SkyscraperPage Forum

SkyscraperPage Forum (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/index.php)
-   Proposals (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=361)
-   -   SAN FRANCISCO | 88 Bluxome Street | 628 + 558 FT | 58 + 51 FLOORS (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238252)

Pedestrian Mar 21, 2019 7:23 PM
SAN FRANCISCO | 88 Bluxome Street | 628 + 558 FT | 58 + 51 FLOORS
 
At approximately 1 million sq ft, this will be one of the largest projects in the new Central SOMA district. Besides 833,000 sq ft of office space, it will contain 100 units of adffordable housing, 24,000 sq ft of ground floor retail/restaurant space, 9,500 square feet of ground floor production distribution and repair (PDR); and a basement garage for 171 cars. It will also have twelve (12) new tennis courts featuring 35-foot ceilings and all-new club facilities for the San Francisco Tennis Club in its basement.

https://iwamotoscott.com/thumbs/proj...-1600x1111.jpg

https://iwamotoscott.com/thumbs/proj...-1600x1203.jpg

https://iwamotoscott.com/thumbs/proj...m-1600x915.jpg

https://iwamotoscott.com/thumbs/proj...m-1600x900.jpg

https://iwamotoscott.com/thumbs/proj...-1600x1231.jpg
Above images: https://iwamotoscott.com/projects/bluxome

http://www.socketsite.com/wp-content...18-Section.gif

Replaces:

http://www.socketsite.com/wp-content...-Club-2018.jpg
Above 2 images: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2...-revealed.html

Pedestrian Mar 21, 2019 7:30 PM
Quote:
Pinterest inks huge lease in SoMa at proposed 1 million-square-foot office campus
By Fiona Kelliher – Real estate reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Mar 20, 2019, 10:12am PDT Updated a day ago

Social media website Pinterest Inc. has signed a 490,000-square-foot lease in a proposed office complex in Central SoMa as the company's potential IPO edges closer.

The deal is the biggest commercial lease so far this year, and the biggest in San Francisco since Facebook signed a 755,900-square-foot lease in May for the entirety of Park Tower. It's the second time in recent months that a major tech company has signed a lease for a building that is not yet approved. Salesforce in November pre-leased 325,000 square feet at 550 Howard St., which is slated to be the last major skyscraper to rise in the Transbay district. The leases show that tech companies are so hungry for space that they are willing to do deals well ahead of construction starting on a project.

Developers Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE) and TMG Partners are developing 88 Bluxome St., which will include about 1 million square feet of office space when it's completed.

With this lease signed, Pinterest will serve as the campus' anchor tenant . . . .
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...eXJQU29NIn0%3D

gillynova Mar 21, 2019 8:52 PM
These are really nice renderings! It will definitely make the area look a lot nicer. Also, I'm pretty sure Pinterest has office space just a block away from this location

I usually park across the street from the tennis club for Giants games haha. Hopefully they don't increase the parking prices once this is completed...

patriotizzy Mar 21, 2019 10:52 PM
Great addition and replacement. Love the contrasting facades of dark to light. Also the square stone facade to the vertical metal. A+

Pedestrian Jun 29, 2019 3:30 AM
Quote:
The Next Major Development Slated for Approval in SF
June 28, 2019

Plans to level the 41-foot-tall San Francisco Tennis Club at 645 5th Street and build up to 243 feet in height upon its 2.6-acre Central SoMa site are slated to be approved by San Francisco’s Planning Commission in two weeks time.

In addition to over 840,000 square feet of new office space to be developed in two phases, with the westernmost building first, the proposed “88 Bluxome” Street development would yield over 16,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space and 8,000 square feet of space dedicated to production distribution and repair (PDR), with a basement garage for 163 cars and 318 bikes, a nearly 30,000-square-foot community/recreational center to be dedicated to the City’s Recreation and Parks Department, a 4,600-square-foot child care center, and an all-new private tennis club with (12) tennis courts hidden underground.

If approved, the development team of Alexandra Real Estate Equities and TMG would also dedicate the air-space above the mid-block community center to the Mayor’s Office of Housing for the City’s future development of an inclusionary housing project with up to 118 below market rate units and construct a 13,000 square foot public park along Bluxome Street (the “Bluxome Linear Park”).

Prior to breaking ground, the project team has committed to securing a site for a temporary indoor tennis club to be located for three to five years during the construction period of the project . . . .
https://socketsite.com/archives/2019...-approval.html

Pedestrian Jul 9, 2019 6:27 PM
Quote:
Pinterest's new SoMa home seeks approvals, office allocation
By Fiona Kelliher – Real estate reporter, San Francisco Business Times
4 hours ago

On Thursday, the developers will . . . ask for allotment of the first phase of office space under the city’s cap, known as Proposition M. The cap allows for 950,000 square feet of office space to be approved annually as of October, with extra space rolling into the next year.

