develops commercial and utility-scale solar projects.

He said that some major photovoltaic and concentrated solar power projects, which are slated to break ground in 2011 and 2012, won’t make the deadline.

In another potential boon to local solar companies, PG&E also asked the California Public Utilities Commission last week to approve 250 megawatts of photovoltaic projects at a standard price for which solar companies will compete. Solar developers can use the federal grant to bid for PG&E’s projects, too.

McLanahan said the economic stimulus provision gives his firm confidence it can move forward with planned projects, since the company won’t have to rely on outside tax equity investors for the 30 percent tax credit if it qualifies for the government grant instead.

“There was some doubt as to whether we’d find tax equity, but now that it’s a tax incentive, there’s no question,” McLanahan said.

Ultimately, who will qualify will come down to how the program is administered. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is expected to announce details within 90 days.

“The grant and loan guarantee provisions along with added funding for renewable energy bonds present a suite of options to finance solar projects,” said Rohne Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “We expect to see continued growth and tens of thousands of jobs created by the solar sector as a result of the recovery bill.”

Email Lindsay Riddell at lriddell@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4968


Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/02/story11.html?t=printable

[Reminiscence]

Thanks for creating this thread BT. I've never been into government too much, but this is an exciting time to see what might materialize with these expedited deadlines. I'm really looking forward to some of these solar projects now that stimulus is on the way because I thought some of them were dead to begin with. Hopefully they can work something out in time and we can get the absolute maximum for our region and our state.

[BTinSF]

Friday, March 20, 2009
Bay Area road and transit projects could get $1.5 billion or more from federal stimulus
San Francisco Business Times - by Eric Young

For Bay Area transportation officials, getting their hands on the first wave of $495 million in federal stimulus cash was the easy part.

Now they are trying to scoop up at least $1 billion more.

A delegation of transit and elected officials just wrapped up a whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C., to drum up support for projects in the Bay Area. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which will have broad discretion over where to direct many millions of dollars in stimulus cash, has yet to issue guidelines so cities can apply for money.

But Bay Area agencies like the Metropolitan Transportation Commission are not waiting until mid-May, when those guidelines are expected.

MTC Director Steve Heminger was one of the Bay Area group that met with federal lawmakers and bureaucrats to champion projects like the $1 billion Doyle Drive rebuild and $490 million construction of a subterranean train station at San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal.

“The message we’re trying to convey is one of the best things you could do for the economy is finance construction in infrastructure,” said Heminger. “It creates jobs in a hurry.”

Bay Area officials estimate that between 12,500 to 19,000 construction jobs could be created in the Bay Area as a result of $1 billion or more in federal stimulus cash.

Lobbying pays off

Some lobbying efforts have already paid dividends for the Bay Area. The California Transportation Commission will direct $50 million in federal stimulus funding to help pay for reconstruction of Doyle Drive. The 75-year-old roadway leading to the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge is deemed “structurally deficient” by transportation officials, the same designation as the freeway bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed in 2007.

Both California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco have pledged to find the remaining $50 million needed to get Doyle Drive construction under way. Work could begin as soon as August.

That is good news to companies like Arup Group Ltd. and Parsons Brinkerhoff, design engineering firms that will work jointly on Doyle Drive. Those firms are also lobbying federal lawmakers on behalf of other major jobs in the Bay Area.

“We want to take advantage of this” federal spending, said Stuart Sunshine, a Parsons Brinkerhoff vice president. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Contracts on Doyle Drive and other large Bay Area projects bankrolled by stimulus money will not go out for bids for a few more months, after local agencies or cities receive the funds. But construction industry veterans said they expect big local contractors like Webcor Builders Inc. of San Mateo and URS Corp. of San Francisco to be among the likely big winners.

The easy money

The first $495 million in federal stimulus money is certain because it is being doled out based on existing formulas that direct federal cash to cities.

That money will go to a range of projects, including rehabbing public transit buses and trains. That will allow transit agencies like BART to refurbish trains, most of which have been running since the agency began service in 1972.

That cash will also go toward building a tram connecting BART to the Oakland International Airport. The project has been derailed numerous times over funding and design issues. Most recently, a consortium of private investors pulled out of a construction deal following last year’s stock market crash. That group included construction companies Flatiron Construction Corp. of Longmont, Colo., and Parsons Corp. of Pasadena.

A second pot of stimulus money for the Bay Area — up to $462 million — is expected to come from Sacramento for projects that were to have been funded with bonds passed by voters in 2006.

Those bonds were never sold because the credit crunch that took hold last year stopped most government agencies, including California, from issuing debt to pay for projects. Projects that were expecting state bond money include adding carpool lanes on the Sunol grade of Interstate 680 in Alameda County, reconstructing major highway interchanges and boring a fourth tube in the Caldecott tunnel, which links Alameda and Contra Costa counties on Highway 24.

Federal discretion

A third pot of money comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Bay Area is seeking at least $450 million for an underground train station at San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal and for Doyle Drive. The region could get even more money once the federal Department of Transportation issues guidelines to determine what projects can apply.

