Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

The Occupy San Francisco encampment at Justin Hermann Plaza on Thursday, November 17, 2011

Several commercial real estate developers have quietly threatened to sue San Francisco for economic losses stemming from the Occupy San Francisco encampment at Justin Herman Plaza.

The group of about a half dozen property managers around the plaza has repeatedly lobbied the mayor to evict the camp, culminating in talks Monday at City Hall with Lee and his chief of staff, Steve Kawa.

The meeting included representatives from the Hyatt Hotels, Boston Properties, which owns the Embarcadero Center, and the consortium that manages the Ferry Building.

“It’s gotten out of hand,” said the meeting organizer, Ken Cleaveland, the head of the Building Owners and Managers Association, a commercial real estate lobbying group that represents the participating property owners. “He needs to exert his leadership as mayor. Enough is enough.”

Cleaveland’s group is one of the most powerful political organizations in the city; it gave $50,000 to an independent political action committee that, among other things, supported Lee's campaign for mayor.

The mounting pressure from the group, which represents businesses that pay $1.6 billion in real estate taxes to the city, poses a political dilemma for the mayor, who remains wary of a repeat of the violent confrontations in Oakland three weeks ago.

Before the election, the business community's support allowed Lee to delay evicting Occupy SF. When the developers of the Ferry Building threatened to hold a press conference to pressure the mayor to evict the camp, other BOMA members squashed the idea, concerned it would would hurt Lee, their chosen candidate.

Immediately after the election, the group remained divided about what actions to recommend.

“People are in this weird spot where their buddy just got elected. He’s our guy,” said one political observer.

With the holiday shopping season under way, the business group's patience has run out, just as the mayor is facing new pressure to allow the encampment to remain.

On Thursday, leaders from 13 labor and community organizations — from the San Francisco Labor Council to the California Nurses Association to La Raza Centro Legal — wrote a letter urging Lee to let the encampment stand.

Gabriel Haaland, a political director of SEIU 1021, the largest union in San Francisco, said the union was fully committed to supporting the movement and urged Lee to “not get caught up in the code violations” as a reason to evict the encampment.

“We’re signing people up to turn out in solidarity the next time there’s a callout,” Haaland said.

Lee this week attempted to broker a compromise with demonstrators, saying he would let the encampment stay if protesters reduced the number of tents to below 100 and cleaned up the camp — which they have done to some extent.

Still, an eviction appears imminent. Protesters on Thursday braced for a raid after receiving notice from the city that the plaza had become a “public health nuisance.”

Christine Falvey, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said city officials were touring the camp late Friday but the mayor had not yet made a determination to evict the protesters.

“There have been marked improvements the last day or so but they still haven’t complied with the guidelines as of early today,” Falvey said Friday evening. “The mayor takes businesses’ complaints very seriously, especially the small businesses and vendors. He agrees that a long-term encampment cannot go on, but he supports the protesters’ First Amendment rights."

There are signs that the Occupy movement has succeeded in reframing the political discourse, as business leaders have begun to accept its existence — if grudgingly.

One lobbyist representing some of San Francisco’s largest corporations said the muted reaction of big businesses in the city after protesters rushed into a downtown Bank of America branch on Wednesday and pitched a tent was surprising.

Aside from the building managers around Justin Herman Plaza, the lobbyist said, “There hasn’t been any freak-outs because by now they’ve had to deal with this in other places.”

Cleaveland said he hopes the mayor listens to his group's concerns — and takes action soon.

“I do think we should be paid attention to,” said Cleaveland. “But it has nothing to do with our political contributions. We expect the mayor to look at the interests of everybody in the city and not just a few hundred malcontents. That camp out there is inappropriate and it is wrong.”