After approvals of 598 Brannan St., the cap has shrunk down to about 2.1 million square feet, said Zoning Administrator Corey Teague. Approvals for the first phase of 88 Bluxome would bring that down to about 1.7 million square feet — leaving about 7.7 million square feet of proposed space up in the air.

Several other Central SoMa projects are among those in need of Prop M allocations, including Kilroy Realty Corp. (NYSE: KRC)'s Flower Mart project and Boston Properties' (NYSE: BXP) 765,000-square-foot office portion of a mixed-use project at 4th and Harrison streets . . . .
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...VPK0EifQ%3D%3D

Pedestrian Sep 30, 2019 11:42 PM
Quote:
These Central SoMa projects are now ready to roll
By Blanca Torres – Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Sep 30, 2019, 2:54pm PDT Updated 51 minutes ago

With a handful of lawsuits now out of the way, large development projects in the San Francisco Central SoMa planning area are closer to breaking ground — but some office projects have one more big hurdle to jump.

With the suits settled, purely residential developments . . . are free to move forward.

Office projects, on the other hand, need to receive an allocation of space from the city’s office cap known as Prop. M . . . . (But) some of the Central SoMa office projects already have allocations in place, such as . . . Alexandria Real Estate Inc.’s 870,000-square-foot 88 Bluxome . . . .
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...d6SEFnSWZCdSJ9

Skyy Oct 1, 2019 2:09 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian (Post 8703084)
:eeekk:

pseudolus Aug 30, 2020 4:12 PM
"Pinterest pays $89.5 million to terminate San Francisco office lease"

https://www.sfgate.com/business/arti...e-15525421.php

gillynova Aug 30, 2020 4:42 PM
Damn... I was, and still am, looking forward to seeing this project come up

iamfishhead Aug 30, 2020 10:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by gillynova (Post 9027106)
Damn... I was, and still am, looking forward to seeing this project come up
Somebody will probably still want to build here. It's just too good of a location.

Pedestrian Sep 5, 2020 10:14 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by iamfishhead (Post 9027352)
Somebody will probably still want to build here. It's just too good of a location.
Quote:
Pinterest lease break is 'wake-up call' for S.F., experts say
By Laura Waxmann – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Sep 1, 2020, 6:58am PDT Updated Sep 2, 2020, 2:57pm PDT

Pinterest Inc.’s decision to fork over $89.5 million to terminate a year-old lease for a yet-to-be-built San Francisco office development signals a major — and most likely permanent— turning point for the city’s hot real estate and big tech industries, according to local business and real estate experts.

. . . Pinterest will likely not be the last company to change course on expansion plans in San Francisco, where pandemic-induced remote work and pending taxation efforts have created a “perfect storm” bound to impact site selection and accelerate a long-projected exodus of tech companies from the city.

“San Francisco has been the golden child of our national economy for almost a decade. I think this lease break is a wake-up call that our heyday — that era — is coming to a close and the city is not just going to be gifted the best and brightest companies going forward,” said Jay Cheng, public policy director of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

“Remote work has fundamentally changed our economic landscape and how competitive San Francisco is nationally and globally — and it is here to stay, at least for a couple of years,” he said.

Companies such as Core-Mark, Bechtel, McKesson, Schwab, PG&E, Stripe, Juul and Xero have or will soon relocate their headquarters, while Uber and Square have announced large campus acquisitions outside of San Francisco, according to Cheng.

Twitter, Facebook, Slack and Coinbase have “announced the move to near 100% remote workforce,” and smaller tech companies like Gitlab, Buffer, Automattic, Zapier have made “similar announcements pre-Covid-19,” he added . . . .

Increased taxes proposed at the state and local levels — including a proposed repeal of Proposition 13’s protection on property-tax increases for commercial and industrial property and a San Francisco ballot measure that would impose a new levy on highly compensated CEOs — are making companies’ decisions to relocate easier, according to real estate experts . . . .

Pinterest, which has 2,400 employees worldwide, leases space in four office buildings in San Francisco — 410 Townsend St., 149 Bluxome St., 651 Brannan St. and 505 Brannan — totaling 338,884 square feet. The company’s lease for its 122,170-square-foot headquarters at 651 Brannan St. is due to expire in May 2022 . . . .
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...amVYeXRuIn0%3D

We may not see a lot of commercial building ANYWHERE for a while.