To help coordinate the Bay Area’s efforts, authorities are rushing to put together a regional plan to maximize the amount of federal stimulus cash that flows to the area. Led by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, the plan is expected to show where the Bay Area could best spend the money. The plan likely will emphasize projects that are ready to start within two years and focus on the region’s infrastructure needs, land use goals and economic development strategy.

The Bay Area does not have much time to put its plan together. Pressed by federal demands for quick action, first drafts are due April 1 and final drafts by June 1.

In a separate effort, backers of California’s planned bullet train have begun a lobbying effort to snare as much as possible of the $8 billion in stimulus cash aimed at high speed rail. California’s proposed train, which would lay 800 miles of track linking San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego, does not meet the “shovel ready” definition because construction likely won’t begin until 2012 at the earliest. But the state has the only voter-approved project, giving supporters reason to think that the $40 billion project will get at least a portion of the high speed rail money.

“I think we’re better positioned than any other high speed rail undertaken in the country,” said Quentin Kopp, chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority.

Still, it is difficult to know precisely how well the state’s bullet train is positioned because the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has yet to issue guidelines he will use in deciding which projects to fund. Those parameters are due April 18.

California voters approved almost $10 billion in bonds for the project last year. But the train will need significant private investor and federal money. Kopp joined other prominent members of the state’s high speed rail authoritylike David Crane, a top economic adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and transportation veteran Rod Diridon Sr. to urge federal transportation officials to direct money to the project.

Email Eric Young at eyoung@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4969
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/23/focus1.html?b=1237780800^1797721

[BTinSF]

Friday, March 20, 2009
Bay Area will seek big chunk of $65B for energy
San Francisco Business Times - by Lindsay Riddell

The federal economic stimulus plan has $43 billion in grants and $22 billion in tax incentives slated for energy projects. And as a cleantech hub, with more than 400 companies and about half of the nation’s cleantech venture capital being invested here, the Bay Area expects to be a major recipient of these funds.

“In the energy sector, it’s not about whether or not you’re going to get a stimulus, its about what stimulus are you going to get,” said Mark Radcliffe, an attorney with DLA Piper in East Palo Alto.

While some companies will apply for funds directly, other companies expect to be indirect beneficiaries. A lot will depend on how the U.S. Department of Energy distributes the money, and much of that still has to be determined.

A major chunk of stimulus money is targeted to improving the electric grid. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has set aside $4.5 billion in grants for electricity delivery and energy reliability, which could help fund up to nearly $9 billion in total projects. The Bay Area is home to a cluster of companies, including Redwood City-based Trilliant Inc. and Silver Spring Networks and San Mateo-based eMeter Corp., which are working on some of the largest projects to update the grid across the country.

These companies said they won’t apply for the stimulus money directly because they only provide pieces of total smart grid installations. Instead, said Eric Dresselhuys, vice president and co-founder at Silver Spring, utilities that manage electricity distribution will apply for the money, and companies like his will get a lot more work as a result.

“The smart grid is ‘shovel-ready,’” Dresselhuys said. “The technologies are demonstrated. They work at scale. And utilities can get started now building out this core infrastructure.”

Adam Grosser, a venture capitalist at Menlo Park-based Foundation Capital said before the economic stimulus, only large utilities could justify spending hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to upgrade their transmission grids or implement new programs. But with the money, municipal and small city utilities will now be able to afford it.

Companies that he funds, like eMeter and Boston-based energy management company EnerNOC, are likely to see their markets expand because of the additional money that could go to those utilities.

The country’s largest utilities, including California’s Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison, have already begun implementing smart grid technologies and likely won’t be applying for smart-grid stimulus money because the funding for their programs is already approved.

“But many of the municipal or co-op owned or small city-owned utilities haven’t had that opportunity and I think that’s where a lot of (the money will go),” Grosser said.

PG&E, through a spokesman, said it’s not yet clear if it will apply for stimulus funds and is waiting for more guidance from the Department of Energy.

Loan guarantees

A loan guarantee program worth $6 billion could go to most any renewable energy-related businesses, including those that make solar panels, wind turbines or biofuels or manufacture components to make renewable energy systems. The DOE started this program in 2005 — but has never cut a check. Applicants were required to pay a credit subsidy that could cost five to 20 percent of the project cost. The stimulus bill removes that requirement, said Steve Phillips, an attorney with DLA Piper in Washington, D.C.

“We think this program could break the credit log jam and unleash a flood of new projects,” Phillips said.

The $6 billion should be able to support at minimum $60 billion in projects he said.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said the department will award some loan guarantees by late April or early May, most likely to companies like San Carlos-based electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. and Fremont-based solar panel maker Solyndra Inc., that applied for the money under the original program but haven’t received it. He also said sweeping reforms in processing loans will allow the department to divy out 70 percent of the $38 billion under the DOE by the end of 2010.

To qualify for the loan guarantees coming from the federal stimulus, projects must break ground by September of 2011.

Companies like South San Francisco-based LS9 Inc., which is engineering enzymes to create renewable transportation fuels, is scouting for demonstration facilities and has applied to the DOE for up to $5 million in research funds through a preexisting program. The economic stimulus offers $1.3 billion in research funds to demonstrate renewable technologies. But more money could be available to biofuels companies for demonstration plants and projects and for commercializing technology. And many Bay Area companies are waiting to see which provisions make the most sense once the Department of Energy issues its guidance.

