SAN FRANCISCO | Projects: Under Construction, Approved, and Proposed II

[tall/awkward]

Re: City Hall, great news! It's about time.

[38 Geary]

Originally Posted by theskysthelimit

Not related to developments but SF is proposing a build it or lose it way to get things going.

City Hall has a message for developers sitting on stalled office projects: Use it or lose it.
In a memo shared with the San Francisco Planning Commission on Thursday, Planning Department Director Sarah Dennis Phillips laid out a dramatic policy shift: Commercial office projects that have not shown a good-faith effort to move toward development could immediately lose their Proposition M allocation — a limited pool of office space that the Planning Department doles out each year.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/office-towers-downtown-real-estate-22339474.php

Originally Posted by tall/awkward

Re: City Hall, great news! It's about time.

Agreed.

[38 Geary]

An update on current office conditions.

This tech company abandoned its S.F. headquarters. Now it’s taking over an entire office building
By Laura Waxmann, Staff Writer July 21, 2026



For years, San Francisco’s office landlords watched tech tenants shrink their footprints, embrace remote work and walk away from long-term leases. Now, one of the companies that once embodied that shift is betting in the opposite direction: Brex, which abandoned its traditional headquarters model during the pandemic, is taking an entire office building off the market for the next decade.

...

According to real estate firm CBRE, San Francisco recorded its seventh consecutive quarter of positive net absorption in the second quarter of 2026, meaning that more square feet of occupancy were gained than lost during the quarter. The brokerage reported this month that vacancy in downtown has dropped from a high of nearly 37% in the third quarter of 2024 to 29.2% in the first half of this year. Expanding AI startups contributed nearly 1 million square feet of net absorption in the second quarter, while leasing activity totaled nearly 3 million square feet. Demand from tenants in the market for office space “surged” to a record high of 8.9 million square feet, the firm reported, with “40% of this total expected to be for expansion space.”

The recovery, however, has concentrated in certain parts of the market, and in certain buildings: AI companies have driven much of the recent leasing activity in neighborhoods like Mission Bay and China Basin, which recorded the lowest office vacancy of any submarket at 17%, while the Yerba Buena area recorded the highest vacancy at 62.7%, per CBRE. Class A buildings — modern properties in prime locations with views — accounted for 77% of leasing activity in the second quarter, with companies gravitating toward newer or upgraded offices with amenities and access to transit. Brex’s office in a relatively modern, 2016-era creative office building in the South Beach neighborhood, which is located just north of Mission Bay where AI pioneer OpenAI has laid roots, appears to largely fit the bill.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/brex-san-francisco-building-22345480.php

[OakAngeles]

Thanks for all the updates, 38. I also saw that BART ridership is steadily making its way back up & they are even moving back up to the 10 car trains to meet demand. Seems like between the office occupancy growth & an increase in visitors, theres really some good momentum building for the city

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/bart-highest-ridership-month-since-pandemic/4115323/

[38 Geary]

^ You're welcome!

But yes, nice to see BART ridership increasing steadily. It seems to be closely tied to RTO trends. Ultimately, in the long run, I think BART should accelerate its TOD expansion in many of the park and ride lots out in the suburbs though to help boost ridership as well, and work with the individual cities to prioritize urbanization around the existing stations. That will help diversify it from being a primarily commuter based transit system to a more broader general purpose one, and therefore less reliant on work commute variances.

[peanut gallery]

Not a construction update, but a photo of the city taken from Sausalito. A bit of an experiment as I want to start contributing to construction updates again and need a new hosting platform.

[38 Geary]

Nice shot! The picture is loaded up perfectly on my end, both on desktop and mobile.

[Busy Bee]

Yesh

[BobbyMucho]

2918 Mission St is finally making progress and has begun excavation at the site. Plans are to have 75 apartments online by 2028.





For those who don't recall, this is the site of the infamous "historic laundromat," where various neighborhood groups attempted to stall (nearly did) the original project and ultimately forced the developer to sue the city and sell the site.

[peanut gallery]

Thanks guys! I posted a few construction updates in the Bay Area thread.

Glad to see that Mission lot finally get started. And it fills a surface lot to boot!

[38 Geary]

Let's see if this one can finally get going.

Exclusive: S.F.’s notorious Divisadero car wash is finally set to become 203 apartments
By J.K. Dineen, Staff Writer
Aug 13, 2026

The largest apartment developer in the United States is set to break ground on the long-stalled 203-unit redevelopment of the shuttered car wash on Divisadero Street, which would be the first significant market rate housing to start construction in San Francisco this year. Multiple real estate sources confirmed that Greystar, a South Carolina-based builder that owns more than 110,000 units in multiple states, is in contract to acquire the former Touchless Car Wash property and has lined up the financing needed to start work. So far the development team has obtained Public Works permits to close the sidewalk along the Oak and Divisadero frontages and occupy part of an Oak Street traffic lane during construction. That permit lists Oct. 19 as a start date. The developer has also filed a permit to demolish the former car wash, although that one has yet to win final approval.

...

The battle over the future of the blighted former Touchless car wash property at Divisadero and Oak streets has been a political football since it was first proposed a decade ago, with some residents arguing that the land should be replaced with subsidized 100% affordable housing and others contending that any residential development at the site would be welcome. It will be the largest housing development on the Divisadero corridor and the Lower Haight neighborhood.

...

Just 405 housing units have been completed in San Francisco in 2026, the vast majority of them have been affordable. The city’s state mandated housing goals calls for the city to plan for 82,000 units between 2023 and 2031. Since taking office, Mahmood has worked with 4Terra Investments about what it might take to get construction started on the 203-unit project first approved in 2017, which would include about 20 low-income units. Mahmood passed legislation that allowed projects to conform to the building code on the books at the time they break ground, rather than the codes in place when the application is filed, which 4Terra said cut project costs by between 5% and 7%, or about $4 million. The project became even more economically feasible this year when the Board of Supervisors reduced the percentage of affordable units required in market rate development from 20% to 5%.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/apartment-divisadero-street-san-francisco-22386042.php

[38 Geary]

A reminder of the project.

City Approves 400 Divisadero Street, San Francisco



By: Andrew Nelson 5:30 am on January 31, 2025

Plans have been approved for an eight-story apartment complex at 400 Divisadero Street in San Francisco’s Lower Haight neighborhood. The 203-unit application received ministerial approval via Assembly Bill 2011. 4Terra Investments is the project sponsor.

The 85-foot tall structure will yield around 194,280 square feet, with 109,800 square feet for housing, 1,850 square feet for retail, and 8,480 square feet for the 24-car garage. The proposal aims to create 203 residences, including 20 units of affordable housing. Unit types will vary, with 121 one-bedrooms and 82 two-bedrooms. Parking will be included for 24 cars and 144 bicycles.

...

BDE Architecture is responsible for the podium-style design. The articulated facade will be clad with a mix of stone veneer, stucco, and wood-look siding. The exterior will be punctuated by a mix of bay windows, balconies, and blue accents.

https://sfyimby.com/2025/01/city-approves-400-divisadero-street-san-francisco.html

[38 Geary]

And the renderings:





https://sfyimby.com/2025/01/city-approves-400-divisadero-street-san-francisco.html