S.F. Design Center seeks change to add office space
For over a century, the San Francisco Design Center has been a hub for makers.
The 1915 building at 2 Henry Adams St. has showrooms for high-end furniture and interior design materials. Before that, it was the home of mining equipment supplier Dunham, Carrigan and Hayden.
Now two vacant floors, or nearly half of the building, may be converted from light-industrial use to office space. The change in use requires the building to be landmarked by the Board of Supervisors, along with additional city approvals. Supervisor Malia Cohen, who represents the area, supports the landmarking. Two public hearings are scheduled this month.
It’s the second time building owner RREEF, a division of Deutsche Bank, has tried to landmark the building and create offices. The first try in 2014 sparked an outcry after tech company Pinterest tried to lease the entire building, which would have displaced existing tenants. The plan was scrapped, and Pinterest leased new office buildings on Brannan Street instead.
Four years later, the city’s office market is even stronger, with re-
cord-high rents over $80 per square foot downtown. Existing rents for current tenants range from $15 to $60 per square foot. The vacant floors total 150,000 square feet and would be one of the largest chunks of available space in the city. Tech companies including Airbnb, Zynga and Adobe already have offices a few blocks away.
Building manager Bay West said the landmarking and office conversion would help protect industrial uses in the rest of the Design Center, along with the nearby Galleria building at 101 Henry Adams St. The two floors at 2 Henry Adams were emptied after showroom operators retired or moved to the Galleria building, which is also owned by RREEF. No one was evicted, according to Bay West.
“Office becomes one more tool to gain more revenue, keep a diverse tenant base and protect the showroom,” said Evette Davis, a spokeswoman for Bay West. “This is a beautiful old building. It deserves to be landmarked.”
Efforts to lease the space to prospective industrial tenants failed because the tenants have businesses that are too noisy or needed loading capabilities the building didn’t have, she said. Office uses will add vibrancy to the center, according to Bay West.
“It’s really a combination of uses that really make a neighborhood. For years, we’ve wanted eyes on the street here for everything, for safety,” said Bill Poland, founder of Bay West. “Now it lets that happen.”
Several furnitureshowcase tenants said they support the landmarking, as long as industrial use is retained in the majority of the center.
“What is important to me is that the area is vibrant, that there are people here,” said Jamie Martin, showroom manager of Baker Interiors Group, which previously had space in 2 Henry Adams. Baker now operates a slightly smaller showroom with 23,000 square feet in the Galleria building after cutting its merchandise on display.
Kirk Wayland, principal of furniture showroom Dunkirk, has been at the Design Center for 33 years. He previously was at 2 Henry Adams and opposed the proposed Pinterest deal.
“We were all in panic at that point. I thought I saw the end of my business right there, and I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to it,” he said. Since then, Dunkirk has moved into a sun-filled corner of the Galleria building, and Wayland said he isn’t concerned by the new landmarking effort.
Erik Hughes, principal and co-founder of De Sousa Hughes, a highend furniture designer at 2 Henry Adams for more than two decades, also supports the landmarking.
“If these buildings can stay strong, we support a huge community of craftspeople,” Hughes said. “The hardest thing is there’s not enough distribution channels for people in the arts, because I think the costs are just so high to do it in the Bay Area.”
The neighborhood that surrounds the design center, known as Showplace Square or the Design District, has also been transforming.
Across the street from the design center, the residential project One Henry Adams opened last year with 241 apartments. That’s brought more street traffic, particularly after work hours, and new restaurants in the ground floor.
“It used to be very unfriendly here at night,” said David Whiteside, principal of Whiteside Management, a high-end home-construction firm that is a tenant at 2 Henry Adams St. “Now the restaurants are here and a few bars.”
Whiteside is the sonin-law of Henry Adams, who founded the design center.
When Whiteside moved in 40 years ago, the neighborhood was heavily industrial and partially abandoned.
“Nobody would care if you shot a gun off and broke a window, and pigeons were everywhere,” he said. “I didn’t ever really think that this would — in my lifetime — develop up as quickly as it did.”
“It’s vibrant. There’s activity at night, and there’s restaurants,” Wayland of Dunkirk said. “This is phenomenal. We just want to keep it that way.”