“We’re certainly going to apply for that stimulus money to help move our technology platform ahead both in fuels and chemicals,” said LS9 CEO Bill Haywood.

Mark Hankowski, a marketing executive with Potter Drilling, said the company has also applied for up to $5 million in research funds from a program for enhanced geothermal systems technologies that DOE created in 2008 but didn’t fund until now. The Redwood City-based company is working on new drilling technology to tap new sources of geothermal power deep within the earth. It’s eyeing a $400 million carve-out targeting geothermal technologies, part of a $2.5 billion research provision in the stimulus.

But DOE hasn’t yet said how it plans to distribute those funds.

Potter Drilling recently hired several engineers and is looking to bring on a technical program manager to manage the process of accepting money from the government.

Tax incentives

If renewable energy companies have tax liability, or have partners who have tax liability there are several provisions in the economic stimulus for them.

At $13 billion, the extension of the production tax credit is the single biggest chunk of change of all the energy provisions in the economic stimulus. The provisions extends for three years and offers 1 cent to 2.1 cents for each kilowatt-hour of energy produced by wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, municipal solid waste, small hydropower and ocean power technologies. The tax credit can be taken any time within ten years. While this provision favors wind power, other renewable energy projects may elect instead for the 30 percent investment tax credit, which can be taken against the investment in renewable energy projects.

The investment tax credit helped inspire new methods of financing for solar projects. Solar companies, which generally didn’t have enough profits to use the tax credits, instead sold credits to investors seeking to reduce their tax liability on other gains. That led to an acceleration of solar power projects across the country in 2007 and 2008. But as the recession took hold, capital gains disappeared. So did investors’ need for tax credits, and with them, money to finance solar companies’ project pipeline.

The federal stimulus addresses that problem with a provision that offers grants in lieu of tax credits for investments in renewable energy or producing renewable energy. Construction must begin by 2010 to qualify.

“This could be very valuable for investors and entities that are going to have a long time before they have tax liability,” said DLA Piper’s Phillips.

California will also get about $412 million for weatherization and energy efficiency programs that will be administered by the California Energy Commission. About $56 million of that will go directly to counties and cities to enhance local renewable energy and education programs. Right now, the CEC is developing a plan to submit to the DOE on how it will spend that money.

Email Lindsay Riddell at lriddell@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4968
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/23/focus2.html

[BTinSF]

Friday, March 20, 2009
Health systems hoping for stimulating shot in the arm
San Francisco Business Times - by Chris Rauber

From hospital giants like Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West, to public health departments and county medical centers, to small clinics and individual doctors, health-care professionals are diligently studying the federal stimulus package.

Virtually all are looking for cash from a number of large buckets in Washington, D.C.: $17 billion in incentive payments for hospitals and doctors that can prove they’re making “meaningful use” of health-care information technology, another $2 billion for IT infrastructure projects and research, and $2 billion for community clinic renovation, construction and related needs.

That doesn’t include many billions in additional stimulus funding that augments existing Medicare and Medi-Cal reimbursements — if that money doesn’t get scooped up in Sacramento to help the state fill its budget holes.

Kaiser, CHW, Sutter Health, the University of California system, Stanford University Medical Center, San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, San Mateo County Medical Center and the Alameda County Medical Center/Highland Hospital appear to be deep in the hunt for the new funding — although many details on how, when and through whom the money will flow remain less clear than for some other areas of the stimulus package.

A big reason is that President Obama’s latest nominee for U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, hasn’t yet been confirmed, so many top jobs in the department remain unfilled.

“There’s not a whole lot out there yet,” said David Brown, Washington, D.C.-based director of health and clinical affairs at the UC system’s Office of Federal Governmental Relations. “We have some very preliminary methods for determining base payments and bonus payments we may receive through the Medicare program, primarily.”

However, many details won’t be forthcoming until the Department of Health and Human Services develops standards and criteria for the funding, he said, which is expected to happen by year-end.

The bulk of the estimated $17 billion in incentive payments to doctors and hospitals won’t start to go out until 2011, and will be phased in over five years.

Even so, in a few cases the federal spigot is primed to open soon.

For example, Axis Community Health, a Pleasanton-based mental health, substance abuse and health education agency, is one of 12 community health centers in California, and 126 nationwide, to qualify for a grant as a “new access point” health center under the stimulus package.

As a result of its $1.3 million grant, the clinic — with three sites in Pleasanton and one in Livermore — expects to hire 65 new staffers, for a total of 175, says CEO Sue Compton.

It expects to serve 4,000 additional patients and handle 21,000 additional visits over the next two years, due to the new funding, which will allow Axis to increase its hours of operation to six or seven days a week, including at least five evenings, Compton said. Its clinics are now open five days a week, and every other Saturday.

Axis could start getting automatic monthly payments within 30 to 60 days of its annual $650,000 grant, Compton said, and is set to hire four new workers right away and expand hours for physicians who work less than full time.

Go for gold

Other institutions as well aren’t waiting for rules and procedures to be established: they are going for the gold. Right away.

