5 new high-rises on drawing board for block in SoMa
Mission Street in the heart of San Francisco’s Transbay district has already filled up with new high-rises, including the city’s tallest building, Salesforce Tower.
The development wave is now spreading south. Five towers are approved or proposed on the 500 block of Howard Street, just a block from the newly opened Salesforce Transit Center. They would bring a density unheard of in the area until recent years.
The latest proposal, filed last week, calls for a 350-foot-tall building at 543 Howard St. and an adjacent parking lot at 48-50 Tehama St. The project would include 49,500 square feet of office space and six full-floor housing units, each around 5,000 square feet. An existing four-story office building that’s leased to Galvanize, a co-working space, would be preserved, with the tower stretching over it.
“We’ve owned it almost 20 years,” said Erik Robbins of Gordon Development, owner of 543 Howard St. “It’s always been a desire to figure out a way to develop that little parking lot. It’s underutilized there.”
The other four tower plans include:
540 Howard St., a 44-story project with housing and offices proposed in May.
The Renzo Piano-designed
555 Howard St. with condos and a hotel, already approved.
A residential tower at 524 Howard St. approved in November 2016, but put on hold by developer Crescent Heights.
And the largest of the batch, 542-550 Howard St., which would be the city’s fourth-tallest tower at 800 feet, with 170 housing units, a 210-room hotel and 251,000 square feet of office space; the plan is undergoing city reviews.
San Francisco’s office market has “tiny inventory relative to other financial centers,” which makes it attractive to continue building despite rising construction costs, Robbins said. The vacancy rate in San Francisco’s southern Financial District was 4.6 percent in June, down from 6 percent in the first quarter, according to real estate research firm CoStar.
Robbins proposed just under 50,000 square feet of office space at 543 Howard St. because of the city’s Proposition M, a 1986 law that limits the amount of office space approved each year. Projects below 50,000 square feet receive a square-foot allocation that’s separate from larger projects. There’s much less competition for smaller projects to receive approval, according to city data.
Robbins said his goal is to maximize the density of his proposed tower by adding housing on top, while still preserving the existing 1924 structure at 543 Howard St.
“It’s exciting to see it happening,” Linda Crouse, a principal at BAR Architects, said of the new tower projects. “It’s going to add vibrancy to the neighborhood.”
BAR Architects occupied 543 Howard St. for almost a decade before moving out in 2015 and helped renovate part of the building into contemporary space with industrial elements, a nod to the building’s history as a warehouse.
South of Market has lost much of its manufacturing heritage, but Crouse said the area has a bright future if the city can maintain lively ground-floor spaces.