Mayor London Breed announced Friday she has signed an ordinance to launch a rent relief program at San Francisco International Airport, modifying and waiving rent and other fees for airport concession tenants as the COVID-19 pandemic endures.
The airport's COVID-19 Emergency Rent Relief Program will be granted $21.3 million to help SFO tenants, with the funds being supported by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, Breed said.
Under the program, several fees like infrastructure and cleaning fees for SFO concessions tenants will be retroactively waived from April 2020 through December 2020.
Additionally, rental car tenants at SFO will have their rents retroactively waived for March, April and May 2020, and utilities waived for April and May 2020.
"We know how hard this pandemic has hit our retailers and businesses, especially at the airport where traffic has been down significantly for months," Breed said in a statement. "The city has worked to provide relief to our tenants where we can, including deferring and waiving fees and rent to the city. As we work our way towards recovery and travel picks up against, we are going to need these businesses to serve our visitors and residents."
"Our entire SFO business community is critical to delivering the travel experience our passengers expect and deserve," SFO Airport Director Ivar Satero said. "We appreciate the perseverance of our concession tenants and hope this emergency rent relief program will help them to continue operating and begin the process of recovering and rehiring."
SFO joins other local agencies in providing relief programs for tenant impacted by the pandemic, including the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the Recreation and Park Department, and the Port of San Francisco.