San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, for example, hopes to nab nearly $67 million in stimulus funding for a grab bag of projects, says Jim Soos, assistant director for policy and planning.

That includes $11.2 million for construction and renovation of city-run clinics; $14.5 million in grants and loans involving health IT; $9.95 million to support programs like smoking cessation, HIV prevention and “senior falls” prevention; $4.5 million for broadband and telemedicine technology; $24 million for the emergency generator at San Francisco General; $2 million for trauma and rape treatment programs at the hospital; and half a million dollars for outcomes/effectiveness research at Healthy San Francisco, San Francisco’s citywide “universal” health care program.

“We’re working our hardest to get money out of the stimulus program,” Soos said.

Similarly, Alameda County Medical Center, which runs Highland Hospital and other county health facilities, believes its progress on implementing IT provides “a solid foundation” for implementing a full electronic health record and related technologies, says Chief Information Officer Ed Dullard, potentially making it eligible for up to $10 million in incentives starting in 2011.

Others hoping for IT stimulus funding include CalRHIO, which hopes to be designated as the state’s designated “health information exchange” or HIE by the feds. That could put it in line to receive at least $20 million to $30 million of funding, “and possibly tens of millions more,” said Molly Coye, M.D., its chair and co-founder.

On the physician front, leading Bay Area independent practice associations such as Hill Physicians Medical Group and San Francisco’s Brown & Toland Medical Group say they can’t qualify for much of the funding — only individual physicians can, to the tune of up to $44,000 over five years. But the IPAs are making plans to educate their member doctors on how to apply for funding.

“We are certainly going to try to assist the doctors in our system,” said Brown & Toland spokesman Richard Angeloni, adding that the group is still exploring the legislation, since “there’s also potential for grants as well, for organizations like ours with interoperable systems.”

Cautious giants

Sacramento-based Sutter, which operates many of the Bay Area’s largest hospitals, including San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center, the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, and Castro Valley’s Eden Medical Center is investigating its options, said senior spokesman Bill Gleeson.

“It’s a bit early for us to weigh in with definitive information,” Gleeson said, adding that Sutter will be analyzing opportunities in coming weeks as HHS outlines details of the new funding.

CHW — which runs St. Mary’s Medical Center and Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco and Redwood City’s Sequoia Hospital, along with dozens of other hospitals in the West — says it’s premature to comment.

Kaiser Permanente, the region’s most dominant system, indicated it’s following developments closely and hopes HHS and other federal agencies will fund not only implementation of IT systems, but also reward those that improve clinical outcomes and the “interoperability of electronic health information systems,” said spokesman Marc Brown.

Kevin Tabb, Stanford Hospital’s vice president of medical affairs, said its partial implementation of an EMR system should make it eligible for funding.

“We’re analyzing it as we speak,” he said March 13. “We’re taking a close look at where the stimulus bill may be applicable to us, and certainly where appropriate we’ll apply for those funds.”

Given the lack of senior leadership at the federal HHS department and the complexities of health-care finance, details may not be forthcoming for some time, but it’s guaranteed that a large number of the region’s health-care organizations will stay in the hunt. For now, however, says Brown & Toland’s Angeloni: “We’re still trying to figure out what all this means.”

Email Chris Rauber at crauber@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4946
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/23/focus6.html

[BTinSF]

Stimulus money to help fix S.F. public housing
Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Federal stimulus money started flowing into San Francisco this week in the form of $17.9 million for public housing, much of which will be spent repairing hundreds of vacant units that are currently inhabitable and preparing Hunters View for reconstruction.

The work started Monday morning with crews traveling home to home in the Potrero Hill Terrace neighborhood, documenting repairs that need to be made to vacant units, such as replacing windows and removing lead paint.

The money announced Monday is among the first of what Mayor Gavin Newsom hopes will amount to hundreds of millions for San Francisco projects, such as road improvements like replacing Doyle Drive and money for health and education.

"A lot is happening at the same time. This is the first (project) where actual construction, real work, is happening," Newsom said. "We're looking at in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars."

San Francisco leaders have been making regular trips to Washington, to plead for the city's fair share of resources under President Obama's federal stimulus plan.

3 million for repairs

With the public housing funding announced this week, $3 million will pay for repairing more than 200 vacant units over the next three to four months, said Henry Alvarez, director of the Housing Authority. The city has already started refurbishing about 100 units, but the stimulus money will allow the repairs to be made much faster, Alvarez said.

About $6 million will go to Hunters View, one of the city's most rundown public housing projects that Newsom has promised to tear down and rebuild; $2.6 million will go toward neighborhood improvements on Potrero Hill; $1 million will pay for new fire alarms in public housing; and the rest of the money will go toward lead paint removal, weatherization and other projects.

inally heard our cries'

"We've been needing this for the longest time," said Eddie Kittrell, the head of a Potrero Hill residents association. "Someone finally heard our cries."

In other housing news Monday, a Board of Supervisors committee endorsed the creation of a city fund to rehabilitate rundown buildings of 25 units or less and convert them into housing affordable to residents earning less than the area's median income.

