SFMOMA, city reach land agreement, allowing for museum expansion
February 22nd, 2010 Filed Under Development Updates, Tenant Activity, Yerba Buena, Zoning & City Hall Issues
The San Francisco Business Times
By Sarah Duxbury
February 22nd, 2010
The city and SFMOMA have reached a land agreement that is critical to the art museum’s planned expansion.
Under the agreement, announced today by Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office, the city will give SFMOMA the existing fire station on Howard Street. In exchange, the museum will build the city a state-of-the-art fire station on Folsom Street, a deal that essentially translates to a $10 million gift from museum leadership to San Francisco, the mayor’s office said. [More...]
Yelp Expands Office Space at 706 Mission
February 16th, 2010 Filed Under South of Market, Tenant Activity, Yerba Buena
The CoStar Group
By Dan Bates
February 16th, 2010
Morris, Polich & Purdy Leases 20,178 SF
January 27th, 2010 Filed Under Financial District, Tenant Activity
The CoStar Group
By Lauren Greenwald
January 27th, 2010
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Benefit Cosmetics Takes 52,580 SF
January 27th, 2010 Filed Under Financial District, Tenant Activity
The Costar Group
By Ryan Munneke
January 27th, 2010
Benefit Cosmetics signed a 10-year lease for 52,580 square feet at 225 Bush St. in San Francisco.
The company will take the top three floors of the building in July. The building is the former Standard Oil headquarters from 1928 to the early 1970s.
Shap Roeder and Jak Churton of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant. Karen Wells and Wes Powell of Jones Lang LaSalle of San Francisco represented the landlord, SEB Immobilien-Investment Group GMBH.
Twitter to double space
January 5th, 2010 Filed Under Midmarket/ City Hall, South of Market, Tenant Activity
The San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
January 5th, 2010
Three months after tripling its San Francisco headquarters, social media company Twitter is again expanding its SoMa offices, a 41-month lease worth more than $3 million.
Twitter has grabbed just under 32,000 square feet at 795 Folsom St., taking the entire third floor of the building, which is owned by Westcore Properties. With the new lease Twitter now has 63,222 square feet in the building — enough space to accommodate about 350 employees. Twitter now has 156 employees, with 23 openings, according to its web site. [More...]
S.F. real estate story line: Flight to quality
December 18th, 2009 Filed Under Development Updates, Financial District, Tenant Activity, Zoning & City Hall Issues
The San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
December 18th, 2009
San Francisco office tenants are increasingly gravitating to downtown’s most prestigious trophy towers, taking advantage of desperate landlords to lock in cheap rents, according to a study by Jones Lang LaSalle.
While overall San Francisco tenants gave up 1.3 million square feet more than they leased in 2009, the city’s 49 most prominent buildings — JLL calls them the Skyline 49 — actually had about 100,000 square feet of positive absorption over the past two quarters. [More...]
Brookfield Properties forecloses on 333 Bush in S.F.
December 11th, 2009 Filed Under Financial District, Tenant Activity
The San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
December 11th, 2009
Brookfield Properties has foreclosed on 333 Bush St. and the cash-rich Toronto-based real estate investment trust is positioning itself to scoop up more distressed office towers over the next year.
Brookfield took ownership of the 543,000-square-foot office building Dec. 3 after a trustee sale on San Francisco City Hall’s back steps failed to produce any bidders. A Brookfield subsidiary held a junior piece of a $224 million loan on the property; Hypo Bankheld the senior piece of the debt. Brookfield Senior Vice President Bert Dezzutti, who oversees California for the company, said Brookfield has opened an office in San Francisco and is ramping up property management operations.
“It’s not how we envisioned we would enter the market, but we are comfortable with it,” said Dezzutti. “It will be for us a launching pad for a greater presence. Now with 333 Bush St. we will have a beachhead that will allow us to explore other opportunities. Our intention is to grow here, not to have a one-off building.” [More...]
Babcock & Brown Aircraft Subleases 28,730 SF
December 4th, 2009 Filed Under Financial District, South of Market, Tenant Activity
The CoStar Group
By Ryan Munneke
November 30th, 2009
Babcock & Brown Aircraft Management LLC subleased 28,730 square feet at 525 Market St. in San Francisco.
The commercial jet fleet management company will move in before the end of the year. Babcock subleased the Oracle space for $17 per square foot with two months free through October 2011.
Knickerbocker Properties Inc. XXI owns the First Market Tower, a 39-story, 1.08 million-square-foot office building at 525 Market St.
Lease expirations to slam San Francisco
November 16th, 2009 Filed Under Development Updates, Financial District, Midmarket/ City Hall, South of Market, Tenant Activity
San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
November 13th, 2009
A nascent recovery in San Francisco’s leasing market could be swamped by a wave of empty office space hitting the market in the next two years.
Consolidations by several large tenants — including Wells Fargo, Levi Strauss, Charles Schwab, Williams Sonoma and JP Morgan Chase - will result in the return of nearly 1 million square feet to the office market during the course of 2010, according to a forecast by Colliers International.
Wells Fargo will vacate 350,000 square feet at 155 Fifth St. in June 2010. In opting to renew at Levi’s Plaza at 1255 Battery St., Levi Strauss will shed about 200,000 square feet of its current 550,000-square-foot headquarters. William-Sonoma’s consolidation into the Icehouse on Union Street will result in about 75,000 square feet of vacant space at Mariposa Square on Florida Street and Wamu Card Services, now JP Morgan Chase, will give back about 105,000 square feet at 123 Mission St., according to Colliers. [More...]
Del Monte to expand into new HQ at One Maritime
October 30th, 2009 Filed Under Financial District, Tenant Activity
San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
October 30th, 2009
San Francisco’s Del Monte Foods will relocate and expand its corporate headquarters to One Maritime Plaza, a 153,000-square-foot deal that is the city’s largest lease of 2009.
The new Del Monte headquarters, 27 percent larger than the company’s current home, will consolidate 400 workers from two locations: the Landmark at One Market, where Del Monte has 93,000 square feet, and 50 California St., where it leases 19,000 square feet.
The new headquarters will centralize the organization and will “further support execution of the company’s accelerated growth strategy,” the company said in a statement to the San Francisco Business Times. Del Monte has been based in San Francisco for more than 100 years. [More...]
