Club Pilates to not open on San Francisco’s Valencia Street after push back

By Amanda Hari

Club Pilates won’t be opening on Valencia Street in San Francisco after people in the area pushed back against it.

The chain has more than 1,300 locations worldwide, and Valencia Street merchants, like Avi Ehrlich, say it would negatively impact the small, independent character of the area.

“We just want to keep this international destination local and interesting,” said Ehrlich.

Ehrlich has lived on Valencia Street in the Mission for two decades. He initially moved in because the uniqueness of the area appealed to him.

“This is the longest stretch in the entire country of independently run small businesses that are locally owned by the people right there in the store,” Ehrlich explained.

He’s one of those people. He owns Silver Sprocket, a comic bookstore and publishing house. It’s just feet away from an empty store front on Valencia near 21st street. He’s also the co-vice president of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association.

One day, while walking to work, he noticed the sign about a San Francisco Planning Commission hearing for permitting for Club Pilates to open up in the space.

“They’re trying to say that they’re not a big chain because it’s locally owned and there’s only two or three other locations, but Club Pilates has over 1,000 locations,” Ehrlich said, explaining how they are just one set of owners in a much bigger system. “That is a chain. You can’t just license the Starbucks name and say you’re not a Starbucks.”

Carrie Wu and her partner, CJ Liu, thought the hearing was going to be a formality.

They already own two Club Pilates in the city, one in Diamond Heights and another that will open in NoPa.

Permitting for those was easy, so Wu was surprised when the planning Commissioners denied their permit.

“I was kind of in shock because we thought the city really needed business,” Wu said.

The Planning Commission received more than a dozen letters in opposition. Wu believes it influenced them to vote against it.

“I don’t think it’s really against us, it’s probably really about the chains,” Wu explained.

San Francisco’s planning code requires formula retailers, which are businesses with more than 11 locations, to obtain a conditional use permit to open in the Valencia Corridor.

Wu and her partner could appeal the commissioner’s decision to the Board of Supervisors, but at this point, they have decided against it, and the area altogether.

“I don’t think we are going to look at Valencia again,” said Wu.

Ehrlich is grateful the vote went that way, and Valencia will retain its character.

“I was very relieved,” said Ehrlich. “We’ve already successfully prevented an American appeal from moving in, a jack spade offshoot. This has happened a number of times and the community has always consistently rallied together and said, ‘No, I don’t want to have a Starbucks, a McDonald’s.’ There’s a reason I come to Valencia street and it’s for something different than I can get at every strip mall across the country.”