The plan, sponsored by Supervisor Chris Daly, would take 10 percent of the fees that the city collects from private developers, and has historically used to build new affordable housing, and shift it to improving the city's existing stock. Affordable housing advocates say that rehabilitating housing costs about $250,000 per unit and takes about two years, while developing new units costs $500,000 and takes five years.

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/03/30/ba-housing31_ph__0499970391.jpg
Miguel Paltao, Area Manager of Public Housing for District 2, points out some of the work that needs to be completed on a unit at the Potrero HIll Terrace Apartments. San Francisco got its first real taste of federal stimulus money this week in the form of $18 million for public housing, much of which will be spent on repairing 300 vacant units that are currently uninhabitable.

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/03/30/ba-housing31_ph1_0499970381.jpghttp://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/03/30/ba-housing31_ph__0499970417.jpg
Sonia McElhennon (left) and Bob Horner move their belongings into their rehabbed unit at the Potrero Hill Terrace housing complex. The couple had been living with their daughter in a single-room-occupancy apartment in San Francisco's Tenderloin.
Chronicle staff writer Robert Selna contributed to this report. E-mail Erin Allday at eallday@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/31/BAMB16PK3P.DTL

[BTinSF]

We Still Believe It Would Have Made A Most Excellent Museum

http://www.socketsite.com/50%20UN%20Plaza.jpg

"San Francisco’s landmark 50 United Nations Plaza will receive [a] $121 million upgrade under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, an infusion of cash that will allow the mothballed federal office building to be brought back to life, according to the Government Services Administration."

"Once the renovation is complete, the building will house the GSA, the agency in charge of federal government buildings. The San Francisco office of the GSA covers all of California, as well as Arizona, Nevada, and Hawaii. The GSA office is now at 450 Golden Gate Ave. About 600 GSA employees work in the San Francisco office, with another 600 in the field.

The decision to rehab the building and use it for federal office space came last year after the federal government decided to scrap plans to find a private developer to take over the property. Forest City had been looking at converting the office building into apartments."
Source: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2009/04/we_still_believe_it_would_have_made_an_excellent_museum.html#comments

[peanut gallery]

It will be nice seeing it in use again.

[BTinSF]

More on 50 UN Plaza:

Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 11:52am PDT | Modified: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 3:37pm
S.F.’s vacant federal building gets $121M from stimulus for upgrade
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

San Francisco’s landmark 50 United Nations Plaza will receive $121 million upgrade under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, an infusion of cash that will allow the mothballed federal office building to be brought back to life, according to the General Services Administration.

The $121 million modernization will cover seismic upgrade and new electrical, heating, and plumbing systems. Windows will be replaced, elevators improved, and hazardous materials abated. The building will be changed to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The interior spaces will also be reconfigured in order to make it more efficient office space, according to GSA spokeswoman Gene Gibson.

The landmark Beaux Arts structure has been vacant since workers were moved to the new federal building on Mission Street in 2007.

Once the renovation is complete, the building will house the GSA, the agency in charge of federal government buildings. The San Francisco office of the GSA covers all of California, as well as Arizona, Nevada, and Hawaii. The GSA office is now at 450 Golden Gate Ave. About 600 GSA employees work in the San Francisco office, with another 600 in the field.

The decision to rehab the building and use it for federal office space came last year after the federal government decided to scrap plans to find a private developer to take over the property. Forest City had been looking at converting the office building into apartments.

On April 8 the GSA issued a request for proposals for an architect and engineer to head up the renovation. Proposals are due April 27.

Land use attorney and Civic Center advocate Jim Haas said the stimulus money comes at a time when the area, long plagued by drug dealing and vagrancy, has seen some improvements. The Art Institute of California recently expanded into 10 United Nations Plaza and renewed a lease at 1170 market St., bringing its Civic Center footprint to more than 100,000 square feet. In February Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a number of measures to improve Civic Center, including new fencing, planting, and an environmental sculpture by Patrick Dougherty that features 18,000 pounds of freshly cut willow saplings into Civic Center Plaza’s sycamore trees. A free wireless Internet network, a new outdoor cafe, and improved lighting at UN Plaza were also announced.

Haas said improving 50 UN Plaza has been “the missing ingredient.”

“Currently the building is a blight on the area -- it has been empty for two years,” said Haas. “UN Plaza is vulnerable area to begin with and we have worked hard to stabilize it.”

He added: “It’s a grand building and they are going to do it up right. One thing about GSA when they actually do a project, they do it right,” said Haas.

Completed in 1936, the D-shaped Beaux Arts building was designed by Arthur Brown Jr., the architect of City Hall and three other Civic Center landmarks. The six-story building contains 350,000 gross square feet and 217,000 rentable square feet, with a 24,000-square-foot interior courtyard. Much of the building must be preserved under historic preservation laws, including the exterior facade, the lobbies, corridors, main stairways, interior courtyard and two office spaces.

In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “the decision to restore the beautiful 50 United Nations Plaza Federal Building is good news for San Francisco, for the Civic Center area, and for our city’s economy.”

