January 11th, 2010
49 Stevenson sells for $24.2 million
San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
January 11th, 2010
Taiwanese real estate investor Steven Pan has finalized the purchase of 49 Stevenson St. for $24.2 million, the latest sign that San Francisco’s long-dormant investment market is starting to come to life.
The $190-a-square-foot sale price represents a 40 percent decline for the value of the property, which the city currently assesses at $41 million. The seller was Invesco.
The sale price would be consistent with the other two similar second-tier downtown buildings that have sold in the last six months. In November the Shorenstein (Read More…)
January 5th, 2010
Twitter to double space
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. (Read More…)
December 27th, 2009
Pyramid’s steep path from civic eyesore to icon
The San Francisco Chronicle
By John King
December 27th, 2009
The Transamerica Pyramid is San Francisco’s tallest and best-known tower. It’s a registered corporate trademark, a fixture on postcards - and proof that snap judgments on buildings can often be wrong.
Construction began 40 years ago this month over the loud objection of anyone who was anyone in urban design. The city’s top planner called the proposal “an inhumane creation.” The Washington Post’s critic recoiled at “a second-class world’s fair Space Needle.” Progressive Architecture magazine warned the impact on San Francisco would be “no less reprehensible than … destroying Grand Canyon.”
Instead, the 853-foot-tall tower that opened in 1972 has become a civic icon. (Read More…)
December 18th, 2009
S.F. real estate story line: Flight to quality
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. (Read More…)
December 11th, 2009
Morgan Stanley to give back San Francisco buildings
The San Francisco Business Times
By J.K. Dineen
December 11th, 2009
Morgan Stanley Real Estate, one of San Francisco’s largest office landlords, plans to give back to its lender five downtown office buildings acquired in 2007 at the apex of the boom.
The properties were part of Morgan Stanley’s $2.43 billion portfolio purchase from the Blackstone Group, the largest real estate transaction in San Francisco history.
The properties will be given to the property arm of New York private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a consensual transfer, a complex transaction that has been nearly a year in the making. (Read More…)
December 11th, 2009
Brookfield Properties forecloses on 333 Bush in S.F.
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.” (Read More…)
December 4th, 2009
Babcock & Brown Aircraft Subleases 28,730 SF
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.
November 19th, 2009
Towering plan for new S.F. skyline unveiled
San Francisco Chronicle
By John King & John Cote’
November 19th, 2009
The recession hasn’t stopped San Francisco’s city planners from thinking big.
The Planning Department released an ambitious set of proposals Thursday to turn the blocks around the Transbay Terminal into a commercial and transportation centerpiece of the region over the next two decades.
The 145-acre “Transit Center District” would redraw San Francisco’s skyline with a half-dozen towers taller than almost any in the city, including one stretching at least 100 feet higher (Read More…)
November 16th, 2009
Lease expirations to slam San Francisco
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. (Read More…)
November 12th, 2009
Shared spirit in 1 Kearny’s styles from 3 eras
San Francisco Chronicle
By John king
November 10th, 2009
The newest building on Market Street in San Francisco isn’t really a building at all. It’s a 10-story bookend with a coat of brick-red terra cotta and crisp black metal.
It’s also the third piece of an architectural collage started in 1902 - a triptych that manages to distill a century of design and cultural trends into a single building that covers less than half a block.
The largest piece of what’s now called One Kearny came first, a 12-story burst of French Renaissance ebullience designed by William Curlett. There’s a regal granite base, the emphatic thrust of sandstone and then, at the summit, a steep two-story roof clad in red clay tiles and punctuated by florid dormer windows. (Read More…)