Iceman12 Oct 16, 2020 1:05 AM
I biked by today. There were a number of trucks hauling dirt and other things out of the building on the Bluxome side. There is a notice of construction posted on the door that says site setup is set to begin on 11/2 and demolition to begin on 11/20.

gillynova Oct 16, 2020 3:23 AM
Take pics next time! haha

Iceman12 Oct 27, 2020 10:45 PM
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...nnis-club.html

Alexandria to forge ahead with S.F. Tennis Club development

"Alexandria Real Estate Equities executives indicated Tuesday that the company plans to move forward with development of the 1 million-square-foot project at 88 Bluxome St. despite losing anchor tenant Pinterest Inc.

As I reported previously, Pinterest announced in August that it had terminated a 490,000-square-foot lease signed just last year at the South of Market location, forfeiting an $89 million deposit. The plan was to build a mixed-use development with two high-rise office buildings over ground-floor retail and PDR uses to replace the San Francisco Tennis Club in partnership with TMG Partners.

Sources have told me that Alexandria is considering the recapitalization of some of its office portfolio in an effort to focus on life sciences, casting doubt over the future of the unbuilt 88 Bluxome development. But during a third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Alexandria co-CEO Stephen Richardson described the project as a “lab-ready shell” and indicated that few changes would have to be made to build out the site for life science users.

“At 88 Bluxome we have important pre-construction activities that we will be undertaking in the next several quarters,” said Richardson. “We have ... capability for shipping and receiving. It’s a mid-rise facility with a lot of outdoor space. (We have) the capability to go lab. We think it will be an extremely desirable product. We will see this time next year where we are at.

“From the outset we designed it as a lab-ready shell. We have the ability to accommodate both lab and technology users,” he added.

Alexandria sold a key asset at 945 Market St. — the long-vacant, 250,000-square-foot 6X6 mall — for $198 million last month to Ikea-sister company Ingka Centres, realizing an approximately $19 million profit. Alexandria bought that property in partnership with TMG last year for $179 million.

Asked by analysts why the company moved to offload 945 Market but is planning to keep 88 Bluxome in its portfolio, Richardson said the company received an “unsolicited offer” for the vacant mall and that its location on Market Street did not necessarily lend itself for further development.

“It was a one-off at the edge of a cluster in the South of Market. It made sense to go ahead and exit,” said Richardson. “I think the scale and size of 88 Bluxome is much different and qualitatively in a different position. You are at the edge of Mission Bay there. You have the opportunity at scale for life science and tech whereas the Market Street location was a smaller project there. We weren't going to build a cluster around it there. Receiving an unsolicited offer and recycling that asset … made sense.”

Alexandria Executive Chairman and Founder Joel Marcus was reluctant to comment on the company's plans to shrink its office portfolio in the city, but said simply that in regard to the 945 Market sale that “you have to look at that in isolation and the circumstances that led us to make that disposition.”

As I reported previously, sources have said Alexandria is quietly considering selling a seven-story, 300,000-square-foot office building at 510 Townsend St. entirely leased to payment company Stripe. Stripe plans to relocate to South San Francisco in 2021 and is seeking to sublease all of its space at 510 Townsend St., where its lease expires in 2027.

The Alexandria executives did not comment on the company’s plans for 510 Townsend on Tuesday. However, Richardson confirmed Stripe’s plans to sublease the space.

“Stripe’s plans for subleasing were always the case with the relocation to South San Francisco. They haven't done anything official yet. I think they are just putting some feelers out. That’s TBD,” he said.

President and Chief Financial Officer Dean Shigenaga said the company currently has “two key transactions” in the works, with “one expected to close soon.”

“Both deals are in process,” said Shigenaga, but did not say where the assets are located.

According to Alexandria’s earnings release, the company does plan to sell more of its assets, including in San Francisco.

Per the earnings release, the company has pending dispositions worth between $500,000 and $600,000 in the San Francisco market projected to close in the fourth quarter. Another pending transaction worth between $200,000 and $300,000 was announced in Seattle. The report didn't provide additional details.

On Tuesday, Alexandria reported $3.9 billion in liquidities in the third quarter."

Pedestrian Nov 25, 2020 10:14 PM
Quote:
With the San Francisco Tennis Club at 645 5th Street having been fenced and Alexandra Real Estate Equities poised to break ground for the 243-foot-tall, 775,000-square-foot “88 Bluxome” Street development to rise on the Central SoMa site, over half of which Pinterest had pre-leased, demolition permits have been issued for the 598 Brannan Street site across the street as well.
http://socketsite.com/archives/2020/...ak-ground.html

Iceman12 Jan 3, 2021 12:41 AM
Drove by this site today and demolition looks to be a quarter of the way done (mostly on the Bluxome/5th side). Unfortunately could not snap any photos, but will try next time I’m there.

timbad Jan 10, 2021 11:48 PM
from 5th and Brannan

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1acce255_b.jpg

5th and Bluxome

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ea33d195_b.jpg

gillynova Jan 11, 2021 4:25 PM
I haven't passed by here in awhile and damn, this is so crazy to see because I used to park across the street for Giants games before but I am REALLY excited for this to come up!