“Renovating this building, improving its energy efficiency, and making it more accessible for people with disabilities will create and save jobs for San Franciscans while using the facility as a GSA regional headquarters will improve the quality of life for those working and living in the Civic Center area,” said Pelosi.

jkdineen@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4971
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/04/20/daily26.html?s=du&ed=2009-04-21&ana=e_du_pub&t=printable

[BTinSF]

Friday, May 8, 2009
450 Bay Area bids for stimulus cash
From Transbay to solar beer, Institute must pare down list
San Francisco Business Times - by Eric Young

Racing against a deadline, Bay Area authorities are sifting through 450 requests for federal stimulus money from around the Bay Area.

The Bay Area Council Economic Institute, charged by the state with collecting stimulus proposals from the Bay Area, is now deciding which it will recommend for funding under the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The propositions run the gamut from cities that want to improve infrastructure to businesses seeking money to grow. Major Bay Area infrastructure projects like the Transbay Terminal and Treasure Island are on the list. So are many smaller ones: Contra Costa County, for example, wants to build a median along a dangerous stretch of Vasco Road.

Large companies like TMG Partners and NUMMI have applied, as have many small ones. A Berkeley firm called Picture it Sold wants stimulus money to franchise its home-staging business: “We’re ready to move ahead with this plan immediately,” the company wrote in its proposal, “and we’ll help thousands of families and the whole economy to recover.”

Economic Institute officials are evaluating every proposal as they race to meet a June 1 deadline to submit a regional plan to the state outlining how the Bay Area wishes to spend the stimulus cash it gets. Officials said they were pleased with the comprehensive nature of most suggestions.

“There were some very strong proposals,” said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, which solicited the suggestions last month. “They align with certain kinds of priorities and activities that are really fundamental to the future of the (local) economy.”

Seeking job growth, return on investment

The Economic Institute assigned teams to review the ideas, which were required to fall into at least one of seven categories: transportation, water, energy/climate, workforce training and education, business development, science and innovation, or housing.

Reviewers said they will judge proposals based on how well they would boost employment and generate long-term return on investment for the region.

With so many proposals to sort through, “it’s going to be a challenge for the evaluation folks,” said Daniel Cruey, president of the San Mateo County Economic Development Association.

Getting a project on the Economic Institute’s list could lead to a big payday. About $30 billion in stimulus money will be divvied up in Sacramento before going to various regions around California. Another $20 billion is expected to be distributed directly in the state by federal officials on a discretionary basis. So Bay Area companies, cities and other government agencies rushed to get their ideas in front of the Economic Institute, hoping that by making it on the short list they would boost their chances of landing stimulus cash.

Randolph said the Economic Institute’s regional plan will emphasize quality rather than quantity.

“We’ll look to present a limited number of high-priority projects,” Randolph said. He did not say how many projects will be included in the regional plan.

Cities, counties dominate

Of the 450 proposals that came in, more than four out of five are from cities and public agencies around the Bay Area. Cities like San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and San Mateo want money for a range of projects, including an improved wastewater treatment plant, a new Transbay Transit Center, installing efficient street lighting, adding to a convention center or building a broadband Internet network.

Still, other proposals came from companies. Bay Area landlord TMG Partners has applied for funds to make two of its office buildings more energy- and water-efficient, one of several developers seeking money. Fremont auto manufacturer NUMMI has applied for assistance to build a rail ramp. A firm called White Rabbit Virtual Inc. wants money to help Bay Area companies implement flexible work programs to cut down on traffic; Autopia Biofuels wants to buy a 1,000-gallon tanker truck to deliver biodiesel on the Peninsula; Gold Pact Power Inc. wants money to build wind farms; Charge Tower LLC wants to build a network of electric vehicle charging stations; HMR USA proposes training poor, at-risk kids to refurbish computers, extending the life of those machines and cutting back on waste; the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. seeks cash to make its operations more energy efficient by installing solar panels and generators that run on biodiesel.

Shorter is better

Local officials hope a short list will be more appealing to stimulus money authorities than a laundry list.

“We’re really trying to focus and create impact and drive job growth,” said Lenny Mendonca, chair of the Bay Area Council, which advocates public policy on behalf of major San Francisco area companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Gap Inc. and Oracle Corp. “We don’t just want people digging and filling holes.”

The Bay Area’s shorter-is-better approach to its regional plan contrasts with some other regions in the state. In Los Angeles, for example, economic development officials collected proposals for close to 1,000 projects wanting stimulus money. The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. plans to send its entire list to the bureaucrats who will divvy up stimulus money.

“We have a lot of need here,” said David Flaks, the agency’s vice president of policy and strategy.

The Bay Area’s economic recovery plan will be submitted to the California Department of Business Transportation and Housing in Sacramento, which asked groups around the state to prepare similar documents. The plans go to the state capital because some of the federal stimulus money will flow through the bureaucracy there before reaching cities.

Even as local officials prepare to make their case for stimulus money, some recovery cash has already started flowing to the Bay Area. California this week committed more than $234 million to transportation projects in the region, the first wave of stimulus act cash coming in for infrastructure work.

The money will go toward a range of local projects, most of which are designed to renovate existing thoroughfares. The largest chunk of money — more than $192 million — will go toward digging a fourth bore for the Caldecott Tunnel, which connects Alameda and Contra Costa counties along Highway 24.

eyoung@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4969
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/05/11/story1.html

[BTinSF]

I got this billet-doux from Barbara Boxer today:

Dear Friend:

I am pleased to let you know that the U.S. Department of Transportation has released more than $50 million from the economic recovery package to improve transit in the Bay Area.

