Phil Tagami: Behind-the-scenes power broker
Nov 20, 2005, 9:00pm PST
Phil Tagami: Behind-the-scenes power broker
He has his sights set on the mayor's seat. Can he appease his critics?
In a meeting in a drab city conference room in the fall of 1998, Phil Tagami turned the corner from being a small-time developer to a major Oakland power broker.
Across the table were heads of various city planning and development departments, each determined to block Tagami and his business partners from renovating the historic Liberty House department store across from City Hall. Only giant national developers like Shorenstein Co. or Prentiss Properties had the right experience, clout and resources for the massive undertaking, they contended.
In contrast, Tagami and his team had polished up a few office buildings bought at fire-sale prices. "We didn't have a pot to pee in," said one of Tagami's partners, Len Epstein.
But they did have one thing: political connections. Tagami had walked precincts for Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente and led neighborhood cleanup efforts on behalf of then-Mayor Elihu Harris. And those two officials were sitting across the table as well.
"After all these people had their little speech about how we should have the Shorensteins of the world do this, the mayor literally stood up, slammed (his hand) on the table and said, 'This isn't your decision,'" Epstein said. "'You are to give them your full cooperation.'"
Eighteen months after buying the building from the city, Tagami and his partners completed a $50 million renovation and reopened the building as the Rotunda, widely regarded as the city's most attractive office complex. They were helped by $12 million in long-term loans from the city and money from longtime private investors.
It wasn't the first time Tagami had worked his connections to maximum effect, and it wouldn't be the last.
A relentless wheeler-dealer, Tagami has become not only an accomplished downtown developer, but one of Oakland's most important behind-the-scenes power brokers. He helps business allies navigate the city bureaucracy and is a confidante of Mayor Jerry Brown.
Now, as Brown prepares to leave office, Tagami is contemplating a political career that could eventually put him in the mayor's seat -- if he can tame a reputation for a big mouth and sharp elbows.
"I can be known as being a little surly or a bull in the China shop from time to time, but I think I know the difference between paper plates and the baccarat," Tagami said. "I want to get things done. I believe in getting things done."
He's got juiceOne thing he's gotten done is establishing himself as a larger-than-life presence in Oakland, constantly working and building his connections to power.
It was Tagami who hosted Mayor Brown's celebrity-studded wedding in his Rotunda building. He got environmentalist and Councilmember Nancy Nadel to join him for a stogie -- inside a nightclub's Phil Tagami Cigar Room. He is a regular at Verbena, and has met with enough clients, politicians and reporters over expensive wines and platters of food that one table has his name attached on a bronze plaque.
Visit Tagami in his glass-walled office under the spectacular dome of his Rotunda office building and he is all but certain to be fielding a flurry of phone calls from people like U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee or state Sen. Don Perata.
He's increasingly involved in Oakland's burgeoning nightlife as well. For more than one club owner, Tagami has played investor, landlord and permit expediter -- not to mention frequent customer.
"The mayor walks in, wow!" said Kevin Burns, recalling the recent opening of his downtown nightclub, the Uptown, with Tagami's backing. "And I know he's looking for Phil. 'He's up there!'" Burns said, pointing to a closed-off upstairs suite where Tagami was entertaining a tight circle of VIPs.
Tagami has accumulated fiercely loyal allies in Oakland business and politics, as well as some critics who say he is brusque and self-promoting. While his aggressive style rubs some people the wrong way, nearly everyone seems to agree on two things: He works tirelessly, and has significantly improved the city in the process.
By Tagami's own account, he puts in 18-hour days during the week, thanks in part to after-hours hobnobbing, plus four hours both days of the weekend.
He uses that time not only to close business deals, but also to slice further into the intricate workings of Oakland City Hall. He counts first and foremost among his clients -- paid and de facto -- Mayor Jerry Brown.
"Jerry and I talk about Oakland every day -- he pelts questions at me," Tagami said. "It's no-holds barred. It could be parks, it could be union issues, it could be the port, it could be planning.
"It's a dialog, an ongoing conversation."
The mayor did not respond to several requests for comment about Tagami.
Tagami also has close ties to state Sen. Don Perata.
In the private sector, Tagami informally helps developers, like Signature Properties of Pleasanton, get the lay of the land in Oakland. With others his involvement is more pronounced, like helping the Uptown's Burns obtain a liquor license and entitlements, or helping Saraatje Naef design and obtain permits for her downtown club, At 17th.
