In late 2024, CEO Tina Lee was eyeing a possible San Francisco location for her family’s hit Canadian Asian megastore, T&T Supermarket, in the City Center shopping mall on Geary Boulevard. But she had major concerns: Whole Foods had spent almost six years trying to open there before giving up over reported permitting obstacles. So Lee “cold DMed” then Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie.
“I said, ‘Hey, I would really love to talk about your future vision for the city, because I’m about to decide whether to come in or not,’” Lee remembered writing to Lurie. “‘And I really need the city on board, because I don’t know if I’m catching a falling knife.’”
Lee soon met with Lurie in San Francisco and he promised his team would help her through the permitting process, she said. In March 2025, T&T Supermarket signed the lease for the 50,000-square-foot space at 2675 Geary Blvd., where it will open its first-ever San Francisco store on Nov. 5. It is the fastest permitting process Lee has experienced in the United States, where T&T has opened three stores. Lee credits Lurie’s administration, which has made streamliningpermitting for small businesses a major focus, for helping it go quickly…