Specifically, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) will receive $48,263,672 for electrical maintenance, vehicle upgrades, construction and preventative maintenance, including:

$10 million for preventative maintenance
$20 million to replace essential electrical service
$13 million to build a mainline crossover at Pleasant Hill
$3.5 million to replace cables along the Transbay Tube
$594,984 for new fare collection equipment, lighting, an ADA-accessible walkway and other upgrades at the Balboa Park station
$1.17 million to upgrade BART trains with new carpet and seat cushions
These funds will improve both the safety and reliability of local transit projects, and they will also help to provide jobs for local workers in these difficult economic times.

I am pleased that these funds from the economic recovery package will bolster transit in the Bay Area. Investing in transit is a win-win. We will create jobs, support long-term economic growth in our communities, ease traffic congestion and reduce air pollution.

Sincerely,


Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

[BTinSF]

Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 12:06pm PDT
Three area transit districts get $86M from stimulus
San Francisco Business Times - by Eric Young

Three Bay Area transit districts got a collective $85.9 million in federal stimulus cash Wednesday, money that will be used to refurbish existing fleets and infrastructure.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Caltrain will receive $9.3 million; San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency will receive $67.2 million and the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District will receive $9.4 million.

The money is part of the ongoing payouts of taxpayer money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law last February. Nationwide the Department of Transportation has released about $152 million of $15 billion that has been set aside.

Caltrain said it will spend its money on track, bridge and signal improvements. San Francisco’s MUNI will spend its allowance on several projects, including preventive maintenance on buses, maintenance and replacement of light rail track switches, new change machines and fare collection systems and renovation and maintenance of various facilities.

The Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, will spend most of its money to refurbish a San Francisco Bay ferry boat.


Email Eric Young at eyoung@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4969
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/06/08/daily32.html?s=du&ed=2009-06-10&ana=e_du_pub&t=printable

[BTinSF]

Mayor Newsom and Department of Public Works Announce New Street Paving Projects Funded by Federal Stimulus Dollars

06/08/09 - The Department of Public Works (DPW) is soliciting bids from contractors for projects that will pave and repair streets in San Francisco, with funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

"San Francisco’s efforts to pursue Federal stimulus grants are coming to fruition," said Mayor Newsom. "These grants are creating jobs, helping to jumpstart our local economy and preserving one of our most vital assets, our infrastructure."

DPW is advertising over $11 million in pavement renovation projects and will host two pre-bid meetings: Thursday, June 11 for the Geary Street Intersections Project and on Tuesday, June 23 for all other resurfacing projects. These meetings will allow interested contractors to learn more about the contracting and bidding processes.

"These grants will help Public Works to continue making vital repairs and improvements to our infrastructure; which would otherwise have not been able to move forward," said Ed Reiskin, Director of Public Works. "I encourage contractors to get on board to learn more about our procurement process so that we can get these projects off the ground."

San Francisco successfully received approval for Stimulus funding for the following projects:

Geary Street Intersections Project— Resurfacing of intersections along Geary Street at 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Avenues. The project includes sidewalk curb repair, and retrofitting of curb ramps.

Turk Street Pavement Renovation Project— Resurfacing of streets from Market Street to Van Ness Avenue. The project consists of pavement resurfacing, and concrete work including base repair, sidewalk curb reconstruction, parking strip repair, and retrofitting of curb ramps.

Jones Street Pavement Renovation Project—Resurfacing of streets from Market Street to California Street. The project consists of pavement resurfacing, and concrete work including base repair, sidewalk curb reconstruction, repair of the parking strip, and retrofitting of curb ramps.

7th Avenue and Laguna Honda Boulevard Pavement Renovation Project—Resurfacing of streets along 7th Avenue from Hugo Street to Judah Street, Kirkham Street to Laguna Honda Boulevard, and Laguna Honda Boulevard from 7th Avenue to Dewey Boulevard. The project consists of pavement resurfacing, and concrete work including base repair, sidewalk curb reconstruction, parking strip repair, and curb ramp retrofits.

Divisadero Street Pavement Renovation Project—Resurfacing and street improvements from Waller Street to Geary Boulevard. The project consists of pavement resurfacing, and concrete work including base repair, sidewalk curb reconstruction, parking strip repair, and the retrofits of curb ramps. This project is a component of the Divisadero Streetscape Improvement Project; which consists of new bus bulb-outs, median widening with trees, landscaping and irrigation, lighting fixture upgrades and new street furniture.

For more information on these Public Works projects and other projects in the City and County of San Francisco being advertised for work as part of the federal stimulus grants, log on to the City’s Office of Contract Administration’s (OCA) website at http://mission.sfgov.org/OCABidPublication/Stimulus_Bids.aspx.

To get more information about projects granted and awarded funds under the ARRA in San Francisco, go to www.recoverysf.org
Source: http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=105867

[BTinSF]

Friday, June 12, 2009
85 Bay Area projects top stimulus list
Few business proposals chosen
San Francisco Business Times - by Eric Young

The Bay Area’s wish list for stimulus money gave high marks to projects with regional impact and long-term benefits that would spur hiring.