He has also been known to collect fees for his advice from firms like billboard company Foster Interstate Media, which once cut him a check for about $50,000. Tagami said the money was reimbursement for expenses incurred working on a deal in which the company was involved.
From others, he collects appreciation. The Oakland Chamber of Commerce awarded Tagami its title of "Godfatha" the last two years for signing up the most new members. "He goes full throttle," said Benjamin Scott, the chamber's public policy director.
Some Oakland insiders complain Tagami has his fingers in too many pies -- and at times is too intense.
"Overall, I think he cares a great deal about Oakland, and utilizes his intelligence to improve much of the downtown," said Nancy Nadel, a city councilmember and mayoral candidate. "But ... his style has changed considerably and some people characterize it to me as operating through tantrums, to some extent."
Nadel remembers a meeting focused on the emerging downtown entertainment district where Tagami began yelling and verbally "attacking" other participants, she said. Loud outbursts are not unknown for Tagami, said a former city staffer who has witnessed at least two of them.
Tagami acknowledged being "vocal" and "loud" during the meeting Nadel recalls, but said he was responding to "someone shouting me down" and trying to intimidate him. He acknowledged there have been other incidents, maybe "half a dozen" over the last 15 years, in which he has made heated statements at council or community meetings.
"There is no question, there is a need for a little more discipline," Tagami said.
Tagami is taking steps to soften his image. In a series of interviews this fall, he emphasized his belief that he has matured since becoming a father last year and, at 40, has mellowed. He has focused some of his energy on philanthropic work, pointing out that he personally gave $82,000 to philanthropic causes last year, compared with $73,000 in political contributions, and is involved in nonprofits like affordable housing firm Bridge and the Crucible School for Fine Arts. The balance will not reverse -- even in the election year of 2006, he said.
The problem solverThose who know Tagami well describe him as, above all, a fix-it man.
The problem-solving obsession can be traced to his father, Tadao "Frank" Tagami, who earned his money fixing cars. His parents divorced when he was a teenager. At age 16, he turned his back on the New Hampshire boarding school where he had played lacrosse, ice hockey and football on an athletic scholarship, and moved into his mother's home in Berkeley. He soon left to live on his own in West Berkeley. He took three jobs at once, whatever work he could find, but eventually moved into construction, then building management. By 22, he had accumulated the experience, connections and the few tens of thousands of dollars needed to join his partners in launching his development business, California Capital Group, which later morphed into California Commercial Investment.
From the start, the company focused on renovating and leasing rundown, older office buildings whose owners were in dire financial straits. Many of buildings had been repossessed by the Resolution Trust Corp. following the savings and loan crisis.
Tagami brought to the table his willingness to work extreme hours, personally doing much of the clean-up and improvement work needed to make his company's buildings more attractive to tenants.
That track record led Tagami to the Rotunda project. The building had been a failed $45 million project for another developer for two years in the late 1980s, then a city-owned albatross for another decade. The San Francisco Chronicle dubbed the building a "beached whale."
Though Tagami's connections were indispensable in landing the project, he and his partners could not have completed the renovation without their experience turning around buildings just like it.
After the Rotunda, Tagami and his partners moved quickly to take on Oakland's biggest headache: the restoration of the Fox Theater. A previous developer failed at restoring the building, purchased by the city nine years ago. Tagami and his partners are guiding a $34 million effort to restore and reopen the city-owned Fox as a 1,400-seat, cabaret-style theater. The money will come from grants, tax credits and a $13 million loan from the city against tax revenue from the redevelopment area around the theater. Tagami's firm will collect a fee of about 2 percent of the cost of the project.
"He loves just fixing things," said wife Jessica Tagami (a former San Francisco Business Times reporter and editor). "He tried to fix the Rotunda and he fixed it and he is doing it with the Fox now.
"I'm not sure what his next project is going to be but ... it's like Oakland is this big puzzle for him and he wants to make sure all the pieces fit together."
One piece is almost sure to involve political office.
Tagami freely discusses running for office within five to 10 years, starting with one of the two at-large seats on the city council.
"If I run for office, it would be responsible to run for the office of City Council first before running for the office of mayor," Tagami said. "Would I like to run for anything besides City Council and mayor? Probably not."
