BY BLANCA TORRES, SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES 1.31.2018
Developers Hines and Urban Pacific Development LLC have submitted a revised proposal for the last major skyscraper site in the Transbay district in San Francisco, reducing the amount of housing and office space.
The revision for the site at 542-550 Howard St., calls for a 61-story, 800-foot tall tower made up of 251,000 square feet of office, a 210-room hotel, 170 homes, 79,000 square feet of amenity space and over 9,000 square feet of retail.
Originally, developers had sought 200 homes, a 220-room hotel, 288,677 square feet of office encased in the tower.
The developers, and capital partner Goldman Sachs affliate Broad Street Principal Investments, have been working on a final proposal for the site known as Parcel F that will now go through the city’s approval process.
"Our revised plans for Parcel F are the product of an exceptional collaboration with Planning Department and other city staff, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, and the local community, which have resulted in what we feel is a significantly improved design,” said Hines Senior Managing Director Cameron Falconer. “We look forward to continuing our progress and shared vision with the city and our community stakeholders.”
The proposed tower for Parcel F would be the fifth tallest building in San Francisco following Salesforce Tower at 1073 feet tall, the under-construction Oceanwide Center at 910 feet tall, Transamerica Pyramid at 853 feet tall and 181 Fremont at 802 feet tall.
Parcel F is an odd-shaped site that abuts the Salesforce Terminal, where buses and trains from the region and state are expected to load and unload at a “Grand Central Station of the West.”
The tower is being designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the firm that also designed Salesforce Tower and the terminal, in partnership with the local office of HKS Architects Inc. as architect of record.
Hines and Urban Pacific are also working on developing a site known as Block 4 on Howard Street between Beale and Main streets that could include more than 500 residential units. The sites are among 11 development sites the City of San Francisco and the Transbay Joint Powers Authority set aside for private developers.
Overall, the 40-acre Transbay District will add more than 6 million square feet of commercial space and 4,400 homes in the middle of SoMa.
City leaders have mapped out a master plan for 40 acres in the SoMa area anchored by the forthcoming bus and train terminal. Hines, based in Houston, is a global development firm active in 21 countries with $100 billion of assets under management. San Francisco-based Urban Pacific focuses on large-scale, transformative urban projects such as One Rincon Hill, a residential high-rise in San Francisco.