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From:Gloria Arteaga <br />To:publiccomment <br />Subject:Item 7A <br />Date:Monday, July 22, 2024 2:00:16 PM <br />Attachments:image003.png <br />You don't often get email from gloria@premiallc.com. Learn why this is important <br />Public Comment from Gloria Arteaga on Agenda Item 7.A. <br />July 22, 2024 <br /> <br />Mayor Gee and Members of Council: <br /> <br />My name is Gloria Arteaga from Premia. We are an investor, developer, and commercial <br />real estate operations firm headquartered in Redwood City. We have hundreds of <br />thousands of square feet of commercial real estate in Redwood City, along with other <br />communities throughout the Peninsula. <br /> <br />The proposal you are considering at your meeting today will have detrimental effects on our <br />business and those who lease space from us. The rate we pay is currently $31 per square <br />foot. You are proposing increasing our rate to $75 per square foot, an increase of 142 <br />percent. Additionally, you are setting the cap at an unrealistically high level of $500,000 up <br />from $7,121. This is unreasonable and will scare future tenants from moving their <br />businesses into Redwood City. <br /> <br />The office real estate market in Redwood City is very bleak. Adding these additional fees to <br />the Landlord side of costs, plus the tenant increases you are proposing on a per-employee <br />basis will be devasting to finding new tenants to occupy any vacant space in Redwood City. <br />One of our clients is a large law firm, which falls under the professional services category. <br />You are going to be increasing their rates by more than 300 percent. This, too, is <br />unreasonable. This tenant will eventually decide its more cost effective to move their <br />business outside of Redwood City instead of renewing their lease and will further hurt our <br />business. We lose a lot of money when our buildings are vacant. <br /> <br />I encourage this Council to reconsider its approach to taxing businesses at these proposed <br />rate, because, if you do, many businesses will simply leave Redwood City and many more <br />will not consider Redwood City when looking for commercial real estate space. I appreciate <br />all the outreach that has been done to date and feel staff is on the right track with this <br />approach (versus the original proposal on this matter); but the rates need further <br />refinement. <br /> <br />Please vote no on the current proposal. <br /> <br />Thank you for your consideration. <br /> <br /> <br />Gloria Arteaga <br />Premia <br />801 Hamilton Street <br />Redwood City, CA 94063 <br />m. 650.722.1761 <br />o. 650.395.9377 <br />gloria@premiallc.com