Two major San Francisco apartment building trades by longtime owners have closed in the first few months of the year, including the $35 million sale of the block-long Normandy Apartments, just behind the famed St. Mary’s Cathedral.
The early spring sales are further signs of new life in the market that agents saw beginning in the latter half of last year.
The seller of the 1968-built 108-unit complex at 1135-1175 Ellis Street was a partnership called Normandy Apartments that goes back to at least the 1990s, according to city records. The buyer was affordable housing developer Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, which bought the property with funding from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and is planning a major renovation. The MOHCD confirmed the $35 million price.
The Jan. 31 acquisition will create “permanently affordable units in the City’s Western Addition neighborhood for families, individuals, couples, older adults, and long-term residents within a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds,” according to a TNDC announcement. With the exception of one manager’s unit, all apartments will be restricted to households not to exceed 120 percent of the city’s area median income with an average of 80 percent of the city’s AMI. In 2024, 80 percent of AMI would mean that a single person making up to $83,900 would be eligible, for example, while a household with three people could make up to $107,900, according to the MOHCD website.
A November 2024 MOHCD memo about TNDC’s request for just over $52 million in permanent financing for the purchase and rehabilitation of the nearly 70,000-square-foot property said the building is in “good condition” and 90 percent occupied. The planned rehabilitation will focus on fire and life safety upgrades and accessibility and ADA upgrades and requirements.
Colliers agent Brad Lagomarsino represented the sellers and said that TNDC and MOHCD “seized the rare opportunity to purchase 108 units in the heart of San Francisco”. He added that the nearly 1.5-acre lot “offers tremendous development potential that justifies the price paid for the asset.”
In another early spring sale after a decades-long hold, a 36-unit Nob Hill apartment building traded for the first time since it was built in 1954, according to public records. The price was $14.5 million, or just over $400,000 per unit, according to the transfer tax on the sale. That’s above the average of about $340,000 per unit in San Francisco in 2024, according to Colliers data.
Colliers listing agent Dustin Dolby said he could not comment on the Feb. 18 sale due to a non-disclosure agreement, but he posted on LinkedIn that, “With its proximity to Grace Cathedral, Huntington Park, and the Financial District, 1330 Jones exemplifies the enduring desirability of Nob Hill real estate.”
The sellers were the descendants of the developer, Theo G. Meyer and Sons, which built the seven-story building, according to the deed and probate records. The buyer was Otrera Real Estate, LLC, a Delaware-created entity that lists its address as a P.O. Box at the Rincon Finance Center in downtown San Francisco, according to the deed. The buyers’ agent is unknown.
The six-story building at 1330 Jones has 18 one-bedroom, one-bath units, six two-bedroom, one-bath units, and 12 two-bedroom, two-bath units, as well as 23 dedicated parking spots and onsite laundry.
The building was first listed as part of a three-building portfolio that was all developed by the Meyer family and came to market at an undisclosed price last summer. It is the smallest building of the three, and the only one to sell thus far. The other two buildings are a 62-unit, 13-story building at 1000 Green Street in Russian Hill and the 56-unit, 13-story Crest Royal at 1310 Jones, which is next door to the building that sold.
At least two other San Francisco apartment buildings asking over $10 million are also in contract but are still pending. Magnolia Place, which has 27 apartment units at 3322 Buchanan in the Marina, came to market at the end of September with an asking price of $18 million. The 2001-built non-rent-controlled building with two commercial units fronting Lombard Street has been pending as of Nov. 22, according to Redfin. At 1745 Market, a property with 48 apartment units and eight commercial spaces, including local favorite piano bar Martuni’s, went into contract on Jan. 27, according to Redfin. It is owned by Mosser Properties and has been on and off the market for the last few years, with a starting price of $25 million in 2022. It came back to market most recently last September, with an asking price of $14 million. That ask dropped to $13 million in November, just $1 million more than Mosser paid for it back in 2017.
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