Register (or re-register) to vote by October 20, 2008
Just an FYI, especially for those new to the Jack London District.

You can register to vote online, or we will try to have forms at the JLDA Candidate Forum on Monday, September 15th. The Forum will be your chance to meet City Council At-Large candidates Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hamill. The forum will be held at the Portobello Regatta Room at 11 Embarcadero - towards the back of the parking lot past the tennis courts next door to KTVU. The forum will start at 6:30pm and go until 8pm.

This is your chance to see for yourself what the candidates have to say and ask questions. Since Council Member Nancy Nadel isn't very supportive (imho!) of our neighborhood, perhaps we can get some committments from one of these candidates for the at-large seat.
Posted 9/11/2008

Ellington's Future Uncertain
The Ellington is the under-construction condo building on Broadway between 2nd & 3rd Streets. It is 134 condos with a fair amount of retail space at the ground level.

A month or so ago, someone sent me a link to an article on the developer, Molasky Pacific. It seems that Irwin Molasky (apparently of some fame in the Las Vegas development scene) had filed personal bankruptcy.

(In a side note, it is worth further clicking on the link in that story to one about a "troublemaker" who has my favorite quote of the year - "I've always found," Shabel said at one point, with her slight British accent, "that if you have a cocktail party before the project is completed, it usually spells trouble. Almost none of them end up going through." How appropriate! Didn't the Ellington have their grand opening back at the beginning of the year with tales of sales starting in April?)

So then today I was catching up on my San Francisco Business Times reading and I saw a story about the Ellington. It seems that it was SOLD three months ago to their equity partner, Lehman Brothers. It seems that now Lehman Brothers has troubles of their own and are selling off most of their commercial real estate holdings, whether that includes the Ellington has not been announced. The story comes from the September 5-11, 2008 issue.

At the last construction meeting, Swinerton said that they were expecting to turn the building over to the developer in October 2008... hmm, will individual units be sold, or the building as a whole???
Posted 9/09/2008