Ryan Tate covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/11/21/focus4.html?page=all
Phil Tagami: Behind-the-scenes power broker
He has his sights set on the mayor's seat. Can he appease his critics?
In a meeting in a drab city conference room in the fall of 1998, Phil Tagami turned the corner from being a small-time developer to a major Oakland power broker.
Across the table were heads of various city planning and development departments, each determined to block Tagami and his business partners from renovating the historic Liberty House department store across from City Hall. Only giant national developers like Shorenstein Co. or Prentiss Properties had the right experience, clout and resources for the massive undertaking, they contended.
In contrast, Tagami and his team had polished up a few office buildings bought at fire-sale prices. "We didn't have a pot to pee in," said one of Tagami's partners, Len Epstein.
But they did have one thing: political connections. Tagami had walked precincts for Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente and led neighborhood cleanup efforts on behalf of then-Mayor Elihu Harris. And those two officials were sitting across the table as well.
"After all these people had their little speech about how we should have the Shorensteins of the world do this, the mayor literally stood up, slammed (his hand) on the table and said, 'This isn't your decision,'" Epstein said. "'You are to give them your full cooperation.'"
Eighteen months after buying the building from the city, Tagami and his partners completed a $50 million renovation and reopened the building as the Rotunda, widely regarded as the city's most attractive office complex. They were helped by $12 million in long-term loans from the city and money from longtime private investors.
It wasn't the first time Tagami had worked his connections to maximum effect, and it wouldn't be the last.
A relentless wheeler-dealer, Tagami has become not only an accomplished downtown developer, but one of Oakland's most important behind-the-scenes power brokers. He helps business allies navigate the city bureaucracy and is a confidante of Mayor Jerry Brown.
Now, as Brown prepares to leave office, Tagami is contemplating a political career that could eventually put him in the mayor's seat -- if he can tame a reputation for a big mouth and sharp elbows.
"I can be known as being a little surly or a bull in the China shop from time to time, but I think I know the difference between paper plates and the baccarat," Tagami said. "I want to get things done. I believe in getting things done."
He's got juiceOne thing he's gotten done is establishing himself as a larger-than-life presence in Oakland, constantly working and building his connections to power.
It was Tagami who hosted Mayor Brown's celebrity-studded wedding in his Rotunda building. He got environmentalist and Councilmember Nancy Nadel to join him for a stogie -- inside a nightclub's Phil Tagami Cigar Room. He is a regular at Verbena, and has met with enough clients, politicians and reporters over expensive wines and platters of food that one table has his name attached on a bronze plaque.
Visit Tagami in his glass-walled office under the spectacular dome of his Rotunda office building and he is all but certain to be fielding a flurry of phone calls from people like U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee or state Sen. Don Perata.
He's increasingly involved in Oakland's burgeoning nightlife as well. For more than one club owner, Tagami has played investor, landlord and permit expediter -- not to mention frequent customer.
"The mayor walks in, wow!" said Kevin Burns, recalling the recent opening of his downtown nightclub, the Uptown, with Tagami's backing. "And I know he's looking for Phil. 'He's up there!'" Burns said, pointing to a closed-off upstairs suite where Tagami was entertaining a tight circle of VIPs.
Tagami has accumulated fiercely loyal allies in Oakland business and politics, as well as some critics who say he is brusque and self-promoting. While his aggressive style rubs some people the wrong way, nearly everyone seems to agree on two things: He works tirelessly, and has significantly improved the city in the process.
By Tagami's own account, he puts in 18-hour days during the week, thanks in part to after-hours hobnobbing, plus four hours both days of the weekend.
He uses that time not only to close business deals, but also to slice further into the intricate workings of Oakland City Hall. He counts first and foremost among his clients -- paid and de facto -- Mayor Jerry Brown.
"Jerry and I talk about Oakland every day -- he pelts questions at me," Tagami said. "It's no-holds barred. It could be parks, it could be union issues, it could be the port, it could be planning.
"It's a dialog, an ongoing conversation."
The mayor did not respond to several requests for comment about Tagami.
Tagami also has close ties to state Sen. Don Perata.
In the private sector, Tagami informally helps developers, like Signature Properties of Pleasanton, get the lay of the land in Oakland. With others his involvement is more pronounced, like helping the Uptown's Burns obtain a liquor license and entitlements, or helping Saraatje Naef design and obtain permits for her downtown club, At 17th.
