San Francisco staff say TID and Moscone Expansion District met benchmarks despite COVID-driven revenue losses

Chris Korgas, a program director at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, presented the FY 2019–20 annual reports for the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District (TID) and the Moscone Expansion District (MED) at the Government Audit & Oversight Committee on Nov. 4, 2021. Korgas noted a clerical correction in the OEWD memo (the assessment rate should read 0.75%) and said OEWD staff will file an amended memo.

OEWD reviews three benchmarks for business-based districts. Korgas reported the TID and MED met the benchmarks OEWD evaluates — variance between management-plan budget and annual budget, budget-to-actual variance, and carry-forward disclosure — but both districts saw sharp revenue declines because hotel-assessment revenues are tied to room rate receipts, which plummeted during the pandemic. The MED drew on a $5,000,000 line of credit that comes due in FY2020–21 and reduced its Moscone Expansion incentive fund from roughly $2,500,000 in prior periods to about $150,000.

Paul Frantzos, executive vice president for the TID/MED, described the districts’ operations and pandemic impacts. He said convention activity, room nights and direct spending were down sharply in 2019–20: convention meeting counts and direct spending fell and bookings dropped by more than 70–80% in many measures. He said Moscone-related projects and the MED’s capital program remain dependent on the return of convention business and hotel occupancy.

Committee members commended district staff for outreach and pandemic-era support. With no public callers on the item, the committee voted to recommend the resolution to the full Board (3–0). The committee’s clerk noted that OEWD will provide corrected slides and the amended memo to the clerk’s file.

The committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for final action on the Board agenda.