Jackie Krentzman is a Bay Area-based writer and editor. 

Chris “Six” Nguyen has always dreamed of creating space for cyclists in his community. This avid cyclist has worked in the industry for years but was always daunted by the cost and complexities of running his own retail storefront business.

Thanks to a new program from the city of South San Francisco, his dream will come true in a few weeks.

Launch Local! provides entrepreneurs with a brick-and-mortar establishment using vacant storefronts. The city’s goal is to revitalize its commercial corridors, which took a hit during COVID-19 and have still not returned to their pre-pandemic levels. The program allows entrepreneurs to test the market with a shorter lease term and helps them get started in a new storefront.

Six is the pilot program’s first recipient, and his store, Six Cycles, is South San Francisco’s first bicycle shop in over a decade.

“This program is the perfect fit,” says Six, noting the city has done a lot in recent years to attract families and promote alternative transportation. “When I saw the post about the Launch Local! program, I was so excited — I have been wanting to put my energy into our community, and here was my chance.”

Launch Local! provides Six with a 12-month lease in a prime location on El Camino Real at $1 per square foot (market rate would be about $2.50), a tenant improvement rent credit (up to $10,000), and technical support through the launch process.

South San Francisco conceived the program in 2025, when commercial corridors continued to suffer from higher vacancy rates brought about by the pandemic and then high inflation. The commercial vacancy rate went from under 2% before the pandemic, peaking at over 6% in 2021.

“We are a city with two economies,” says the city’s Management Analyst Katie Donner. “On the east side of town, we have one of the largest biotech clusters in the world, but on the west side, it’s a lot of small mom-and-pop businesses that were suffering.”

South San Francisco began by studying how nearby cities addressed their vacancy challenges and applied best practices gleaned from Santa Cruz, San José, and San Francisco.

Eight entrepreneurs are interested in opening their first brick-and-mortar location in South San Francisco. The city chose Six Cycles because of Six’s prior retail, managerial, and staffing experience, as well as his ability to finance operating costs and the short-term lease. Six Bicycles is also meeting a need that community members have been clamoring for —  a bicycle retail and repair shop.

“The city chose Chris because he was well set up, and we could prepare him for success, and a pathway to permanent occupancy,” says Donner. “We want Six Cycles to succeed so that in a couple of years, he’s paying market rate rent — either at our space or another space.”

For now, Six Cycles is the only business in the pilot program, but the city would like to expand the program due to high demand. Staff hope that Six’s anticipated success will get local property owners to see the advantages of renting vacant spaces at a discount, and plan to encourage them to join the program.

“Renting long-vacant spaces at a discount benefits both property owners and emerging entrepreneurs,” says Donner. “Plus, existing businesses will benefit from filling these vacancies and creating more vibrant neighborhoods.”

Launch Local! is the latest in a series of economic development initiatives by South San Francisco. In 2022, it opened the Economic Advancement Center, which both supports workforce development and provides assistance to small businesses.

“During COVID, it became apparent that our small business community was in dire straits,” says Nell Selander, the city’s economic and community development director. “And our residents were being left behind. Existing workforce development boards just weren’t serving them, as they were not able to rapidly re-employ, retrain, or upskill them.”

In the beginning, South San Francisco funded and ran the center. Today, its operations are funded by the city; the Sobrato Foundation largely funds the center’s programming. Nearly a dozen nonprofits now operate out of the space.

The city has also brought 1,073 units of downtown housing online since 2018, with another 1,000 under construction. Around a dozen new restaurants and shops have opened as well. The city hosts an annual Lunar New Year Night Market that draws over 2,000 attendees to its downtown. Staff hope to sponsor more community-building events downtown in the future.

“We are leveraging opportunities to get more people walking the streets and hopefully dining in our restaurants, which leads to visiting some of our new businesses,” says Ernesto Lucero, the city’s economic development manager.

All these efforts seem to be paying off. Six says that new housing, businesses, and road infrastructure have brought a new energy to the city — one he hopes to capitalize on with his shop.

“My goal is to eventually host workshops and events related to cycling,” he says. “Hopefully, we become a community center of sorts, where people gather to go on bike rides, take classes on bike safety, or family bicycle camping trips. And the fact that the city is helping other small businesses to invest here will only make the city stronger.”