Category: Bay Area Cities

Senate Bill (SB) 1227, introduced by Senator Scott Wiener on February 15, 2024, would help speed the recovery of downtown San Francisco by creating a new CEQA exemption for qualifying commercial, institutional, student housing and mixed-use development projects in the Downtown Revitalization Zone, which includes the Financial District, Union Square, Eastern SOMA, Mid-Market, and Civic Center neighborhoods. SB 1227 would also create a new property tax exemption for moderate-income housing in the Downtown Revitalization Zone, as specified. Map: Proposed San Francisco Downtown Revitalization Zone NEW CEQA EXEMPTION As currently proposed,…

San Francisco voters were deciding Tuesday on Proposition C, which allows for a one-time transfer tax exemption for property owners who convert office buildings to housing. The exemption would apply to the first sale of a property after its conversion. The transfer tax exemption would apply to property owners who get approval to convert commercial property to housing before 2030. The measure requires a simple majority to pass.  City properties valued at over $10 million have a transfer tax rate of 5.5% to 6%, higher than other large California cities. …

An ordinance passed to change the city’s codes to relax rules for conversion projects has had little impact thus far.  So what are other cities doing that San Francisco is not?  Washington, D.C., sits atop the rankings with 5,820 conversion units currently in the pipeline, compared with only 150 units across the entire San Francisco Bay Area, according to Yardi data.  The nation’s capital was more proactive in passing tax breaks, making development more profitable for real estate investors, according to Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi. Washington…

There was a time when the fact that apartments in San Francisco enjoyed 95.4% occupancy in January would not have been considered a big deal. But in January this year that changed. A RealPage Market Analytics report noted San Francisco’s achievement “isn’t spectacular.” However, it was good enough to save it from the fate of other big markets with relatively high occupancy rates that saw occupancy fall or stagnate. While San Francisco experienced a 0.4%, 40 basis-point increase in occupancy on an annual basis, Minneapolis saw no annual change in…

Jensen Huang, the visionary behind Nvidia, commands a real estate empire that mirrors his monumental success in the tech industry. With a striking property portfolio that spans from the tech-savvy streets of San Francisco to the serene shores of Maui, Huang’s investments tell a story of calculated risk and opulent reward. This exploration delves into the intricacies of his holdings, offering a glimpse into the lifestyle of one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures. Advertisment Strategic Acquisitions: A Billionaire’s Blueprint The journey of Jensen Huang’s real estate ventures is as…

Gov. Gavin Newsom spent Monday morning in San Francisco talking with union workers and city leaders campaigning for Proposition 1. It’s an issue he says he’s worked on for five years, but one that’s been decades in the making. The governor joined other political heavyweights, including Mayor London Breed, to lobby voters on two of the city’s biggest issues — mental health, and homelessness. “We need to stabilize people. We need to deal with the underlying reasons they’re out on the streets and sidewalks in the first place, the reasons…

The owner of two iconic San Francisco office properties is likely to give them up as major tenants pull out and the final due date for debt payments draws nearer, according to an earnings call with the New York real estate firm the Paramount Group. One of the properties is known as the Market Center, a 770,000-square-foot brutalist office complex split across two buildings at 555 and 575 Market St. in the middle of the Financial District. The complex used to serve as the headquarters for Standard Oil and Chevron. …

New York-based Paramount Group Inc. seems to be facing a real estate dilemma with its San Francisco properties. According to a ConnectCRE report, the company will likely surrender a pair of office towers it snapped up in 2019 for nearly $950 million at the top of the city’s pre-pandemic real estate boom. The decision to write down the investments for 111 Sutter St. and the Market Center complex to zero reflects the harsh reality of the market’s current state. Paramount has been left to possibly give back and reconsider the…

A mall by any other name is still a mall. Trident Pacific Real Estate Group, the court-appointed receiver for the beleaguered San Francisco Centre mall at 865 Market Street, has decided to rename it the “Emporium Centre San Francisco,” the San Francisco Standard reported. The Newport Beach-based receiver will pull down the old signs and hoist new ones as part of a multi-pronged attempt to breathe life into the half-empty, 1.45-million-square-foot mall near Union Square. The new name is a nod to part of the mall’s former life as the…

New York-based office REIT Paramount Group Inc. appears poised to give up a pair of downtown San Francisco office properties it acquired in 2019 for a total of nearly $950 million, the San Francisco Business Times reported. This would position Paramount as the latest office landlord trying to unload buildings purchased at the height of the city’s pre-pandemic market. Paramount wrote its investment in the 293,000-square-foot 111 Sutter St. down to zero at the end of 2022, and subsequently defaulted on its loan for the property before negotiating a cash…