By Belis Sly and Trish Donnelly

Pan-Med Enterprises, located in the prestigious Pacific Professional Building in San Francisco, has been serving the health needs of the Bay Area since 1984. Although the building was considered state-of-the-art when it first opened, it had not been updated since then.

Pan-Med’s Tony Najera checks out the newly installed HVAC controls.

Tony Najera, a veteran Pan-Med engineer and recently appointed Building Manager, recognized there was an opportunity to bring his building into the 21st century with modern, energy-efficient equipment updates. As soon as he took charge of the building’s energy management, Najera rolled out a complete overhaul project focused on achieving the company’s long-term energy goals while increasing occupant and patient comfort.

“When my board asked me about my 5-year energy savings plan, I told them we can get it done in 2 years with the help of PG&E,” said Najera.

(Hear more in this video about how Pan-Med Enterprises worked with PG&E to help save both energy and money.)

Due to the building’s expansive footprint, financing a complete energy overhaul out-of-pocket would not be feasible. Working closely with his PG&E account manager and energy solutions company, Gridium, Najera quickly put together a plan that outlined $2.6M worth of equipment upgrades to maximize energy and money savings. This planning enabled Pan-Med Enterprises to retrofit the whole building with PG&E’s 0% interest On-Bill Financing Program, and pay for the total project cost with monthly energy savings and no out-of-pocket costs.

Once the project plan was complete and the On-Bill Financing loan was approved, PG&E trade pro partner Gridium worked with design and construction partner NuWave Energy Solutions to install LED lighting, variable frequency drives, HVAC controls, and a smart building automation system to monitor and manage it all. All the work was done while the building was occupied, with no effect on Pan-Med’s operations.

Since completion, Pan-Med is saving 30% of electricity usage and 60% of gas usage, bringing in $270,000/994,000 kWh in yearly energy savings – meaning they can turn their focus back to caring for the members of their community.

Email Currents at Currents@pge.com.

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Alioto’s, the quintessential Fisherman’s Wharf seafood spot with a giant number 8 on its facade commemorating the fish stall that Sicilian immigrant Nunzio Alioto Sr. once ran nearby, is giving up the ghost after temporarily closing two years ago.

We all kind of knew that not all of tourist-centric Fisherman’s Wharf was likely to make it through a two-year pandemic. But now we learn that a big casualty is Alioto’s, the almost-100-year-old, stalwart restaurant at 8 Fisherman’s Wharf. The restaurant has been dark since March 2020.

The SF Business Times broke the news, after the restaurant’s landlord, the Port of San Francisco, revealed they had struck a deal to let Alioto’s out of its lease, which still had over 14 years on it. That was a 66-year lease that was signed back in 1970, by the way.

“The loss of Alioto’s — a renowned Fisherman’s Wharf icon — is heartbreaking for the Port and the generations of San Franciscans and tourists that have enjoyed the Alioto’s dining experience,” said Randy Quezada, the Port’s director of communications, in a statement. “Their contribution to the port and the city will not soon be forgotten.”

Alioto’s, sometimes called Alioto’s No. 8 because of the sign, life began as a fish stood in 1925, later moving to Stall #8 at the wharf and slowly growing into a full-fledged restaurant by 1938. Nunzio Alioto Sr., the proprietor, died in 1933, but the business was taken on by his children, including a daughter, Rose, who was instrumental in the restaurant’s expansion. A son-in-law of the elder Nunzio Alioto, Nunzio A. Alioto, married another daughter, Antoinette, and worked at Alioto’s Restaurant nearly until his death at age 88 in 2001. He was a “distant relation” of former SF Supervisor and mayoral candidate Angela Alioto, whose father Joseph was mayor of San Francisco in the 1960s.

As the Business Times notes, assuming that the lease termination agreement gets approved, this will avoid the messier fate of another longtime Wharf restaurant, Castagnola’s. The port south Castagnola’s in September after it ceased paying rent and did not seek any rent-relief program help either. Back in 2020, the port agreed to forgive rent for around 200 of its tenants, and was only requiring that restaurants pay a percentage of their monthly sales, as per existing agreements.

Thankfully, other Wharf stalwarts Scoma’s and The Franciscan are still hanging on and are back open.

Photo via Facebook

The post One in every of San Francisco’s Oldest Eating places, Alioto’s, Is Closing After a Century at Fisherman’s Wharf appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.