The War of the Roses: The City's Future May Erase Its Past. In Which Case: Send Flowers. 

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But, with the city starved for cash to fund the Transbay Transit Center, it cut a deal denying itself cash.

In June 2013, Kilroy Realty donated $500,000 at Mayor Ed Lee's behest to help bail out the city's America's Cup debt. Two months later, the Planning Commission greenlit Kilroy's request to alter already-approved plans for a tower at 350 Mission, allowing the construction of up to six additional floors to house the anchor tenant, Salesforce. While, theoretically, this could have triggered a reassessment of the entire building to provide the tax district with much-needed funds, instead only those additional floors will be tapped for the tax district.

The result is that Kilroy holds just as much voting power within the tax district as developers erecting massive skyscrapers. But, unlike those developers, who'll be taxed on the millions of square feet in their hundred-story buildings, Kilroy is only on the hook for those additional stories.

"Every other developer would looooove to have that deal," mutters one.

Since acquiring its first San Francisco skyscraper in 2010, Kilroy has quickly amassed nine more properties, including a 3.1-acre swath of Mission Bay and, now, the 5-acre Flower Mart. Until quite recently, city politicos and development-watchers wondered "Who's Kilroy?"

They're not asking that now.

The July announcement that Kilroy and the San Francisco Flower Growers Association had agreed to terms sparked a flurry of interest at the Flower Mart, in the media, and, internal emails reveal, within the Mayor's Office. Everyone wondered what would become of the vendors while Kilroy erected its skyscraper.

A letter from Kilroy chairman John Kilroy Jr. to Flower Mart vendors assures these tenants they'll "have a lease up to and during construction of the new facility" and "tenants in good standing will be offered leases in the new facility." And that new facility will be on the site of the current one: "Let me be absolutely clear — the Flower Mart will remain at its current location." A future watercolor may depict a tech fortress with the Flower Mart situated in the basement.

Flower vendors, like so many San Franciscans struggling to hang on in this city, can take solace that the place will carry on, with or without them. What's at question isn't so much that a Flower Mart will exist on-site in the future, but whether current vendors can stay in business long enough to be there. And a number of them have told SF Weekly, in no uncertain terms, that relocating for even a matter of weeks or months, let alone during years of construction, would be a death sentence.

"Do we have an idea about where the Flower Market vendors will move in the interim that this new complex is getting built?" asked mayoral spokesman Francis Tsang in an August email sent among mayoral staff, intended to shore up statements to the media. "Is the City helping them to locate temporary space?"

Todd Rufo, the head of the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) replied, one minute later, "The plan would be for them to stay on site during construction."

And yet that is, emphatically, not the plan. There is no plan.

Mike Grisso, Kilroy's senior vice president of development, confirms to SF Weekly that he looked into potentially shunting the displaced flower vendors onto Pier 38 or land in Mission Bay, reaching out to multiple city agencies.

Keeping every flower vendor on-site during construction, he says, "may not be the best option. It's too early to say."

The Mayor's Office and Kilroy were apparently better aligned in July.

In a series of emails, OEWD development director Ken Rich and Grisso batted back and forth a statement regarding Kilroy's imminent acquisition of the Mart, line-editing each other's text. At one point, the city's Rich writes to Kilroy's Grisso, "I will send it to press people and see what they think. They probably will want something shorter." Grisso responds, "how's this for shorter," and resends a shorter version.

A shorter version of Grisso's shorter version ran in the Chronicle two days later: The quote "The Flower Mart is a San Francisco institution — home to small businesses and good middle-income jobs" is attributed to Mayor Ed Lee. Buttressed by the mayor's statements, the headline of that story claims "Current Tenants Won't Be Uprooted."

Asked if it's normal for a developer to ghostwrite quotes for the mayor — quotes pertaining to what the mayor expects that developer to do — Grisso pauses. "I don't know," he replies.

The factors that pulled the rug out from under the Ron Gemignanis of the world and imploded the flower business are global. As are the overall factors driving so much of this city's rapid transfiguration. But, on a block-by-block and building-by-building level, this city operates at an insular level. Remarkably insular.

Prior to joining Kilroy several months ago, Grisso spent a dozen years with the city's Redevelopment Agency — the very outfit he subsequently called seeking potential Mission Bay space for displaced flower vendors.

And, before working for Kilroy, Grisso helped negotiate those aforementioned Transbay Transit Center deals — the ones that have since left other developers so livid.

In September, David Repetto's stall at the Mart was commandeered, at the rather sane hour of noon, for a press conference helmed by a trio of former city politicians: former board president Aaron Peskin, erstwhile supervisor and state Sen. Quentin Kopp, and former Mayor Art Agnos.

These three have kept themselves busy of late blowing up mayorally blessed development plans. Their weapon of choice has been the ballot measure: They undid the 8 Washington luxury condo project that way, then pushed an ordinance requiring voters to ratify virtually any waterfront development project.

And now, the trio sees the Flower Mart as another chance to stand against the mayor's sweeping development plans — this time while standing in front of Repetto's John Deere wall clock.

San Francisco is a complex place. Land-use issues are among its most complex. And the Flower Mart, a byzantine web of internecine ethnic and familial loyalties and prejudices, is about as complicated as they come. And that's just above the ground. Below, the future Central Subway will roll, as could trains headed to the Transbay Transit Center. In anticipation, the city is meticulously rezoning the entire sector skyward. The city's epicenter will, inevitably, shift south.