iamfishhead Jan 12, 2021 2:49 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by gillynova (Post 9156194)
I haven't passed by here in awhile and damn, this is so crazy to see because I used to park across the street for Giants games before but I am REALLY excited for this to come up!
Yeah, I used to pass by it all the time when coming back from Oakland since my GF lived there. Strange to see it going, but this is a far better use of the land!

timbad Feb 11, 2021 9:09 AM
so strange to walk past this tonight - or rather, not walk past it, since it's pretty much not there anymore. the new sightlines are jarring

looking SE from 5th and Brannan

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...40b60190_b.jpg

NE from 5th and Bluxome

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c81dac57_b.jpg

and the relation to 5M, down 5th

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...01840835_b.jpg

BobbyMucho Feb 11, 2021 7:26 PM
I am looking very forward to this one (two?) take shape.

Did you get a look across the street at 598 Brannan? I think demo permits have been pulled but haven't heard/seen any updates.

timbad Feb 11, 2021 8:33 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobbyMucho (Post 9188172)
...
Did you get a look across the street at 598 Brannan?
just as last month, I forgot to look specifically, but I think I would have noticed if there had been any significant activity yet. I will try to make a point of paying attention next time

wanderer34 Feb 13, 2021 8:32 PM
typo

timbad Feb 14, 2021 3:01 AM
peeking through the fence

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f5a3d94d_b.jpg

looking along Brannan

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ae4fb673_b.jpg

and just a reminder what Bluxome used to look like (2014, right before the shorter whitish building on the right got replaced), so we have a 'before' pic

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8ac50d91_b.jpg

Pedestrian Apr 11, 2021 1:31 AM
Quote:
Tennis club dropped from 88 Bluxome plans
By Laura Waxmann – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Apr 6, 2021 Updated Apr 7, 2021, 10:43am PDT

Alexandria Real Estate Equities is making changes to its 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development in SoMa, nixing plans for a tennis club at the 88 Bluxome St. site.

The change comes after the project lost its anchor tenant in August, when Pinterest Inc. terminated a 490,000-square-foot lease at the development.

Pasadena-based Alexandria (NYSE: ARE), one of the Bay Area's most active developers, removed the 164,350-square-foot club slated from the basement, co-CEO Stephen Richardson told me.

“We lost our anchor tenant, Pinterest, a couple of quarters ago so this project has been front and center for us and we really have been evaluating the components of the project, the viability of the project, as well as the market,” he said.

The Bay Club sold the 88 Bluxome site — home to Bay Club San Francisco Tennis — to Alexandria in 2017 for $130 million and was set to operate the new club there as part of a deal negotiated with San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation (SFFSR), a nonprofit group that had advocated for a replacement club at the site. The project was approved in 2018 as part of the Central SoMa Plan . . . .

Alexandria will pay a one-time termination fee of $7.5 million to SFSR. Richardson said that the group agreed to the fee payment — which will be used to expand public sports and recreation spaces across the city — should market conditions change and the club no longer be feasible to build.

However, Seth Socolow, executive director of SFFSR, told me on Tuesday that the group has not accepted the payment and is "currently evaluating all options," though it acknowledges that the previous agreement allows for the one-time payment if market conditions changed.

"ARE have been excellent partners to date in supporting our efforts to improve public recreation throughout San Francisco and in providing an interim 12 court indoor tennis facility at the Cow Palace for use during construction of the planned indoor tennis facility at 88 Bluxome," Socolow said. "Our board were all shocked and deeply disappointed on learning today that ARE does not intend to build the indoor tennis facility that they contractually committed to us to build and is included in their current plans on file with the City Planning Department."

As part of the 2016 deal, Alexandria agreed to pay for and construct an interim indoor tennis club prior to the demolition of the. The Bay Club operates the interim site, which opened at the Cow Palace last year.

Richardson said Alexandria remains committed to the other components of the project and promised community benefits. These include a fully engineered pad for the construction of 107 units of 100% affordable housing, which will be donated to the Mayor’s Office of Housing for development; a public recreation center with two new swimming pools; an on-site child care center; retail amenities; production, distribution and repair (PDR) space; and the Bluxome Street linear park envisioned by the city’s Central SoMa Plan.

When asked if it was adding more office office space, Richardson told me the rest of the plan stays the same for now . . . .

Vertical construction has not yet begun on 88 Bluxome St., and it is unclear when the project will move forward in the absence of an anchor tenant.

“A project of this scale and size really commands an anchor tenant commitment in order to kick off, which is what we’ve done as a company for nearly a decade now — anchor projects with preleasing,” said Richardson. “Until we get to that point it's very much of a ‘stay tuned’ type of approach that we’ve got here.”