He has also been known to collect fees for his advice from firms like billboard company Foster Interstate Media, which once cut him a check for about $50,000. Tagami said the money was reimbursement for expenses incurred working on a deal in which the company was involved.
From others, he collects appreciation. The Oakland Chamber of Commerce awarded Tagami its title of "Godfatha" the last two years for signing up the most new members. "He goes full throttle," said Benjamin Scott, the chamber's public policy director.
Some Oakland insiders complain Tagami has his fingers in too many pies -- and at times is too intense.
"Overall, I think he cares a great deal about Oakland, and utilizes his intelligence to improve much of the downtown," said Nancy Nadel, a city councilmember and mayoral candidate. "But ... his style has changed considerably and some people characterize it to me as operating through tantrums, to some extent."
Nadel remembers a meeting focused on the emerging downtown entertainment district where Tagami began yelling and verbally "attacking" other participants, she said. Loud outbursts are not unknown for Tagami, said a former city staffer who has witnessed at least two of them.
Tagami acknowledged being "vocal" and "loud" during the meeting Nadel recalls, but said he was responding to "someone shouting me down" and trying to intimidate him. He acknowledged there have been other incidents, maybe "half a dozen" over the last 15 years, in which he has made heated statements at council or community meetings.
"There is no question, there is a need for a little more discipline," Tagami said.
Tagami is taking steps to soften his image. In a series of interviews this fall, he emphasized his belief that he has matured since becoming a father last year and, at 40, has mellowed. He has focused some of his energy on philanthropic work, pointing out that he personally gave $82,000 to philanthropic causes last year, compared with $73,000 in political contributions, and is involved in nonprofits like affordable housing firm Bridge and the Crucible School for Fine Arts. The balance will not reverse -- even in the election year of 2006, he said.
The problem solverThose who know Tagami well describe him as, above all, a fix-it man.
The problem-solving obsession can be traced to his father, Tadao "Frank" Tagami, who earned his money fixing cars. His parents divorced when he was a teenager. At age 16, he turned his back on the New Hampshire boarding school where he had played lacrosse, ice hockey and football on an athletic scholarship, and moved into his mother's home in Berkeley. He soon left to live on his own in West Berkeley. He took three jobs at once, whatever work he could find, but eventually moved into construction, then building management. By 22, he had accumulated the experience, connections and the few tens of thousands of dollars needed to join his partners in launching his development business, California Capital Group, which later morphed into California Commercial Investment.
From the start, the company focused on renovating and leasing rundown, older office buildings whose owners were in dire financial straits. Many of buildings had been repossessed by the Resolution Trust Corp. following the savings and loan crisis.
Tagami brought to the table his willingness to work extreme hours, personally doing much of the clean-up and improvement work needed to make his company's buildings more attractive to tenants.
That track record led Tagami to the Rotunda project. The building had been a failed $45 million project for another developer for two years in the late 1980s, then a city-owned albatross for another decade. The San Francisco Chronicle dubbed the building a "beached whale."
Though Tagami's connections were indispensable in landing the project, he and his partners could not have completed the renovation without their experience turning around buildings just like it.
After the Rotunda, Tagami and his partners moved quickly to take on Oakland's biggest headache: the restoration of the Fox Theater. A previous developer failed at restoring the building, purchased by the city nine years ago. Tagami and his partners are guiding a $34 million effort to restore and reopen the city-owned Fox as a 1,400-seat, cabaret-style theater. The money will come from grants, tax credits and a $13 million loan from the city against tax revenue from the redevelopment area around the theater. Tagami's firm will collect a fee of about 2 percent of the cost of the project.
"He loves just fixing things," said wife Jessica Tagami (a former San Francisco Business Times reporter and editor). "He tried to fix the Rotunda and he fixed it and he is doing it with the Fox now.
"I'm not sure what his next project is going to be but ... it's like Oakland is this big puzzle for him and he wants to make sure all the pieces fit together."
One piece is almost sure to involve political office.
Tagami freely discusses running for office within five to 10 years, starting with one of the two at-large seats on the city council.
"If I run for office, it would be responsible to run for the office of City Council first before running for the office of mayor," Tagami said. "Would I like to run for anything besides City Council and mayor? Probably not."
Ryan Tate covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/11/21/focus4.html?page=all