Few proposals from local businesses made the cut. Of the 85 projects that ranked highest on the list, three were backed by for-profit companies in the Bay Area. The rest were projects that cities, counties or nonprofits want to undertake.

Government and nonprofit projects “tended to be the ones with larger-scale impact in terms of involving a large scope of activity,” said Sean Randolph, CEO of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, which compiled the list. High-profile projects like high-speed rail, expanding the Caldecott tunnel, extending BART to San Jose and building a new stem cell research facility at the Buck Institute headlined the priority list. Together, the 85 projects designated as the region’s highest strategic priorities are requesting $7 billion in stimulus funding.

Making the list, which was released last week, does not guarantee stimulus money. It is more of a planning document, showing which projects most Bay Area authorities want funded. Some funding decisions will be made by state authorities and others by federal officials.

But making it onto the regional wish list has its advantages. Top-ranked projects likely will get more consideration as local officials lobby Sacramento or Washington, D.C., bureaucrats. About $30 billion in federal stimulus money will be divvied up in Sacramento before going to various regions around California. A further $20 billion is expected to be distributed directly in California by federal officials on a discretionary basis.

Two housing projects — one by San Francisco-based developer Emerald Fund Inc. and another by the group building on the former Bay Meadows race track in San Mateo — were among the three business-sponsored projects ranked highly on the Bay Area’s wish list. The third business-backed proposal was from Hewlett-Packard Co. for a job placement program aimed at laid-off technology workers.

The Emerald Fund’s 308-unit rental project at 333 Harrison St. in San Francisco “would be an extraordinarily good use of stimulus funding,” said Oz Erickson, the company chairman, who hopes to get $2 million in stimulus cash to help move the $107 million project ahead.

While private businesses did not score highly on the regional wish list, that does not mean they won’t eventually get a boost from stimulus cash. Private contractors, consultants and other service providers will eventually win many contracts that cities and counties might not have been able to offer had they not landed the stimulus cash.

The Bay Area’s wish list is one of 12 from around the state submitted to the California Business Transportation and Housing Agency in Sacramento. The agency will take all the plans and help coordinate with cities and counties to lobby the federal government on behalf of certain projects. BTH officials declined to say which projects were likely to get the agency’s backing.

eyoung@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4969
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/06/15/story3.html?t=printable

[BTinSF]

Recovery Funds allocated to San Francisco to Prevent Homelessness

Earlier this week, the Obama Administration announced that the City of San Francisco will receive nearly $9 million in Recovery Act funds to combat homelessness under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s new Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program. These critical funds will help many families in our community most in need pay for their housing costs.

While the causes of homelessness are varied and complex, this funding will assist families who have fallen into homelessness in finding homes, or prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place. These essential American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds complement the City of San Francisco’s ongoing innovative and effective initiatives to address homelessness.

Reducing homelessness is a priority for me in Congress, and I’m pleased to see that communities across the country will be aided by these vital funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Source: http://email.capitolhillnewsonline.com/m/215QdcVpQMuLy6VBeU0wSnygGMgnx7_NE6j8Lf4RzSXbs_3xEg?NlQQh6qjzXuzImavAF6npD7Z2CzSfAnL0XOUf5LhcYJvIejUULXBfLxB5IBKgo75

[BTinSF]

Friday, August 7, 2009
Bay Area figures big in stimulus funding
San Francisco Business Times - by Eric Young and Lindsay Riddell

As the flow of stimulus money picks up, Bay Area companies have emerged as some of the country’s biggest recipients of federal contracts tied to the Recovery Act.

San Francisco-based engineering and construction giants Bechtel Group Inc. and URS Corp, have landed a combined $297 million for environmental cleanup and nuclear waste disposal, respectively, at several sites around the country.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the East Bay and the SLAC National Accelerator Lab in Palo Alto netted a combined $89 million for building and infrastructure improvements and research.

While most of the contracts are coming from the U.S. Department of Energy, some big cash is flowing into the Bay Area from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. San Francisco-based Del Monte Foods Co. landed almost $9 million to sell peaches to the government, which then distributed them to needy families.

Overall, seven Bay Area companies were among the top 50 recipients nationwide of stimulus-related contracts since the Recovery Act was signed into law six months ago. Collectively those companies’ deals are worth $402.4 million, according to a tally on USASpending.gov, a government web site that tracks federal spending.

At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, interim director Paul Alivisatos said getting the stimulus money was a “really special moment” for the lab. “There’s been pent-up demand for some of these projects for a long time.”

Some of the early Recovery Act contract winners are among the nation’s biggest recipients of federal money already. URS, for instance, is the nation’s sixth-biggest recipient of federal money in the fiscal year ending next month. The company has received about $5.6 billion for federal construction jobs, operating government-owned facilities and the like. Bechtel is the nation’s ninth-biggest recipient so far, bringing in $3 billion for work on nuclear reactors, hazardous substance removal, construction and other federal work.

eyoung@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4969 & lriddell@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4968
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/08/10/story4.html