During an earnings call with investors in October, Richardson had indicated that 88 Bluxome St. could be built out to attract a life science user in response to muted demand for office space.

Richardson said this week that the company would like to “keep optionality” in regard to the 88 Bluxome St. development.

“I think that’s another aspect of the ‘stay tuned’ — we will see how the market unfolds,” he said.

“It doesn’t escape us that this once-in-a-century pandemic has had impacts on almost every aspect of every person’s life. And broadly the commercial office market in the U.S. has been very adversely impacted with people having to work remotely, and San Francisco has been amongst the hardest hit in the country.”
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...Pos=9#cxrecs_s

Sounds to me like it's not going vertical until they find another anchor tenant, either infotech/office or "life sciences", and there could be litigation in its future from San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation.

timbad Apr 13, 2021 8:46 AM
not much verticality in sight

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...850a5312_b.jpg

Pedestrian Dec 16, 2021 7:15 AM
Quote:
S.F. board sides with tennis club advocates after 88 Bluxome developer pivoted on plans
By Laura Waxmann – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Dec 10, 2021 Updated Dec 13, 2021, 11:07am PST

San Francisco recreation advocates scored big against a major developer on Wednesday after the city's Board of Appeals ruled in their favor in the ongoing fight over a replacement tennis club dropped from a 1.2 million-square-foot mixed-use project in the SoMa neighborhood.

The tennis club saga started earlier this year when Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a publicly traded REIT (NYSE: ARE) and one of the nation's leading biotech developers, sought a permit to drop a small but key component of its entitled 88 Bluxome project — a 134,000-square-foot tennis club that was planned to replace the San Francisco Bay Club that operated at the site since 1974.

The move angered recreation advocates, who had negotiated the replacement club as Alexandria sought entitlements for the project in 2019. On Wednesday, the Board of Appeals disagreed with the Zoning Administrator's determination that Alexandria's modification to the project to be "less than significant," voting 4-0 to send the proposal back to the city's Planning Commission.

The move doesn't not restart the entitlement process entirely. The commission will be asked to determine if Alexandria will be allowed to drop the tennis club . . . .

SFFSR's appeal hinged on the word "significant." As I reported previously, the project's entitlements included language that required any changes to the project deemed as "significant" by Zoning Administrator Corey Teague to be reviewed and vetted by the city's Planning Commission. But after Alexandria filed for a permit to modify the project's plans, Teague ruled in October that the change was not significant enough to force the developer to start over.

Teague reasoned that while the replacement facility was the result of negotiations and a private agreement between the group and Alexandria, it was neither a requirement by the city nor a condition of the project's approval. He also said that striking the club from the project plans would not alter the project in a major way.

Anthony Giles, an attorney for SFFSR, argued on Wednesday that Teague erred in his judgment. Giles said that the removing a recreation space that spans 3 acres and comprises 10% of the total project — and that was negotiated by community stakeholders — constituted a significant modification.

He said Alexandria touted the tennis club as one of four public benefits offered by the project when it sought approvals from the city, and even recruited SFFSR members to testify on its behalf at public hearings leading up to the project's approval in June 2019. A year later, the developer pulled a "bait and switch," said Giles . . . .

Kevlin argued on Wednesday that dropping the private tennis club from the plans for 88 Bluxome does not breach any conditions of approval set for the project by the city, and likened the change to existing guidelines that allow developers for residential projects to increase unit counts by up to 5% without additional review.

"Virtually all projects make some modifications between the Planning Commission approval and building permits," said Kevlin. "In 2017, I worked on a project at 988 Harrison that was originally approved with a below-grade story consisting of parking. Post-planning approval, we eliminated the floor and planning staff were able to approve the building permit without going back to the Planning Commission."

But the members of the Board of Appeals disagreed.

Commissioner Ann Lazarus said that she was concerned that Alexandria's modification would set a "dangerous precedent" for large projects going forward.

"This suggests to me that in the future, put a project that you need to put in there to satisfy the community in the basement and then yank it, because it won't bother what the project looks like, and it will get the same sort of analysis as this project was given," said Lazarus.

"I see no harm in asking the Planning Commission to revisit this with the revision that is being proposed," she said.

The Board of Appeals is expected to issue a written determination on Dec. 21, and a hearing on the tennis club modification at the Planning Commission has yet to be scheduled.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...me-appeal.html

obemearg Oct 20, 2022 5:17 PM
Hopefully seeing this pop up at the top of the forum didn't get anyones hopes up too high but there is some minor activity at the site: The crew is putting up a more substantial barrier which could either mean that some construction is starting sometime soon, or that it won't be for a longer period of time and a better security fence is needed.

https://i.imgur.com/lxQUw2X.png

homebucket Jul 24, 2023 3:52 PM
The specs:
- A 243 ft building and a 199 ft building
- 775,000 sq ft for offices
- 19,540 sq ft for retail
- 31,400 sq ft for community recreation center
- 4,600 sq ft for childcare facility
- Separate 6 story building for affordable housing with 118 units
- Parking will be included for 179 cars and 400 bicycles

The current site:
https://goo.gl/maps/XFqSU8pKMCsjtAzWA

Quote:
Meeting Thursday For 88 Bluxome Street, SoMa, San Francisco

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...os-777x539.jpg

BY: ANDREW NELSON 5:30 AM ON JULY 24, 2023

The San Francisco Planning Commission is scheduled to review office plans for 88 Bluxome Street, a years-delayed project at a key site in SoMa, San Francisco. The proposal is part of the second attempt to renege on their agreement to rebuild the Bay Club’s tennis club. Alexandria Real Estate Equities and TMG Partners are joint developers.

According to the revised application, Alexandria and San Franciscans for Sports and Recreation have reached a private agreement to terminate their private agreement and eliminate the planned private tennis facility. The application also states that while the private club is gone, “the off-street parking and public recreation facility with two pools will continue to be located on the two floors below-grade.” Once complete, the project will be dubbed the Gene Friend Aquatic Annex. A six-story affordable housing project on the parcel is expected to be built by the Mayor’s Office in a future and separate application.

The project was originally proposed with Pinterest as the anchor tenant. The technology company terminated its 490,000-square-foot lease in August 2020 at a cost of $89.5 million. Demolition started on schedule in late 2020, with completion in early 2021. The 2.6-acre property has since sat empty.

The proposal creates two towers, including a 243-foot-tall West Building and a 199-foot-tall East Building. The development will create 775,000 square feet for offices, 19,540 square feet for retail, 31,400 square feet for the community recreation center, and 4,600 square feet for a childcare facility. The planned affordable housing component is expected to create around 118 units. Parking will be included for 179 cars and 400 bicycles. BKF is consulting on civil engineering, and Magnusson Klemencic Associates is the structural engineer.

Iwamotoscott Architecture is the project’s design architect, with STUDIOS Architecture serving as the executive architect. IwamotoScott writes that the “taller buiding is clad in a gradient punched aperture skin combining facated metal and cementitious panels that tilt in opposite directions… The lower building is developed as a dynamic rhythm of stacked and shifted masses articulated by a vertically-striated skin of angled glazed terracotta panels.”

Surfacedesign is responsible for landscape architecture. The plan involves the much-anticipated linear park serving as an 825-foot-long connection from 4th to 5th Street with a mid-block passage to Brannan Street. The park will provide a network of open green spaces with decorative corten steel, bike racks, and native flowers. On the east end of the Bluxome Linear Park, Solbach has proposed a 47-story residential tower at 636 4th Street.

The nearly block-wide property is bound by Brannan Street, Bluxome Street, and 5th Street. If built, future employees will be a block from the Caltrain San Francisco Station and the recently completed San Francisco Subway expansion.
https://sfyimby.com/2023/07/meeting-...francisco.html

homebucket Jul 24, 2023 3:54 PM
And some additional renderings that haven't been posted here before:

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...chitecture.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...chitecture.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...-Satellite.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/2023/07/meeting-...francisco.html

Charmy2 Jul 25, 2023 12:47 AM
Cool, I really hope to see this get built. Feels like the entire area south of the Bay Bridge is getting its own skyline.

unpermitted_variance Jul 25, 2023 3:01 PM
It will be incredible when all these projects in SoMa are built out and driving into the city on the bridge feels like driving into a canyon of towers. Unfortunately that is probably many years away, I don't expect most of these to break ground until the next economic cycle, and who knows when that will be.

homebucket Jul 30, 2024 8:00 PM
Quote:
S.F. neighborhood was supposed to become an extension of downtown. Instead, it’s in a ‘deep freeze’
By Laura Waxmann, J.K. Dineen
July 15, 2024

...

Between Fourth and Fifth streets, parts of entire blocks on either side of Brannan Street sit idle. One site, 88 Bluxome, was previously home to San Francisco’s oldest and biggest tennis club, a busy gym and cafe where players gathered to socialize after matches. That building, and the social activity it attracted, was demolished to make way for Pinterest’s headquarters, a deal that fell apart during the pandemic. The site remains unused and has been fenced off for years.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/artic...n-19522607.php

iamfishhead Nov 12, 2024 2:17 AM
Looks like there may be some interest in developing this as an apartment. Decent update, even if it is behind a paywall From the article:

Quote:
Individuals with insight into the matter said that Strada is considering taking over the stalled 88 Bluxome office project with plans to shift it to a residential development.

It is unclear how far along the talks are between Strada and 88 Bluxome owner Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and whether Strada would ultimately buy the site. Blout did not return the Chronicle’s calls last week.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/realesta...a-19898550.php

homebucket May 22, 2025 8:59 PM
I don't have access to the article but it looks like there is a potentially big update (1500 units) with this project.

Quote:
Strada proposes residential high-rises at Alexandria’s 88 Bluxome in major Central SoMa shift

https://media.bizj.us/view/img/12987...uxome-resi.jpg

By Sarah Klearman – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
May 22, 2025
Updated May 22, 2025 1:52pm PDT

The proposal comes after San Francisco moved to allow more residential development in the neighborhood.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...sidential.html

whitty May 23, 2025 12:36 AM
Huge!

Really hope the economy and tariffs don’t end up crushing these projects because otherwise this area could really expose with these converted Central SoMa projects.

bayvibes May 23, 2025 2:16 PM
Man, it would be awesome if all of these 5 on the render would come to life. Would definitely complement the future future 800foot+ skyscraper at the Caltrain station.
Also here is a more accessible article (use reader mode): https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...a-20341854.php

homebucket May 23, 2025 2:58 PM
^ Thanks for the link!

Here are the updated specs as specified by that article:

- 58 floors, 600 ft + 51 floors, 528 ft
- 785 units + 715 units (total 1500)
- 150 of the units will be affordable
- Parking for 470 cars

The site:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5NsqJkEQ5fNLuNJL8

Quote:
Two high-rise housing towers proposed for S.F.’s SoMa
By Molly Burke,Hearst Fellow May 22, 2025

A real estate developer proposed two high-rise towers — 58-floor and 51-floor buildings — with 1,500 housing units in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco at a site previously home to the city’s oldest and largest tennis club.

...

The housing project would be the first of six stalled land parcels that were entitled for redevelopment into office campuses before the pandemic to be revived as housing sites. Strada was the first developer to follow new regulations allowing large-scale development in the neighborhood to shift to residential usage, the Business Times reported. The property at Bluxome and 5th Streets was previously owned by Alexandria, a real estate investment trust that develops life sciences and tech campuses across the country, which the company acquired for redevelopment in 2017 for $130 million, according to previous Chronicle reporting.

...

The Business Times reported that records from the San Francisco Planning Department showed that Strada plans to split the 88 Bluxome St. property into three separate parcels, with both towers on separate parcels and the third reserved for a future affordable housing project.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...a-20341854.php

tall/awkward May 26, 2025 4:31 AM
Man, even if one in three proposed buildings happened we'd be on a roll. Instead of zero in three.

homebucket May 28, 2025 3:22 PM
Here's SF YIMBY's take with some more details.

The specs for 88 Bluxome St:
- 58 floors, 628 ft + 51 floors, 558 ft
- 785 units + 715 units (total 1500)
- 150 of the units will be affordable
- 2,300 sq ft for retail
- 1,730 sq ft of public open space
- Parking for 468 cars

The site:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5NsqJkEQ5fNLuNJL8

Quote:
58-Story Tower Proposed For 88 Bluxome Street in SoMa, San Francisco
By: Andrew Nelson 5:30 am on May 28, 2025

Updated plans have been filed for a potential skyline-reorienting project at 88 Bluxome Street in SoMa, San Francisco. The proposal aims to add two skyscrapers and 1,500 rental apartments to the former Tennis Club, reaching heights of 51 and 58 stories. Strada Investment Group is responsible for the application. Plans to redevelop the site have been in motion since 2017, when Alexandria Real Estate Equities purchased the full-block Bay Club San Francisco Tennis complex for $140 million. The club closed in 2019, with plans to build a massive office complex anchored by Pinterest alongside a new tennis club, co-developed by Alexandria Real Estate and TMG Partners. However, in August 2020, as work-from-home became more established, the company spent $89.5 million to terminate its 490,000-square-foot lease.

Demolition went forward in late 2020, and the 2.6-acre property has sat empty since 2021. Plenty of drama has occurred behind the scenes, with lawsuits between the joint developers and the former owners, Bay Club. Strada stepped up in late 2024 to consider shifting the project from Alexandria Real Estate’s commercial project to residential use. The project application, filed yesterday afternoon, confirms the story first reported last Thursday by Sarah Klearman for the San Francisco Business Times. The prolific local developer is looking to transform their hometown again. If built now, the tallest tower will have a 600-foot rooftop height, or 628 feet including the mechanical equipment. The shorter tower is expected to have a 528-foot rooftop, or 558 feet above the mechanical equipment.

...

The design is a collaboration between SCB and Henning Larsen. Previous work in San Francisco by the Danish firm, Henning Larsen, has taken inspiration from California’s natural beauty. The firm took inspiration from the striped basalt columns at Devil’s Postpile National Monument for the Visa offices in Mission Rock, and the Redwood Trees for 395 3rd Street. Similar to 88 Bluxome, the latter project is a proposal in SoMa developed by Strada. The plan set for 88 Bluxome Street does not describe an exact point of inspiration from California, though the architects do describe the podium programming as a “Green Valley” concept, integrating open space with a handful of setbacks carved out of the 14-story podiums. The bottom of the ‘valley’ will be the Mews, a linear private pathway on the ground floor, bisecting the property and overlooked by fourteen townhouse-style stoops.
https://sfyimby.com/2025/05/58-story...francisco.html

homebucket May 28, 2025 3:23 PM
And the renderings:

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...en-and-SCB.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...en-and-SCB.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...en-and-SCB.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...en-and-SCB.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...en-and-SCB.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...-Satellite.jpg

https://sfyimby.com/2025/05/58-story...francisco.html

obemearg May 29, 2025 10:24 PM
Looks nice! I really liked the design of the original office proposal, but this looks good too and the height is great + more housing will liven up the area.

It's interesting to see an above ground parking podium for the first 3 floors (albeit an attractive one as far as those go). I can't think of any other new-ish highrises downtown or in SoMa that have a parking podium? Or at least one that isn't surrounded by units on the frontages.

I'd imagine in the past it was worth it to use the limited height available on units and build underground parking but that doesn't pencil out quite as well now?

homebucket Aug 14, 2025 7:46 PM
Quote:
Assembly Bill 2011 Will Streamline Approval for 88 Bluxome Street in SoMa, San Francisco

https://sfyimby.com/wp-content/uploa...CB-777x503.jpg

By: Andrew Nelson 5:30 am on August 13, 2025

Plans will be streamlined for the recently filed two-skyscraper development at 88 Bluxome Street in SoMa, San Francisco. The first application was submitted three months ago, with city staff now determining the project can proceed with Assembly Bill 2011, which allows for by-right approval for eligible housing on commercially-zoned lands. Strada Investment Group is the sponsor and developer.

The plans for 88 Bluxome Street have been determined as eligible for approval using AB 2011 and the State Density Bonus Law. According to the eligibility notice published by the city’s Planning Department, “provided the application is complete, the Planning Department must complete design review by October 20, 2025. The project sponsor will receive a Notice of Final AB 2011 Approval upon completion of design review.”

AB 2011, also known as the Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022, was drafted by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks to increase affordable housing production across the state by “making affordable housing by right on commercially zoned lands, and mixed-income housing by right along commercial corridors, as long as the projects meet specified affordability, labor, and environmental criteria,” as summarized by Wicks’ office.
https://sfyimby.com/2025/08/assembly...francisco.html

homebucket Dec 17, 2025 4:10 PM
Quote:
Plans Approved for 58-Story 88 Bluxome Street, Promptly Hits Market in San Francisco
By: Andrew Nelson 5:30 am on December 17, 2025

The San Francisco Planning Department granted approval late last week for the 58-story residential proposal at 88 Bluxome Street in SoMa, San Francisco. Now, Alexandria Real Estate is looking to sell the 2.6-acre property, formerly occupied by the San Francisco Tennis Club.

Sarah Klearman reported in the San Francisco Business Times that Alexandria Real Estate is looking to sell the property after receiving entitlements for two separate projects. Most recently, the city approved the 599-foot-tall residential development sponsored by Strada Investment Group. The proposal aims to deliver 1,500 apartments and retail across two skyscrapers, rising 51 and 58 floors, designed by SCB and Henning Larsen.

The second entitled project, secured in 2023, involves two commercial office buildings sponsored by Alexandria and TMG Partners. IwamotoScott Architecture is the project’s design architect, with STUDIOS Architecture as the executive architect. The developer has withdrawn previously approved plans for an office development and a replacement tennis club. In 2020, Pinterest paid nearly $90 million to terminate its 2019-signed lease as the project’s anchor tenant.
https://sfyimby.com/2025/12/plans-ap...francisco.html

homebucket Dec 17, 2025 5:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by obemearg (Post 10433843)
It's interesting to see an above ground parking podium for the first 3 floors (albeit an attractive one as far as those go). I can't think of any other new-ish highrises downtown or in SoMa that have a parking podium? Or at least one that isn't surrounded by units on the frontages.
I believe most if not all new construction in SoMa and Mission Bay over the past decade or so has underground parking. The only exception I think is One Rincon Hill, which appears to have a small podium, but it's sorta built into the hill and well hidden from the main street (Harrison). Overall, SF has done a good job of ensuring its new developments meet the street in a respectable manner, hiding its parking and generally keeping driveways off the main street.


All times are GMT. The time now is 6:51 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.